I'm Free - אני חופשי

Goal: the Chanichim should understand that real freedom doesn’t mean doing whatever you want and having no physical limits. The real freedom is about controlling yourself in a way that makes your soul and spirit free.

Materials: put each of the characters' names on the four corners of the room

I’m Free!

Written by: Chani and Reut, Cleveland

Suggested Age: Aleph-Bet (really any age, but separate them if you can)

Suitable for Shabbat

Sounds complicated? Well it’s not so hard. Lets say you have a chocolate bar in front of you, and you know it’s not good for you and you decided to have no more chocolate but you can’t control your desire and eat it. Are you a free man then? No, because you’re a slave to your desires and let them be in charge.

1. Pick four Chanichim to act out the following characters: (give out the added papers)

     Hi! I’m Zach and I’m the freest man in the entire world. Do you know why? Cause I do exactly what I want. I want to sleep until 2:00 in the afternoon I just do. If I want to watch 10 movies a day- I do so. I am the one to choose what I’m doing; no one cares about what I do, and I don’t care about what anyone has to say. I’m the master of my life.

    Hello! My name is Sam and I’m in jail for the last ten years. I was sentenced for life in jail because I fought the corrupt ruling systems in my country. Most of the day I spend alone in my cell, isolated and kept under constant supervision by armed guards. I have time to read and think and plan my plans. No.  It’s not the life I dreamt about, but I don’t regret anything I did in my life. I know I can look back and be sure I did everything I can to make this world and my homeland a better place.

    Shalom! My name is Ahron and I live in Mea- Shearim- a neighborhood in Jerusalem. (In case you don’t know- it’s is a very religious neighborhood.)  I live a life of torah- I wake up in the morning, go to my Yeshiva, learn torah for the whole day, and Daven three times a day. I find it great to run my life- each and every second of it according to my beliefs and what I feel is the right way. I’m a free man!

    Hi! I’m Jeff, and I’ve got everything a man could possibly dream of. I could get anything I want with my money, and no one will tell me “no”. I live in an amazing house – the biggest you can imagine. It has an indoor and outdoor pool, the newest Sony play station video games from all kinds, and the latest equipment from every kind. I even have around my house a tall brick wall with armed guards that wouldn’t let anyone in. I am a free man! 

After every man, ask the Chanichim to think if he’s free or not. 

2. Put the characters names in four corners of the room and ask the Chanichim to go to the corner where it says the name of the character they think is the freest.

3. Have a short discussion. Help bringing arguments for each side. You can do it…

4. Tell the story of Nathan Sharansky:

Nathan Sharansky is a Jew living now in Israel. Around twenty years ago he was put in the Russian prison and sent to Siberia for 8 years in crime of wanting to go to Israel and learning and teaching Hebrew. (In these days Russia was still USSR and didn’t let people out) he sat in jail in terrible conditions and didn’t give in to the Russian prisoners in any way. He insisted on keeping his spirit free. After fighting for many years he was “free” at last. He was traded with an American spy. He was walking toward his wife and his life after so long and suddenly he stopped. He lied on the snow in front of all the media and refused to continue until the Russians will give him back his Tehilim book they took away from him when he first came to jail. After a few minutes when he got his Tehilim back, the Russians told him to walk straight to the other side. Sharansky got up and zigzagged his way to the other side to show the Russians he will not be controlled by them. Now that is a free man!

being free means to be free of spirit; to have to right to choose to let your neshama do what it wants to do

(if the kids are able to listen to this and you can find it, it would be interesting to take a piece from Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, where he discusses the idea that there were a small few people who decided to still be humanitarian and help out their friends, despite the horrible conditions of the Holocaust)

5. Conclusion:

What does it have to do with Pesach?

Pesach is the greatest celebration of Bnei Yisrael becoming a free nation. But yet soon after leaving the slavery of Egypt, the nation receives the Torah. How do the 'rules' of the Torah fit in with the nation being free? The answer is that they became free in order for them to be Gods slaves- and yet they’re free- because freedom means to “listen” to your soul and realize what we are really meant to be doing.