102: Freedom under missile fire, the Passover story, with Rabbi David Stav

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Mar 28, 2026

Rabbi David Stav, Israeli rabbi and public intellectual known for making Jewish life accessible, reflects on the Seder’s paradox of slavery and freedom. He explores freedom as an inner moral choice, stories of resilience under threat, and how remembering slavery teaches proper use of liberty. Short, reflective, and grounded in real-world moments of courage and vulnerability.

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INSIGHT

Freedom As Inner Moral Status

Passover's contradiction of declaring both slavery and freedom teaches that freedom is an inner moral status, not only a political condition.
Rabbi David Stav contrasts historical lack of sovereignty with spiritual liberty, citing Natan Sharansky's prison example to show inner freedom amid physical captivity.

ANECDOTE

Sharansky Laughing In Prison

Natan Sharansky's prison story shows psychological freedom: he could laugh at a Soviet joke while his KGB interrogator could not.
Rabbi David Stav and Haviv Rettig Gur use this to illustrate how moral conviction creates liberty under oppression.

INSIGHT

How Slavery And Idolatry Teach Freedom

Rav Kook teaches that remembering slavery and idolatry helps shape proper freedom and religious practice.
Idolatry taught intimacy with the divine; slavery taught discipline and the value of rules that enable collective liberty.

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Passover is just around the corner. So we sat down with the ever-wise Rabbi David Stav to dig into the inexplicable contradictions at the heart of the holiday's traditional Seder meal -- and of Jewish life writ large.

In the Seder's text, the Hagaddah, we are commanded to declare that “now we are slaves, but next year we shall be free” -- even if we live in freedom and prosperity. And we are commanded to thank God for "taking us out from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, and from mourning to a festival" -- even in generations past when we were crushed beneath the yoke of oppressors and tyrants, and even in our own day when we must run to a bomb shelter to be safe.

So which is it? Are we free? Are we still slaves?

Rav Stav takes us through stories of Natan Sharansky, Hasidic rebbes in the ghetto, and Rav Kook’s wisdom to reveal Passover's deepest teaching -- that true freedom is an inner consciousness and moral choice, not mere political circumstance, and that the experience and remembrance of slavery teaches us how to value, safeguard and properly use our liberty.

And that is why on the evening of April 1, in this time of war and sirens, violence and fear, Jews all over the world will once again affirm, as they have done for three millennia, that “next year we shall be free.”

This episode is sponsored by an anonymous listener who asked to share this note.

"Many thanks to Haviv, for all his insights. This episode is dedicated to Barbara S. from New Mexico on the occasion of her second Bat Mitzvah, with love from her kids and grandkids. Am Yisrael Chai."

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Musical intro by Adam Ben Amitai.