My Name is Freedom

“FIIINKKK!” she screamed as she hurried down the corridor.  

Everyone around me hates that name.  

My wife never liked taking on the name Fink. My grandparents, starting out Dalmaskie from Lvov, got pegged with it on Ellis Island. As long as I can remember, they had a license plate named “Phynnqe.”  

They had good taste.  

They also knew when something desperately needed a shine.  

In English, “fink” means rat, or tattletale. In Judaism, someone who informs on a Jew to gentile authorities is called a moser, an informer, or a rat fink. Such a person is hit with the worst punishments possible, including losing their portion in the Next World. Just hearing the word “moser” sends shivers down a G-d fearing Jew’s spine. 

For the first nine years of our marriage, my wife was right, we needed to change our name.  

I thought moving to Israel would lessen the blow. Fink doesn’t mean anything in Hebrew.  

Then I saw first-hand how the Hebrew language uses one letter for both F and P.  

“Mar Pink! Mar Pink! Ayfo Ata??” 

Oy vey.  

Now I am being called Pink.  

A High–Tech Solution 

I’m about a year and half into my first job in Israel. It’s a nice hi-tech company right on the water. One of the employees starts to have some fun by announcing my name at the top of her lungs as I pass.  

“FIIINNNKKKK!” 

It was the CEO.  

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  

A week later, my wife and I were in the Interior Ministry.  

Even the clerk, a young immigrant from Ethiopia, starts to laugh as she sees the name we are abandoning.  

She notarizes our official name change, then says with relief, “Mazal Tov!” 

Our New Name 

From that day on, Baruch Hashem, we would go by the name Ben Horin.  

It symbolizes our new status as free people from Egypt.  

Our liberation from slavery was free, but it wasn’t free. We had to do some radical things to earn it.  

First, we had to slaughter the Pesach offering, a lamb.  

Today, it sounds simple. Buy a sheep. Call a butcher. Eat some shawarma.  

The lamb represented everything Egyptians loved. It was the deity they worshipped. 

If you ask me, it meant that a few brazen idolaters ruled that everything which felt good to their flesh but was abominable to Hashem was now hereby declared moral. As a nation of lambs, they accepted this without question.  

G-d commands the Jewish people to buy a sheep, tie it in front of their homes, and wait four days before killing it, then brushing its blood on their doorposts.  

That’s the modern-day equivalent of going to San Francisco, taking a gay couple, some Syrian “freedom fighters,” and a few Black Lives Matter activists, putting leashes on all of them, tying them to a pole in your backyard while placing a sign that says, “In four days I will whip these people to Make America Great Again!” 

Let’s see how long you last.  

The Jews took the risk of bringing the Egyptians into a frenzied outrage. Indeed, Hashem made a miracle that the enraged Egyptians were too afraid to do anything to the Jews. 

Then G-d brought the Jewish people out of Egypt. They made it to the Red Sea, only to be penned in by an Egyptian Army thirsty for blood. They stood their ground. One of the greatest  of  them,  Nachshon   ben  Aminadav, even charged the waters at the command of Moshe Rabbeinu. 

Hashem parted the Sea.  

Then we had to come face to face with the reality that there was no way to leave the desert. We could starve or die of thirst.  

Hashem gave us the manna and water.  

Then we had to fight Amalek.  

Hashem saved us, but this time we had to go into battle.  

This is what it took to earn the name Ben Horin. It was only after this battle that we were truly free.  

The Pledge of Allegiance  

It is a commandment to remember that Hashem took the Jews out of Egypt every single day. We are commanded to remember what Amalek did to us  every  single  day. G-d commands us to do what we need to do to achieve  real  freedom  every single day.  

It means to go against the lambs who lead to darkness. Even if it makes you a marked man, targeted for  harassment,  isolation,  starvation,  or  death. It means  to be free from the servitude of  what  man  expects  from you so you can focus on what G-d expects  from you.  

Every day we must remember how G-d protected our  ancestors   in  Egypt.  How  He  provides  for  us every day. How  He enabled us to defeat Amalek.  

Every day we have to slaughter a sheep, and face down an army of evildoers bent on destroying us while trusting in Hashem to protect and sustain us.  

Achieving freedom is the prerequisite for accepting the Torah.  

Only with freedom can we freely choose G-d.  

* * * 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his wife and children. Since moving to Israel in 2002, David has discovered Torah, writing hi-tech, hiking, coding ReactJS Apps, and hearing stories about the Land of Israel from anyone excited to tell them. Check him out on Highway 60 or email him your favorite Israel story at:  david.ben.horin@spreadyourenthusiasm.com.