We are just 2 weeks away from Pesach and as I  have begun my physical outer preparations,  I have also begun to consider the inner preparations. How might we approach preparations for the inner Pesach? 

Many of us are well acquainted with the ways we can interpret the Passover story as the inner journey from slavery to freedom. We hear the personal call to liberate ourselves from the inner Pharaoh, the inner oppressor who masks himself as the inner critic and who prevents expression of the fullness of Self. In the shape of the ego, the inner Pharaoh keeps us enslaved, cut off, and exiled from our true self, from our truest nature. 

This is a story we all know.

Let us take this idea a step further. Perhaps Pharaoh is not the only inner archetype we can harvest from the story of Pesach.

What of the midwives, who possess the inner strength and courage to defy the laws of oppression and cruelty within their society and save countless lives? And what of Batyah- the daughter of Pharaoh who possesses the strength to do what is right in the face of power? How might their voices live on in us?   I am reminded of the righteous people during the Shoah in Poland and Germany who risked their lives to save those in mortal danger. 

We are those midwives and we are Batyah, the daughter of Pharaoh, the feminine strength of compassion and resistance to the oppression of all of our inner and outer Pharaohs. 

And what of Yocheved and Miriam, Moses' mother and sister? They are the nurturer and the guardian that ensure the safety and future of the redemptive agent. They reveal the inner protective feminine power to guard the vulnerable among us and the vulnerable aspects of ourselves. Like Moses, we all possess qualities that must develop and mature before we can fully fulfill our destinies and these tender aspects of Self must be protected, lest we lose our most precious gifts.

We are Yocheved and Miriam, the nurturer and the  guardian who possess the wisdom to guard the vulnerable aspects of the Self until we can reach maturity.

And how might we see the inner Moses?  Moshe is an 80 year old shepherd with a speech impediment when he stands barefoot before a burning bush and receives his life's mission.  Yet, Moses, with his speech impairment becomes the revealer of Torah, our great teacher- Moshe Rabeinu, who channels the Divine into words.

We are that Moshe too; the one whose apparent weakness becomes his greatest strength and gift to the world. What if we were to consider those area's of struggle and strain in our own lives as the seeds that hold the potential for our greatest healing, for our greatest service to the world? Like Moses, who resists his destiny,  there is in each of us the resistance to fulfilling our greatest capacity. Yet, there is also the strength to move forward against all odds, to take hold of that weakness and transform it into a tool for our greater becoming and for the greater good of all.

And what of the Sea in our story? Let us consider the Sea that splits open, revealing an unseen path and then returns to its wholeness. We too have this capacity to split apart, to come undone, to create a new space so that a new kind of freedom may pass through us. This is the gift of the splitting sea- the Sea inside.  And while this may seem terrifying, we are challenged to discover a deep sense of trust.  Trust in the Sea, that the waters will return to their resting places, for it is in their nature to do so.

וַיַּרְא יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת הַיָּד הַגְּדֹלָה אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה יְיָ בְּמִצְרַיִם

Vayar Yisrael at ha-yad ha-gedolah, asher asah Adonai b'mitzrayim

And Israel Saw the Great Hand of God, and what was done in Egypt...

And what of he Hand of God? How does that live in us?

What is that hand if not our hands that can split apart this world; that can cause the seas to rise and envelop us if we remain unconscious to our own power.

OR 

Can we claim these hands- this hand of God- as tools to split open new pathways of possibility for a future in which we move from the pain of exile and oppression to the garden of our true home; a home where the whole Self is honored?  May we do so, for it is through this embracing of the whole Self that true peace  becomes more than a possibility. It becomes a natural  outcome of the coming out of Egypt.

 מִן הַמֵּצַר קָרָאתִי יָּהּ, עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ.

Min ha-meitzar karati Yah, annani vamerchav Yah.

From the narrow place of constriction I called out to Yah

I was answered with a wide open space.

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