With the beginning of Passover on the horizon, I am reminded of an important teaching from the Seder. In the Torah, the Hebrew word for Egypt is the word mitzrayyim. Literally, this word means “narrow places.” This teaches us that any place where we feel constricted or constrained is a place of enslavement, our own personal Egypt.
All too often we leave the story of enslavement in the past, thinking that it is only our ancestors that were enslaved a long time ago. Yet, when we ponder our own “places of narrowness,” we see that we are enslaved in one way or another. Sometimes, we are enslaved by our own narrow mindedness. Other times, we are constricted by stress forcing us to be quick tempered, lacking compassion. And there are also those times when we feel enslaved by time and expectations, which bind us to behaviors that can even be hurtful.
The Passover story reminds us that we need freedom from all of our enslavements. Yes, Passover challenges us to remember those seeking justice. Yes, Passover calls on us to fight against the enslavements in the world. But additionally, Passover asks us to look within and see the “narrow places” which constrain us. The story commands us to free ourselves from our own mitzrayyim. And with that freedom, we are ready to bring compassion and kindness to a fractured world.
May we all have a happy and healthy Passover. Chag Samei’ach,
