The Freedom to Be You

The story is told of a pious rabbi named Zusha, who was on his deathbed crying uncontrollably. “When I get to Heaven,” he told his students, “Gd’s not going to ask me Why weren’t you like Moses or Abraham. I’m afraid that Gd will ask, Why weren’t you more like Zusha?” The opposite of freedom, is not slavery. The opposite of personal freedom, is self-doubt.

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Passover is a time we ask ourselves— what’s holding me back from maximizing my truest potential? To truly be free, I need to first realize that I may have an inner Pharaoh that I am enslaved to: materialism, a phone, a toxic habit— or maybe an event in my past, or future. “In every generation,” the Passover Haggadah tells us, “a person must see themselves as if they personally left Egypt.”

The Hebrew word for Egypt—Mitzrayim—also means: narrow, confinement, limitations. Exodus from Egypt means breaking free from my comfort zones, my self-orientation, and the narrow-minded ways I may define myself. Leaving your Egypt is challenging; but it’s also who you already are at your core: an undefined soul, created in the image of an Infinite, undefined Gd.

This Passover, unleash your soul. Chag Sameach!!

Rabbi Levi Teldon
Chabad of Downtown SA