Between Liberty and Freedom – and the Connection to the Draft Law

Originally published: May 12, 2026

This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.

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Between Liberty and Freedom – and the Connection to the Draft Law

Within the current debates over the issue of enlistment, one can sense distress among ultra-Orthodox voices. Many of them feel that something very problematic is going on here.

Many of them invoke the argument from authority: are you greater than Rabbi So-and-so (or than “the leading sages of the generation”)? All the leading sages of the generation instruct people not to enlist, and even if you or I think otherwise, we must subordinate ourselves to their view.

What is a Jew who is committed to Jewish law and to the views of its sages supposed to do with this? Even if he listens to the rabbis who obligate enlistment, should he not at least recognize that there is another Torah-based position? And in general, who is he to formulate a position of his own on issues with such far-reaching consequences?

The authority of the sages is a central pillar of religious thought, and submission to them is seen as a clear religious duty. The argument that points to submission to the opinion of Torah scholars seemingly seals off the possibility of debate and discussion. Yet at this point a broader and more principled issue enters the conversation: the place of the value of liberty and autonomy.

As the Festival of Liberty approaches, many people are occupied with the concepts of “liberty” and “the free individual.” At first glance, the yoke of Torah and Jewish law contradicts the concept of liberty. The people of Israel leave slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt for slavery to God at Mount Sinai. Is that an exodus to liberty? Many secular people attack religious conceptions and see them as bondage, something opposed to our liberty and autonomy (assuming, of course, that liberty is a value). The same is true of submission to rabbis, to books, and to authorities on Jewish law. This is ostensibly demanded of us, and the meaning of that is that liberty is not a Jewish value. But if so, it is not clear what exactly we are celebrating at the Passover Seder: an exodus from slavery to slavery?

Many religious thinkers explain to us that servitude to God is true liberty. Why? Because obeying Him is what we really want. In their view, the Torah reveals the authentic hidden desire of each of us (even if we ourselves are not aware of it). Well, I am not really convinced. This is an apologetic explanation, and it reminds me of Rabbi Yehuda Halevi’s words: “The servants of time are servants of servants; only the servant of God is truly free.” Here too I am reminded of George Orwell’s “Newspeak” in his dystopian novel 1984: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

Slavery is slavery, even if I am told a million times that it is liberty.

But on further reflection, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi’s words can be understood differently. Let me begin by noting that it is important to distinguish between freedom and liberty. Freedom is the absence of constraints, whereas liberty is autonomous thought and action within constraints. A person with liberty is not one upon whom no constraints are imposed, but one who finds his authentic expression and acts within them. The master is free, since no constraints are imposed on him. But only a slave can have liberty, since within the constraints of slavery he can—and must—preserve liberty of thought and action.

The existence of constraints runs contrary to freedom, but, surprisingly, it is a necessary condition for liberty. It is the precondition of liberty. An artist who creates without the rules of a genre is not exercising liberty but merely being chaotic. A creative artist who has liberty is one who finds personal and authentic modes of expression within the constraints of the genre. Escaping from prison requires creativity (because of the constraints), but running in an open field contains no creativity at all. It expresses not liberty but freedom. One may bend the framework of the genre and test its limits, but it is important not to break it, because excessive freedom (the erasure of constraints) destroys and nullifies the very possibility of creation and of liberty.

The secular critique assumes that freedom is a value, and therefore accuses the religious world of lacking freedom. But in light of what I have described here, freedom is not a value. Human beings are not free; they are constrained by the circumstances of their lives, their bodies, and their particular capacities. The quantity of constraints within which we operate is generally not in our hands. Liberty, by contrast, is in our hands, and therefore it—and it alone—can be considered a value. The autonomy with which I think and act within the constraints imposed on me is indeed a value, and it is that to which I should aspire. In this sense, indeed, “The servants of time are servants of servants; only the servant of God is truly free.” According to my proposal, the meaning is that he has liberty, not that he is unconstrained. The conclusion is that liberty does not contradict the existence of constraints; on the contrary, the constraints are a condition without which there is no liberty. This is probably the meaning of the talmudic homily on “the writing of God, engraved upon the tablets” (Exod. 32:16; Avot 6:2): “Do not read harut, ‘engraved,’ but herut, ‘liberty.’” Only when we engrave our own letters into the hard stone tablets can we attain liberty.

So far, this has been a defense (not an apologetic one, I hope) of religious commitment to Jewish law. In such commitment there is indeed no freedom, but precisely for that reason liberty can exist there. But this picture has further implications. This account not only shows where secular people err, but also what is demanded of religious people. The apologetics described above serve as a fig leaf for every sort of intellectual rigidity. After all, God knows everything, the Torah is eternal and unchanging, its sages know everything, and their opinion is what expresses our true and hidden will (hidden even from us). Therefore we are told that a truly free person is supposed to submit to Torah and tradition and not think for himself. Certainly not to deviate from anything we received from previous generations. This is the recipe for the conservatism and intellectual rigidity so prevalent in the religious world. But the concept of liberty described here rests not only on the necessity and value of submitting to constraints, but also on our autonomy within them. Religious thought generally emphasizes the first aspect (submission to the word of God and to the Torah, despite the absence of freedom involved), but tends to ignore the second: the need for critical thought, for liberty of thought and action, and for the search for creative ways of applying the Torah in the most correct and fitting manner under changing circumstances. It is worth remembering this, especially on the Festival of Liberty.

It seems to me that in these days there is no need to say much more about the fact that conservative adherence to the instructions of rabbis and legal authorities leads us to conduct that is very problematic from a moral standpoint. In this sense, liberty is a condition for proper service of God. Service of God does not demand only submission from us, but at the same time a willingness to act differently and autonomously. We are required to formulate an independent and critical position and outlook, at times against the accepted conceptions of the religious world. At present, it seems that these words are directed also—and perhaps mainly—against the religious leadership in its various forms. It is locked into patterns of thought and conduct that, regrettably, are leading most of the public into very troubling places.

We must internalize that speaking out against injustices and distorted instructions issued by religious and rabbinic leadership is neither heresy nor anything improper. On the contrary, it is a condition of service of God and of fidelity to Him. When religious leadership advances moves that amount to a terrible desecration of God’s name, as is happening in these days (see, for example, the issue of sharing the security burden, the economic burden, and more), we are called upon to bring about change and replace it. The Sages already taught us that “Where there is a desecration of God’s name, no honor is accorded to a rabbi” (Berakhot 19b). Silence and standing aside are not expressions of fear of Heaven, but a blatant rebellion against the sovereignty of Heaven and against our commitment to the Torah. With the arrival of the “Festival of Liberty,” this is the most important exodus from slavery to liberty that we need today.

The author is the founder of the Third Path movement, which was established in order to serve as a home for many observant Jews who feel uneasy with the character of today’s religious leadership

Source (Arutz 7): https://www.inn.co.il/news/665993

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