What are we recognizing and celebrating this evening? The answer to this question is different for different people here tonight. For parents, family members and friends, graduation from high school is a moment in time; a milestone to reflect on our children’s growth and development over seventeen or eighteen years of life. For teachers, graduation is an opportunity to celebrate the transformative power of education and, in the case of our school, to emphasize the lasting impact of a Torah education. For students, graduation is an indicator of freedom. Leshon HaKodesh , the Hebrew language, employs three terms for freedom or the quality of being free – chofshi , d’ror and cherut . Why does Hebrew use three terms for freedom and what concept of freedom does each term convey? The term chofshi is used by the Torah to connote the freedom that a master gives a servant in letting him go. The master frees the slave. What type of freedom is this? It is the freedom from the master’s coercion
Rabbi Benjy Owen, Dean, Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South, Memphis, TN