Experience real freedom

“In every generation and every day, one must consider himself as if he had just been liberated from Egypt. “

Our yearly celebration of Passover isn’t just a commemoration of an event that took place over 3300 years ago. We are expected to acknowledge in the present moment, our limitations and confinements that keep us from truly being what we should be, and liberate ourselves from them.

The great Rabbi Yitzchak Luria teaches, that segments of time are infused with different energies like objects in space. Every Holy day has its own special character and opportunities.

Passover is “the season of liberation.” If and when we relive the steps taken in the past to reach Exodus, we too can move to greater and bigger things, become transformed and elevated. We too can experience a personal freedom from what holds us and suppresses us down.

It is relatively easy for a person to move from one geographical location to another.  G-d did not want merely to take the Jews out of Egypt. The greater goal was to get the impure and debased mentality of Egypt out of the Jewish people.

This is the reason why they were commanded to “draw and take for yourselves sheep…” It wasn’t just the act of bringing the sacrifice alone and its very public spectacle. It was about boldly drawing themselves away from the atmosphere and practices of their neighbors’ and connecting with, taking, a new approach. In Hebrew the word for sheep is the same as exit, go out. G-d was saying you must leave your present mentality and behaviors totally and seek the new path if you are to be liberated from the current status quo.

King Pharaoh symbolized and embodied the culture of the Egyptians and the root of their problem. When Moses approached him to free the Israelites on behalf of their G-d, Pharaoh says, “Who is G-d that I should listen and consider his request.”

Pharaoh considered himself, a G-d. He thought of himself as self-made and everything was to his own credit. He didn’t need any other spiritual powers, because he was self-sustained by the Nile. That is the characteristic of spiritual slavery and confinement. This person is all by himself, limited by his finitude. For the most part, people take all of life on their own shoulders and carry a burden way more than they can handle. They blame themselves for circumstances that are way beyond their control. They expect of themselves, and for themselves, more than they could ever handle. We liberate ourselves from this thinking every year on Passover.

Moses responded to King Pharaoh, that although if G-d wanted he could take the Israelites out of Egypt in one moment, there would be a process of ten plagues that would accomplish a complete remolding and transformation of everyone in Egypt.

In the first three plagues everyone will come to the realization that, there is a G-d in the heavens. In the next three, they will know, that this G-d is not just up in the heavens somewhere. Everyone will realize that G-d has constant awareness, input and control over every small detail in the universe.

The last set of four plagues will accomplish the realization that there is no other force anywhere as the source for anything but this omniscient one G-d.

Moses had a speech impediment and yet when it came to announcing that the time of liberation was here he miraculously was able to speak perfectly. When the Egyptians saw that all the first born were killed even those who hid and even those who only afterwards it was discovered that they were actually firstborn a new realization and respect for the real G-d took hold.

The path to true strength in life is an internalized faith that we are never alone. There is a wise G-d who put us in the world knowing we can succeed and is always prepared to help us even miraculously if and when we make Him a part of our lives.