The rabbis called Passover chag chirutanu, the holiday of our freedom. But freedom is about more than leaving Egypt. It’s about the freedom to choose what kind of people we want to be and what kind of world we want to build.

The exile in Egypt was far worse than our other exiles, said Netivot Shalom, because words were in exile. In every other exile, he said, we could form communities, and we could share ideas, and we could take care of each other. But in Egypt, the labor was so harsh that we couldn’t even think, we couldn’t even speak. Even our ability to imagine a better world was taken away from us. And that, said Netivot Shalom, is why God took us out.

But Netivot Shalom went even further. He taught that God gave us time to think about freedom before he gave us the Torah. And then God spoke to us at Mt. Sinai and asked us, “Is this the way you want to live?”

And so, every year, we count the Omer. For forty-nine days. we walk the path to Sinai, thinking about freedom, the about the kind of lives we want to live, and about kind of world we want to build.

There was a time when my definition of freedom was simple – it was the right to vote and the right to free speech. But as I’ve gotten older, my definition of freedom has changed. For me, freedom is the right to be thankful.

We live in a world filled with takers, with people who say that the world is a power game. And right now, the power game seems to be winning.

But Judaism teaches that life has a purpose, that we are all frail, limited creatures sent here to heal each other.

And Judaism insists that every moment is a miracle, that every breath is a gift from God. And Judaism insists that we must celebrate the miracles, and that we must bring miracles to the lives of others through our own acts of kindness. That’s the kind of life I want to live.

There are those who would say I’m foolish. They would tell me that acts of kindness are hopeless, that I should be out there competing with the rest of the world. But I choose to be a Yehudi, as person who gives thanks to God and does his best to give back.

It’s a difficult time, and many of our rights are slipping away. But we can we can still choose to be thankful, and we can still choose to bring miracles into the world.

That’s freedom. And that’s why God gave us the Torah – so that we could be His partners in creating a better world.