On the eve of Passover, we often talk about the slavery that our ancestors experienced in Egypt.
Work of coercion, in difficult physical conditions, exploited by Israel by the Egyptians.
There are families that increase to do and illustrate the period: the children actually dress up as slaves, while singing "We were slaves" to the laughter of the rest of the family.
But has slavery really passed away?
As you might guess, the answer is no.
Slavery is still here, as it appears in a song in the Haggadah.
In fact, modern slavery is divided into two.
The first, the classical, which translates the hard labor in Egypt to our day.
To this day, there are workers, even in Israel, who are without social support and without rights and working conditions regulated by law, even though slavery has been abolished in modern legislation.
There is still slavery of exploitation and use of force, and sometimes actual use of physical violence.
One of the most despicable phenomena that still exists, unfortunately, also in the State of Israel, and is a living example of modern slavery, is the trafficking of women.
Some came as foreign workers in order to save money for their family's needs, and some came in no-way, fraudulently, and found themselves trafficked, engaged in prostitution, exploited, and physically collapsed.
This is slavery that we all oppose, and therefore it is appropriate that we also work to eradicate it, and not be content with just clinking our tongues when we come across an article on the subject.
But there is another modern slavery as well.
This is not slavery of beatings, chains and submission to an abusive governmental apparatus, but slavery of choice.
It is not slavery in which one person is the owner of another person, but an independent entry into a state of mind of lack of free time from work.
This is not slavery of physical suffering and class difference, but total availability for work, the lack of division of daytime hours between work and leisure and family.
Slavery that does not produce a free spirit for man, and does not free the worker from circumstances and time.
Modern slavery is a voluntary or adaptive enslavement to social reality, to habits, to material values, to the media, to social pressure.
It is slavery that is inherent in addiction.
It can be an addiction to work, money, news, screens.
It is an addiction that can cause us to miss our good years and the most beautiful moments.
It is important that we open our eyes and look around, at ourselves, at the children, at mom and dad, at the daughters and spouses, at our friends.
This Passover should be dedicated to examining the personal freedom of each and every one of us.
And in the words of Yankele Rotblit, in his poem "Laboratories for Freedom": "Failure of endurance, I could not bear. Enough is enough, I said, I must go out. I must leave my slave behind, where I will never return ...".
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