The Illusion Of Freedom - Travels In Philadelphia

a Torah anytime original series. Pesak is the holiday of freedom. And when you think about freedom, there's probably no city in all of America more associated with freedom than the city of Philadelphia. So, I figured why not come here and check it out. Philadelphia is one of the most historic cities in the entire United States. The city sits right between the Delaware River and the Skookill River, which made it an incredibly strategic location in the 1700s because ships, trade, ideas all flowed through there. Today, more than 1.5 million people live here, making it one of the largest cities in America. But long before that, this was actually the biggest and most important city in the colonies. In fact, Philadelphia served as the capital of the United States twice. First during the American Revolutionary War and then again in the 1790s while the new federal government was being organized. Why here? Simple. It was the largest, most developed city in the young country. and it sat right in the middle of the original states, making it the perfect meeting place for leaders trying to figure out how this brand new nation was going to work. So when you walk through Philadelphia, you're not just in another American city. You're in a place that for a while was literally the center of the entire country where the future of the United States was being debated, built, and decided. What is freedom? America talks a lot about freedom, but what is it? Is the American definition of freedom the same as the Torah definition? Because the Torah makes a very surprising statement. You're not really free unless your life is guided by Tyra, which sounds strange. Tyra has rules. In fact, the Tyra has more rules than any other religious book in all of world history. America says freedom means fewer rules. So, which one is it? Let's go explore the birthplace of American freedom and see for ourselves. Walking through Philadelphia is basically like walking through a live museum of freedom because this is the city where the modern idea of freedom really burst onto the world stage. You see, for most of human history, freedom wasn't really a thing. The majority of the world, for the overwhelming majority of history, lived in under somebody, a king, a zar, a juke, an emperor, a poor, a ninja, some guy with a crown and a bad temper. And if you woke up in a bad mood one morning, watch out cuz you're probably not going to have a good day that day. For most of history, the top 1% lived in unbelievable luxury, villas, feasts, servants everywhere. But the other 90%, you know, second race citizens at best and slaves at worst. That was the normal. That was the system for thousands of years. History was basically the story of power flowing in one direction from the top down. But in the year 1776, something extraordinary happened right here in this city. And it all happened in a building over there. This building behind me is called Independence Hall. Let's go check it out. This building behind me is Independence Hall in Philadelphia. One of the most important buildings in American history. In 1776, inside this very room, a group of delegates gathered to debate a radical idea. Breaking away from the most powerful empire on Earth. And after weeks of arguing and discussing, they signed the United States Declaration of Independence, officially announcing that the 13 colonies were no longer part of the British Empire. But the story didn't end there. Just 11 years later, these same halls posted another historic moment, the creation of the United States Constitution, the document that would become the foundation of the American government. What's incredible is that some of the most famous figures in American history stood right here. People like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin debating the future of a nation that didn't even exist yet. Today, this quiet brick building stands as the birthplace of the United States, the place where the idea of American independence and freedom first became reality. In the summer of 1776, leaders from 13 American colonies gathered inside this hall. people like Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams. And inside the building, they signed the United States Declaration of Independence. And that moment changed the course of all of human history because for the first time, a nation announced to the world that people are endowed with certain unaliable rights, including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, freedom was no longer something that was granted to you by a king. Freedom was something that human beings were born with. And that idea completely reshaped the world. And there's no question that Jews benefited tremendously from that idea because for the first time in a long time, Jews could live openly, build communities, learn Tyra freely, practice Judaism without fear. There's no question that America has been an extraordinary blessing and gift for the Jewish people. However, there's also a very uncomfortable truth. And that is that no country on earth has spiritually suffocated more Jews than America. Not with persecution. It suffocated us with comfort, with opportunity, with distraction. It suffocated us with freedom. Because when Jews lived under hostile regimes, Judaism was something that you had to fight to keep. But when everything is comfortable, when every door is open to you, when society is pulling you in a thousand different directions, Judaism slowly fades into the background, it becomes quite honestly irrelevant, maybe even burdensome. Look, let's be real. America is basically a blank check when it comes to freedom. You want to chase money and get rich, go for it. You want to try every drug you can find, knock yourself out. You want to become a professional golfer, go do it. That is America's definition of freedom. Hopebased freedom. You do what you want in life and hope for the best that it all works out. That is the American definition. Wing it. Live your life. Hope for the best. Pray that you don't end up in jail. But that's not Hashem's definition of freedom. He He wouldn't be so cruel as to leave us scrambling in the dark and hoping for the best. True freedom is not hoping for the best. It's knowing I have the best. It's knowing that there's a map. It's knowing there's a guide, a blueprint. Hashem shows us the way to a good life, the right path. Real freedom is not being at the mercy of impulses or trends. It's following something so smart that it actually works. America gives you the keys and says, "Hey, just drive wherever." The Tyra says, "Here's the road. Follow it. You'll get somewhere amazing." That's the difference. One is chaos dressed up as freedom. The other is freedom that actually frees you. You know, you can't really make a video about freedom without visiting a jail. And good news is that there's one right down the road. Let's go check it out. Here we are in Eastern State Penitentiary. Let's go have a look. Not every day do you go into an actual jail. Let's go see. Little creepy. Just