Slavery

When God brings about the return to Zion, we will be like dreamers. Then our mouths will be filled with laughter, and our tongues with joyous song.

Psalm 126:1-2

Pesach (Passover) has passed, the time when we are reminded of our redemption from slavery, which is analogous to the ultimate redemption: the arrival of Moshiach, the Messiah.

Yetziat Mitzrayim, or the exodus from Egypt, is symbolic of our true salvation at the end days, but is also an allegory of spiritual ascent.

Like the Israelites who ascended from Egypt to the land of Canaan, let us ascend from our present state of slavery to our animal souls (Nefesh HaBahamis) and live according to our Godly souls (Nefesh HoElokis). Let us recognize Hashem, the master of the universe, who deigned to lift us out of Egypt with His mighty hand and wondrous miracles. The God who reminds us: “I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt…” (Leviticus 26:13)

This is the same God who, time and time again, pleads with us to forget our base ways and turn to Him.

This is the God to whom we sighed – and still sigh – in our servitude. “The children of Israel sighed from the labor, and they cried out, and their cry ascended to God…” (Exodus 2:23)

Mitzraim, which means me-tzarim, from the confines (or limitations), is the place whence God has lifted us. God redeems us from the confines, from the limitations of ourselves. All these temporary feelings and dreams we chase will never truly fulfill us until our souls have been completely lifted out of the confines of this world. Though we struggle to fill the void within, only God Himself can truly fill it. When the barrier finally breaks, when the veil between the physical and the spiritual falls, then, only then, can we achieve true redemption, the state of total unity of which we catch only glimpses.

This is the time when God brings us from spiritual ailment to spiritual fulfillment. When we paint our doorposts red with the blood of our sacrifice, to remind the angel of death that we have protection sanctioned by God. Through this blood we shall live, and we shall live to see the days which were foretold. The prophesies wait, and we wait with them, seeking completion. The final days; the true salvation, and the ultimate freedom from our slavery.

We will go from slavery to salvation; from slave to saved. Then the Lord God shall wipe away our tears (Isaiah 25:8), and our mouths will be filled with laughter.

And they shall say on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God: we hoped for Him that He would save us; this is the Lord for Whom we hoped; let us rejoice and be happy with His salvation.’

Isaiah 25:9