Franklin D. Roosevelt, in the famous "State of the Union Address" speech that he delivered in 1941 before the United States Congress, listed the four freedoms that should be fundamental for human beings: freedom of expression, freedom of worship , the freedom of not having unsatisfied desires (liberty from want) and freedom without fear (liberty from fear).
The Spanish formulation is somewhat complex and does not reflect the elegance of the original English. However, the idea is clear. According to Roosevelt, every human being has inalienable rights related to freedom that no state or government can take away.
In a way, Roosevelt's formulation is based on the cry of "liberty, equality and fraternity" of the French Revolution, a slogan that inspired a genuine social and political revolution in the Western world that has resonance even today. .
The people of Israel have been celebrating liberties with their own slogan for many centuries, basically since 1430 BCE.
This is the moment in which the tribes of Israel come out of slavery in the land of Egypt to become a people, and from there the celebration of the Passover begins and is commemorated year after year.
The celebration of freedom is carried out under the Pesaj party, which means jumping, a name that institutionalizes the value and search for freedom in Judaism.
At first, the leap was from slavery to freedom and, secondly, from freedom to being a free people under the code of the Torah.
Every generation, and indeed every year, we should have a new leap in our freedoms and desires. The challenge of breaking with the ties that are not the same when the people of Israel left Egypt as in the subsequent generation. The challenges for freedom in the French Revolution and in Roosevelt's slogans are not the same as those we live in the 21st century; but they are all called the search for freedom.
At Easter we celebrate self-determination with two things that the people of Israel know how to do very well: the first, a festive table at its best where we put a plate with different symbols that recall moments of sadness, oppression, and hard work. and of tears. Along with them the unleavened bread, simple in ingredients and flat in shape, marking the minimum expression of the food. The second is to ask questions.
The questions begin to be asked by the children giving voice to four characters: the bad guy, the wise one, the simple one, and the one who doesn't know how to ask but always asks the question.
If we do not ask, we are not free, and when we assume freedom we must also ask ourselves if it is true.
We are not looking for an answer. We seek to know what is the unknown of our times. We seek to make the question bother us to get out of our comfort, so that we can seek new horizons for a freedom that has to do with the possibility of caring for our tradition, but knowing how to look forward. We seek to remember that no matter where we are, we look to Jerusalem, and then the 4 glasses we drink on Easter night will be able to bring the past closer to the present, sadness with joy, nostalgia with reality, and ourselves with our families and with our own being.
