Who is your pharaoh?

Passover is arguably the biggest Jewish holiday. It is not as holy as Yom Kippur or as commercial as Hannukah, but it is by far the most popular.

It has everything one can ask for in a holiday: family, food, lots and lots of wine, fun, games, a very compelling story, and more food.

Everyone can relate to the story of Passover in some way. For my family, it is quite literal. Our Egypt was the USSR and our journey to freedom in the United States was, to us at least, nearly as eventful as the Exodus itself.

But even for those who have not experienced such an event, Passover can have a poignant meaning. Who among us does not have a pharaoh in our lives that keeps us slaves to something?
Whether its drugs, smoking, a bad relationship, or a dead-end job, we willingly stay and serve our pharaohs instead of throwing off our chains and setting a path to freedom.

But to go from slave to free can be a very difficult journey, because freedom is both mental as well as physical thing. After all, God waited 40 years to let Israel into the Promised Land. This was enough time for a completely new generation, not constrained by the mentality of former slavery, to come to be.

So who is your pharaoh? And what are you doing to free yourself?

As Bob Marley said:

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.

Happy Passover everyone!