TELLING YOUR STORY: TOWARD A MORE SPIRITUALLY-MEANINGFUL PASSOVER

The secret to a delicious Seder dinner is in the food preparation.  The secret to a haimishe (warm, family-centered) Passover experience is in the invitations and seating arrangements. But the secret to a spiritually-meaningful Passover is in the preparations we make to confront our souls. Before we sit down at our seder table before we prepare the delicious Passover dinner, before we take out the Haggadah, we need to look inward to illuminate the personal journey we need to make at this season.  

Consider this: Passover celebrates the historical journey of the Jewish people from slavery to freedom. Physically-oppressed, we turned to God to bring us physical release. Spiritually confused, we participated in an experience with the Divine One at Mount Sinai which changed our lives and led us to the Promised Land.  

For us to transform this year’s Passover into a spiritually meaningful experience, we will want to discover how we are enslaved (physically, emotionally, and spiritually) and we will need to envision a brighter future in a Promised Land.  

AN EXERCISE:
Find a few quiet moments between now and Passover (“find quiet?” Ha!) to answer the following questions.  

Where are you? When we begin to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt, we must remember that we are instructed to “see ourselves as if we too went out from Egypt.” Thus, the historical Exodus is also a personal journey. Understood as a word, and not a name, Mitzrayim, Hebrew for Egypt, means “the twice-narrow place.” To begin, then, we must identify the location of our spiritual Egypt, the source of bondage and pain in our lives.  

MITZRAYIM: In what part of your life do you feel as if you are in a narrow place, constrained and claustrophobic? Look for a place so constricted that you cannot turn around but can only walk forward from the painful past into an unforeseeable future. Do you feel enslaved to issues of health? Or loneliness? Lost love or the loss of a loved one? Are you restricted by concerns of career or lack of direction in your life? See that narrowness in your life, and you may have found your Egypt.  

TEN PLAGUES: What are the disappointments you have endured because of your Mitzrayim?

THE PROMISED LAND: How would you hope your life will be different in the future?

MATZAH: What have you not been able to give proper time, attention and nurturance to, because of the concerns of your Mitzrayim?

YAM SUF/SEA OF REEDS: What are the obstacles that you must pass through in order to reach your Promised Land?

MANNA: What or who has sustained you during your journey through the Wilderness?

MOSES & MIRIAM: Who can be your role models and teachers in navigating this Wilderness?

GOD: What do you ask of this power/energy for goodness in order that you may be healed and able to carry forth to freedom in the Promised Land?