"Are we a free people? Are Jews free?"

The quick answer would be: "Yes, of course we're free since isn't it written in the Torah that we were slaves in Egypt and that G-d rescued us from slavery and gave us the land of Canaan?"

And don't we repeat yearly at the Seder..."Avadim Hayinu V'atah B'nei Charin" (We were slaves and now we are free)?

Yet, I doubt that the world is convinced that we are a free people.

True, we are not slaves as we were in Egypt, but there are other ways of "being slaves" in today's world. For instance, when we read about a rocket that hits a city in Israel close to Gaza, we are not free. When we read about a passenger in an airplane who wants to explode a bomb as retaliation against Israel, we are not free. When we hear that Anti-Semitism is growing in many countries around the world, "our world" is telling us that we are NOT free. (And, sadly, this list of examples could go on and on.)

Although the central story in The Book of Shemot is one of liberation, nowadays we understand that the liberation from Mitzrayim was unfinished and that "WE" have to complete it. (It is written in Pirkei Avot (the Ethics of the Fathers), that "You are not required to complete the work, but you are not allowed to desist from it!")

Yes, we, as Jews, are not allowed to stop worrying about Israel and its situation. We, as Jews, have to daily remember our past and our history. And we, as Jews, have an obligation with past generations to tell the story of Yitziyat Mitzrayim to the next generation as part of a millennial chain that must not be broken!

So let's pray that, G-d willing, we truly become a completely free nation in the not too distant future.