Pesah

In the Haggadah we read: “If the Holy One had not freed our ancestors from Egypt, then we, our children and our children’s children would still be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.”  By the time those words were written, the Egyptian Pharaohs were long gone. So what could the authors of the Haggadah have meant when they said “we would still be slaves to Pharaoh”?

Perhaps they were referring to the more persistent Pharaohs that are always with us, the voices in our heads and hearts that limit our sense of what is possible. Those inner Pharaohs can continue to enslave us even though the outer Pharoah is no longer here. Moreover we can pass on those inner Pharaohs to our children, in ways that we are barely aware of.

The Exodus from Egypt was not just an external liberation but an internal one as well. It was the breaking of our inner bonds, the liberation of our imaginations. To leave Egypt was to see beyond what was to what could be.

Each Pesah, our task is to do the same thing. Though we are blessed to be without external Pharaohs, we still need to break free of the internal ones, to liberate ourselves from the inner constraints that shackle our vision, that limit our growth. We do that not only for our own sake, but for the sake of our children and our children’s children.

May this festival of liberation bring blessings to us and to all who learn from our example.

• Kabbalat Shabbat this Friday evening is at 6 pm. Services for the first two days of Pesah are on Shabbat morning March 31 and Sunday morning April 1, beginning at 9 am.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to noon on Shabbat morning.
• Services for the last two days of Pesah are on Friday morning April 6 and Shabbat morning April 7, beginning at 9 am. The kiddush-lunch on April 7 will be sponsored by Karen and Ivan Brodsky, and by Adam and Valerie Brodsky.
• Please note that there will be no e-bulletin next week because of the holiday. the bulletin will resume on Thursday April 12.