Tzvika Nevo
The new slaves
Slavery is not as far-off as we would like to think
It’s a pleasure living as a Jew during modern times. When Passover makes its appearance, we can sit comfortably at the Seder and thank the Creator of Time for granting us such a nice period in Jewish history.
As if to ensure that we have nothing whatsoever to do with slavery, we have easily adapted ourselves to a hedonistic and sophisticated lifestyle and do our best to assimilate into Western culture. We enjoy abundance; most of us have never known want.
Thus, as the Holiday of Freedom approaches, we avert our eyes from the foreigners caring for our elderly, the Chinese construction workers who are building our towers, the women who are sold as slaves, and the Arab day-laborers melting at the side of the road.
We underpay these workers from other lands and demand that they perform the tasks that we ourselves no longer wish to perform.
Slavery never ends; the slaves are simply replaced. So now it’s someone else’s turn to sweat a little. And if there’s a quota on hungry Asians, we can always purchase their cheap labor at the large chain stores.
After all, there’s little profit to be made off of local production that requires fair and expensive salaries for spoiled employees. Importing cheap goods from poor countries is therefore preferable. Besides, over there, it’s so much easier to enslave impoverished workers; they’re relatively worthless anyway.
Why should we care about the corner grocer and his exorbitant prices? Let that “thieving green-grocer” close shop.
Meanwhile, the skilled carpenter can donate his handcrafted furniture to the needy, and that annoying farmer, who steals water from members of the public swimming pool, should be put out of business.
As long as locally-produced goods cost more than cheap, foreign merchandise, we should boycott the local industries. We don’t want anyone taking advantage of us; we prefer to do that to others.
We invite the next social crisis
But we should remember: If we step into a giant supermarket with rock-bottom prices, we’re going to buy more. If we enter a small corner shop, we’ll buy less. The faster the cheaper merchandise is sold, the sooner it’s likely to disappear from the shelves.
If we shop in large chain stores, private storekeepers will lose their livelihoods. If we prefer cheap foreign goods, a local factory will be forced to fire even more workers.
By averting our eyes today, we invite the next social crisis.
In ancient times, working meant slavery, and leisure time was called “freedom”. Today, matters are far more complex.
Work can provide a person with a great deal of freedom during his leisure time. Thanks to his salary, he can do many things in the Free World.
Occasionally, unemployment can cause one to become enslaved to depression and inaction. In the new world, a laid-off employee is likely to feel lonely and incompetent.
Once we open our eyes to the exploitative nature of Western culture, we can help those around us and reduce our dependence on oversea enterprises. We must take a break from our extended shopping spree and inquire what lies behind all this prosperity.
As Jews, we understand that ours is a modest religion that discourages ostentatious wealth and has little in common with the global affluent culture. Judaism – at its foundation – is linked with nature and tries to maintain human dignity.
We can easily adopt a Jewish outlook that gives precedence to small and modest stores over giant shopping malls that resemble foreign temples. Although the temptation to frequent these pan-continental stores is admittedly great, we must nonetheless do our modest part by occasionally visiting the corner grocery store or an unknown clothing shop.
Let’s provide our local workmen with a bit of profit and order fresh produce from the new farmers who sell straight to their clients and avoid the middleman (and his fees).
Economic slavery
During the upcoming Passover festival, we must change our way of thinking and begin freeing our brothers from economic slavery.
Or, to quote Berl Katznelson: “Passover! Over the millennia, the nation observed the anniversary of its departure from the house of slavery.
“And throughout all the horrors of slavery and rape and the Inquisition and the annihilation and the pogroms, the people carried longings for freedom in their hearts, which they popularly expressed in a manner which shall not pass over any soul of Israel, any poor and downtrodden soul!
“’In every generation and generation, a person must regard himself as if he personally left Egypt.’ You have no loftier pinnacle of historical recognition than this, and you have no great coalescence – anywhere in the world or anytime throughout the ages – of the individual and society than the one displayed in this ancient pedagogical decree.
“I am not familiar with any literary creation which is more instructive about abhorring slavery and loving freedom than the story of the slavery and the Exodus from Egypt, and I do not know of any ancient memory which is entirely directed towards the future - whose entirety is a symbol for the present and for our future – as is ‘in memory of the Exodus from Egypt’.
“This impulse for freedom is deeply etched into the hearts of a nation that could – in the springtime of its days – create such a brilliant creation and then convey it from generation to generation.”
