The One Minute Farbringen

"Work is for people who don't surf !" Those old-timers out there may remember this bumper sticker, while the younger generation certainly understands this ultimate expression of freedom. Say what you will, surfers are probably the only ones on the planet that ever really grasp this ultimate concept of being free, being one with a wave that may have traveled thousands of miles, its energy and might placed at the disposal of that lucky individual at the right time and place.

So it comes as no surprise that this week's Torah portion, loaded with many different commandments and concepts of justice, leads the agenda with basic freedom. The concepts of freedom is specified by terms of bondage: we are made aware of the severity of mistreating slaves, who, falling upon misfortune, were forced to sell themselves into servitude. Besides a detailed account of the rights of the indentured and the obligations toward them by the master, the commandment obligates their owners to relase them after 6 years of servitude, and not to just turn them out into the street empty-handed. Rather, he or she must recieve a portion of the master's flocks, crops, and winery ( Rambam, Biurei Hamitzvoth ).

"Free and Easy" was the title of a film that McGillivary and Freeman produced many years ago to accent the incredible freedom that is so taken for granted by those of us involved in the mightiest of the Creator's works, the ocean!