I Made You Walk Upright

“And I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.” “I am Hashem your Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be their slaves. And I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.” Opening Near the end of the Book of Leviticus there is a verse that sounds like a far-off promise to a whole nation. But it burns like a small, private coal: “And I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk upright.” A yoke is the wooden frame laid on the neck of a working animal. Notice the order. First comes breaking, and only then walking. First Hashem breaks the bars of the yoke, and only after that can you walk tall. So the question is: what are these “bars” that Hashem needs to break? And why is any breaking needed at all, if a person was created free? Choice Is Not a Gift. It Is Who You Are. Maimonides, the great medieval Jewish thinker and legal authority, opens the fifth chapter of his Laws of Returning to Hashem with sharp words: “Freedom is given to every person. If he wants to turn himself toward the good path... and if he wants to turn himself toward the bad path... and no one forces him.” But look closely. Maimonides does not say that a person “was given an option.” He says that freedom is given to every person. It is his nature, his makeup. It is what he is. The Torah says that the human being was created “in the image of Hashem.” One of the deepest meanings of these words is exactly this: a human being is someone who chooses. He is not someone who simply obeys. He is not someone who just carries out orders. He is not a gear inside a machine. He is a being whose very core is free choice. That is how Hashem created you. This is not a privilege that can be taken away from you. It is who you are. The Struggle Inside: Why Do We Feel So Chained? But let’s be honest. You know this feeling. You may be a young married man, or a working family man, or any Jew trying to serve Hashem. Serving Hashem has turned into a habit. Prayer has become routine. Your good deeds come more from social pressure than from a real desire inside you. You obey, but you don’t choose. Where does this come from? The Tanya, the classic book of Hasidic thought, teaches: “Habit becomes second nature.” Habit is not a simple enemy. It is a slippery force that imitates your nature. It dresses itself up as your identity, but on the inside it chains you. And slowly, slowly, the spirit inside you bends. This doesn’t happen because of some great sin. It happens through years of living up to what the people around you expect. It happens through doing things “because that’s how it’s done.” It happens when serving Hashem leaves the heart and moves into routine. This is the exile of the inner self. You are not far from some other place. You are far from yourself. “And I Broke”: Hashem Is Always at Work And here the verse speaks straight to you. “And I broke the bars of your yoke.” Hashem breaks the bars of the yoke. Not you. Him. The power of habit is too strong for us to break alone. It has put down deep roots and become “second nature.” On his own, a person cannot always even see the chains that hold him. But notice: Hashem breaks the bars, and right after that comes “and made you walk upright.” He does not carry you. He leads you. The walking is yours. Once the bars are broken, you have to stand up and walk by yourself. Walking upright is something you do. It is born from your own choice, after Hashem has cleared the obstacle out of the way. Not Rebellion, but Return There is a delicate point here that we must not miss. This call to break the yoke of habit, to stand tall, and to live from a choice deep inside is not a call to rebel. It is a call to return to Hashem, in the deepest sense of the word. It means going back. It means returning to what you were before the world tamed you. It means returning to the soul that chooses, to the core self that Hashem created. The prophets have a name for serving Hashem this way. They call it “a commandment of people, learned by rote.” In the way of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of the Hasidic movement, this is serving Hashem that is missing its vitality. Hashem wants your heart. He wants your choice and what you truly desire. He does not want your mere obedience.