Every year at the Seder, we say:
בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְּאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם
"In every generation, a person must see himself as if he personally left Egypt." (Pesachim 116b)
And every year, we ask: What Egypt did you leave this year?
For some, it's small victories. Waking up for minyan. Being more disciplined. Breaking a bad habit.
And those are real. They matter.
But this year, I came across an idea that reframed the entire question for me:
Not everything you are responsible for is your fault.
Pause on that.
We are all born into something.
A certain personality.
A certain family.
A certain body.
A certain set of challenges.
Some people are born with limitations that seem overwhelming. Others develop them along the way.
Think about Stephen Hawking. A man who lost control of almost his entire body, confined to a wheelchair, barely able to speak.
Was that his fault? Of course not.
But what he did with his life, that was his responsibility. And he became one of the most influential minds of his generation.
And he is not alone.
There are people who cannot walk, yet they write books.
People who cannot see, yet they create beauty.
People who face challenges we cannot imagine, yet live with strength we can barely comprehend.
And then there's us.
Maybe our "Egypt" is not as visible. It's not physical chains. It's internal.
It's the voice that says:
"I can't."
"It's too hard."
"This is just who I am."
That's Mitzrayim.
Because Mitzrayim doesn't just mean a place. It comes from the word meitzarim, constraints, limitations.
Pesach is not just about leaving a land. It's about leaving a mindset.
Here's the shift:
Maybe the question is not only:
What Egypt did you leave this year?
Maybe the deeper question is:
What part of your life are you ready to take responsibility for, even though it's not your fault?
You didn't choose your starting point.
But you do choose your direction.
You didn't choose your struggles.
But you do choose your response.
You may never be Michael Jordan. You may never be Albert Einstein.
But you are not here to be them.
You are here to become the fullest version of you.
And that is the essence of Yetziat Mitzrayim.
Not becoming someone else.
Not escaping reality.
But stepping into your life, fully, honestly, and courageously,
and saying:
This is where I am.
This is what I was given.
And I am going to take responsibility for it.
That is independence.
Because slavery is not just being stuck. It's believing you have no choice.
Independence is realizing that even within your limits, you always have a next step.
And maybe that is the avodah of this Seder.
When we lean like independent people, when we tell the story, when we see ourselves as if we left Egypt, we are not just remembering the past.
We are making a decision about the present.
To stop waiting to feel ready.
To stop waiting to be perfect.
And to begin, right here, right now, to walk out of whatever is holding us back, and into the life we are meant to live.
Chag kosher vesameach Rav Shlomo