Welcome to Emotional Wellness Daily, a project of the Sephardic Initiative for Mental Health Awareness.
Today we have a Pesach message that has to do with mental health and emotional wellness.
Viktor Frankl, a man we’ve quoted in the past, was born in 1905 in Vienna, Austria to Jewish parents. He studied psychology and opened a private practice in 1937.
Five years later, he was shipped off to a concentration camp where most of his family was murdered. Originally, Frankel believed in what's called determinism- the belief that actions and events result from others' actions or your situation. He believed that basically, everything is predetermined, and that man has no freedom of choice, he just reacts to situations.
But in the concentration camps he became aware of what he later labeled the last of the human freedoms, the essential freedom the Nazis could not take away from him. They had control of his schedule, his diet, his belongings, his surroundings, his companions, and even his body. However, they could not do anything to his identity. He then realized he possessed more power and more freedom than the powerful Nazis! They had what he called more liberty to come and go, but he had more freedom, more inner power to choose how to react to his circumstances. This was his main chiddush, which he eventually wrote a book about, entitled Man's Search for Meaning, which is an international bestseller.
On the basis of these thoughts, Stephan Covey wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which went on to sell tens of millions of copies and is one of the top five bestselling self-help books of all time. Covey based his book on these principles, quoting Frankl's story, and the concept that Frankl introduced to the modern world of psychology- the concept that man is in control of his choices. That's called freedom of choice, and it’s the ultimate freedom. The
Rambam tells us this in the laws of Teshuva 5,3, that a person has the ability to choose and do whatever he wants. This is important because when we talk about Zeman Herutenu, we don't only mean freedom in the sense of being free to go and do what I please. What we are discussing is what real freedom is.
This is actually a Mishna in Pirkei Avot 6,2, “Nobody is truly free, except someone that is involved in learning Torah.”
It's not a coincidence that after we got out of Mitzrayim, we started counting Seferat HaOmer, because the goal was to receive the Torah. Through the Torah, we are empowered to choose. We are empowered to make the right decisions, and that's true freedom. So when we talk about Zeman Herutenu, we have to understand what freedom means. It’s not what we think.
There is beautiful story told about the Elder of Novardok. He was once out walking and saw a police man handcuffed to an inmate, walking through the street. The inmate, who obviously was uncomfortable, told the Elder of Novardok, “Look, I have the police officer locked to me!”
Who handcuffed whom? Good question. Has the prisoner handcuffed the policeman or is it the opposite? The answer is, whoever can take out the keys and walk away.
Who's in control, you or your desires? If you can't break away from your desire, then you're not free. You're being controlled by your desires, you're being controlled by your friends, you're being controlled by society, you’re being controlled by the situation. A person that's really free is a person who is in control of himself and what he wants to do. He can truly decide what he wants to do.
That's what we received at Yetziat Mitzrayim, and that's what came to culmination at Matan Torah. There's a cute story about Napoleon. For some reason, the Baalei Mussar like to tell Napoleon stories. I wasn't there so I can’t verify it, but as the story goes, Napoleon liked cigars. Once when they were not far from a certain hamlet that was known for their exquisite cigars, Napoleon told his general, “Although it’s not necessary for our conquest, let's take a little detour and get those cigars.”
And he did so. Whey they got to the cigar factory, the defeated officer proudly brought Napoleon a cigar, but as he was about to light up, Napoleon broke the cigar. His general was in shock. After all they went through, all the people they killed… What happened? Napoleon responded, “Napoleon will rule the cigar, the cigar will not rule Napoleon.”
He realized that if he couldn’t stop smoking, then the cigar would be controlling him, and he needed to be ultimately in control. That's what true freedom is, and that's what we're trying to get out of the holiday of Pesach. Have a wonderful day and a Hag Kasher V’Sameach.