“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds”
The Creator intervened in biohistory and through the imposition of a higher order, brought the regional empire to its knees and delivered a caste of foreign slaves to liberty.
Every norm was challenged, every supposition overturned, every “rule” broken. The idols crumbled, the privileged died, the sea split, and the true nature of reality was directly revealed to the nation en masse.
Deliverance at its most “miraculous.”
And yet… The generation of adults that were taken out of Egypt, never really left Egypt.
Not inside.
Even though they were physically free they were still mentally enslaved.
Not just in terms of assimilation to the cultural memes and values underpinning the hierarchical power structure of the society into which they were born.
But in terms of how they saw themselves: As slaves, as inherently inferior, as individuals lacking agency and autonomy, as destined to control or be controlled.
The Creator wrought wonders to free these people, but they couldn’t take the final step and free themselves.
When the time came to begin seriously planning to establish a just and holy society in the land the Creator chose for this purpose – they instead retreated into their fears and spun stories of how their hands were tied and the situation was hopeless and how great it was when they were slaves…
They circled the desert for forty years rather than take responsibility for themselves and their future.
On #Passover we are invited to step into their sandals and see ourselves as former slaves, newly liberated from bondage.
We are invited to tell the story of that liberation and to place ourselves in that story.
To begin the story with our worst memories, experiences, and selves. With everything that tripped us up and held us back and kept us down. With our errors and mistakes.
And to end this chapter of the story with our greatest gifts, achievements, and dreams. With the testimony of miracles and wonders, of empires falling and reality being revealed. With gratitude and song for the faithful deliverance, time and again, generation after generation, from the confines of Egypt.
Every year – the same story, told differently.
Every year – we tell how far we’ve come.
Every year – we tell ourselves that we choose freedom. Liberty. Responsibility.
Every year. And yet it still feels that despite the Creator’s intervention in biohistory once again, despite the creation of a free society in our ancestral land – we’re somehow still circling the desert.
As we prepare the home for the haggada, I want to take a minute to pray that this year, we merit to not only truly see ourselves in the story we tell of our freedom, but to continue living that story after the night of its annual telling has passed.