The Shawshank Redemption and Pesach

One of my favorite movies is "The Shawshank Redemption". Besides for being a very thought provoking film, in my opinion, its message also ties directly into many of the themes of Pesach and Yetziat Mitzrayim. In the movie, Andy Dufrene is an innocent man, sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn't commit. He is sent to Shawshank prison, a pretty horrible place, with a sadistic warden and where the prisoners are abused by the guards. The prison is full of many other convicted murderers, serving out life sentences. Throughout the movie the attitudes of Andy and the other prisoners are contrasted, as Andy refuses to give up hope that he will be released and will often pull stunts in the prison to remind everyone what life was like on the outside, and give them a sense of "freedom" even when they are behind bars. The other prisoners have become "institutionalized" after spending 30, 40, 50 years in prison and don't want to be freed, preferring to remain in Shawshank, because they feel that they won't be able to survive on the "outside".

In the first clip, Andy is in the warden's office, and the guard leaves him alone for a few minutes to go to the bathroom. Left alone, he finds a classical music record, locks the guard in the bathroom and plays it for the whole prison on the P.A. system. The entire prison freezes in place as everyone is transfixed by the music, and in the words of one of the prisoners: "at that moment, every man in Shawshank felt free". Though Andy did this to give everyone hope, another prisoner gets upset, saying that "hope is a dangerous thing", since none of these prisoners will every be able to function outside of prison.



The second clip tells the story of Brooks, an elderly prisoner who spent over 50 years in prison. He has been released on parole and doesn't want to leave, even contemplating committing another murder just to get sent back "home" to prison. He writes a letter to the other prisoners telling them this, and eventually commits suicide (don't worry, it's not graphic at all, but if you get scared easily, just close your eyes at 3:56 of the video).



I think that this movie picks up on the theme of "slave mentality" seen with Yetziat Mitzrayim. G-d takes the Jews out of Egypt, but its up to us to take "the Egypt out of the Jew". Lehavdil, just as Brooks and other prisoners see the prison as home, the Jews in the Midbar want to return to Egypt (and slavery!) whenever things get difficult. The Ibn Ezra points this out in a very famous comment on why the Jews didn't fight back at Keriat Yam Suf, since the number of freed slaves outnumbered the Egyptian horsemen. He explains that after all those years in slavery, they still suffered from a slave mentality and would never have been able to attack their oppressors.

אבן עזרא, שמות יד:יג
(יג) ...יש לתמוה, איך יירא מחנה גדול של שש מאות אלף איש מהרודפים אחריהם, ולמה לא ילחמו על נפשם ועל בניהם? התשובה, כי המצרים היו אדונים לישראל, וזה הדור היוצא ממצרים למד מנעוריו לסבול עול מצרים ונפשו שפלה, ואיך יוכל עתה להלחם עם אדוניו, והיו ישראל נרפים ואינם מלומדים למלחמה... והשם לבדו שהוא עושה גדולות ...כי אין בהם כח להלחם בכנענים, עד שקם דור אחר דור המדבר, שלא ראו גלות והיתה להם נפש גבוהה...

The message of the Seder (especially during Pesach Mitzrayim) was to use the different Mitzvot and "props" (Matzah, Maror, Korban Pesach, blood on the door...) to help the Jews break with the Egyptian slave mentality and feel free. Lehavdil, as the first clip shows, one can be in jail and feel free, or one can be living "on the outside" but still suffer from a slave mentality. Have a meaningful Seder and a Chag Kasher v'Sameach!