look inside these cells. They did nothing to them. They just let them rot. This is where somebody lived for 30 years, never coming out. They had their their toilet seat is still there. Their little sink is still there. This is their life. Right down this alley, there was a prison synagogue. One of the first prison synagogues in America. And uh tells you everything you need to know that there needed to be a synagogue in prison. There must have been a lot of Jews here. It is worth noting that this entire place is basically in shambles. There's dots everywhere. It's falling apart. But there's one place that is restored and that is the synagogue. It could be a coincidence, but it could also be that a yid came and saw a synagogue, a sh completely ransacked completely falling apart. And even if it's a prison, that's a So he donated the money and had it restored. And this place, which is completely decaying, has only one room that is at least tolerable, the shaw, a testament to Judaism's unwavering commitment to kadeshm. No matter where and no matter who we are shim wherever we go, even in jail. When Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829, it completely changed how prisons were designed around the world. Before this prison existed, most prisons were chaotic places where inmates were crammed together in one big room, fighting, learning crime from each other, and basically turning into worse criminals. But this prison introduced a radical new idea called isolation. Each prisoner was kept completely alone in their own cell. They ate alone, they worked alone, and even exercised alone. The belief was that in total silence and solitude, prisoners would reflect on their crimes, feel true penitence, and become better people. In fact, that's where the word penitentiary comes from. The design itself was revolutionary, too. The prison was built like a giant wheel with cell blocks spreading out from a central hub, so guards could watch every corridor at once. Because of this system, visitors from all over the world came to study it, hoping to copy the model. And at one point, this was the most famous prison on Earth. But the experiment had a dark side. The extreme isolation often drove prisoners into severe depression and madness. Over its 142 years of operation, thousands of inmates passed through these cells, including some of the most notorious criminals on Earth. Even with massive walls and guard towers, prisoners still tried to escape. One famous attempt in 1945 involved inmates digging a 97 ft tunnel under the prison wall, but the escape was discovered before anybody made it out. Today, the prison sits abandoned its crumbling halls standing as a haunting reminder of one of the boldest and most controversial experiments in prison history. You see, in America, people chase freedom. But freedom without guidance leads to bad decisions. Because what exactly is guiding those choices? impulse, dopamine, and hormones. Hormones aren't exactly known for leading you to a steady job and a loving wife and a house full of kids and a meaningful life. Impulse often leads you here to a prison cell. Listen to the stats. Right now, as I speak in America, about 1.9 million people are locked up in jails and prisons like this one across the United States, federal, state, local facilities. That's one of the highest incarceration rates in the world with close to 600 inmates per 100,000 people. According to the sentencing project, approximately 1 in three Americans will have been arrested for something by the time they're 23 years old, which is crazy. That is what we call freedom without guidance. People in the Western world think they're free to do whatever they want, but without structure, without a guide, freedom often leads you straight here. trapped in a cell or trapped in a job you hate or trapped endlessly chasing money and pleasure that never satisfied. Unguided impulse isn't designed to guide you to a meaningful life. It just leads you to more cages, literal or figurative. Now take a look at this. This was the cell of Al Capone, one of the most powerful gangsters in American history. At the height of his power in Chicago, Alapone controlled a massive criminal empire, ruling over a thousand people, dealing in illegal alcohol, gambling, racketeering, extortion. His crime organization was bringing in something like $100 million every year, which in today's money would be like a billion dollars every year. And violence was the engine that kept that empire running. Historians estimate his organization of crime was responsible for dozens and dozens of murders, possibly many more. And the most famous was the St. Valentine's Day Massacre when members of Al Capone's gang lined up seven arrival gangsters and executed him. So, this was a man who had power, money, influence. He had everything. And yet, look where he ended up. Right here. But look what he did with his prison cell. Look closely. He decorated it. He bribed the guards to bring him a nice Persian rug, nice furniture, paintings, a radio. He basically tried to turn his prison cell into a living room. And that is when you know a prisoner is finished. Not when the door closes. A prisoner is finished when he stops trying to get out and starts making the cell comfortable. When the, you know, rug goes down, when the decorations go up, when you start making prison feel a little bit like home, that's when you're finished. Life is actually the same way. The most dangerous prisons in the world are not necessarily the ones with bars. Those prisons at least remind you that you're trapped. The most dangerous prisons in the world are the ones that look comfortable, the ones filled with entertainment and distractions and pleasures, the ones where you forget you were ever supposed to leave. That is the danger of unguided freedom. Because when freedom isn't guided by purpose, it doesn't liberate you. It quietly builds a prison you don't even realize that you're in. And finally, we arrive at the most famous symbol of freedom in America, the Liberty Bell. This bell rang in 1776 to summon people to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence, and it became the symbol of liberty around the world. But take a look at it. In one of the great ironies in maybe all of world history, the bell is cracked. The symbol of freedom is cracked. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but maybe it's not. Maybe it's Hashem's little joke reminding us that yes, this country has freedom, but that freedom is a little cracked. You see, Pesak is the manuso, the holiday of our freedom. But freedom in Judaism isn't the type of story where Jews left Egypt thousands of years ago and that was that. It's leaving the Egypt inside ourselves. The Tyrus says, "Real freedom isn't doing whatever your impulses tell you. Real freedom is not being controlled by them. Freedom of the mind, freedom of the heart, freedom to live with purpose. And that's why the Tyra says, "You will never be free unless your life follows the path Hashem laid out for you. Everything else is just slavery in disguise.