"We were slaves..." now what?

[From our Temple Beth El Seder Supplement for this year - full supplement here: Beth El Homepage

“We were slaves in Egypt…” and have vowed, as the cornerstone of Jewish ethics, to prevent slavery wherever we find it.

When do we behave like slaves? Certainly one definition of slavery is the treatment of a person like a commodity, like someone that can be bought and sold.

When we sit in front of a television, or listen to a radio, and consume commercials, we are the product. The programming is designed to deliver us, the audience, to the advertiser, the consumer.

Should we therefore watch no commercial television? Listen to no commercial radio? That would be quite the charge. Instead, let us be conscious of what we consume and when, and whether we are the product or the consumer.

Self-consciousness leads to wisdom and transformation and away from our own states of slavery.