Passover's Radical Freedom

An Interspiritual Retelling of Exodus for Our Times

This is a special, additional free post in honor of the Passover holiday this week. It’s especially relevant at this moment in history. I hope you enjoy it.

Photo by Zulmaury Saavedra on Unsplash

For Jews the world over, the Passover holiday begins tonight at sundown. Celebrating the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt, the Seder meal is a ritual retelling of that journey from slavery to freedom, and the beginning of the Israelites as a people consecrated and convenanted to YHVH.

This year, however, Passover is deeply fraught. The volatile situation in the Middle East puts the meaning of Passover under intense scrutiny. We are literally at the precipice of what could be either a global catastrophe or the first steps toward freedom. Not just for Jews, Palestinians, or Israel, but for all of us. We will either all perish or get to the Promised Land.

Under these perilous conditions, I would like to put forth an interspiritual interpretation of the story of the Exodus that hopefully offers some insight and hope for the future.

Let me start by saying that I view Exodus as a metaphor. While there is archeological and historical proof that the Children of Israel were resident in Egypt for a period of time, there is no proof of the story of their escape. Rather, the return of the people from Egypt to the land of their forefathers is an origin story for the creation of a nation that worshiped a monotheistic or Ultimate God, and that relationship is the source of their freedom.

That’s the dominant - and important - metaphor. In my version, however, the story of the Exodus is symbolic of how human consciousness and relationship to the sacred can--and must-- evolve. We must die to the idea that puts the ego first …before we all die.

In Biblical Hebrew, the word for Egypt is Mitzrayim, which means “the narrow places” or “blockages.” The Children of Israel had become constricted, blocked, enslaved to their limiting beliefs. They had forgotten about the God of their forefathers and mothers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Leah and Rachel, and become stuck in the dark places of fear, suffering, idolatry, and forgetfulness. Slavery, bondage, Egypt or Mitzrayim is a metaphor for our limited consciousness or exile from the Divine.

This is no different from the way Buddhists and Vedantic Hindus describe the mind before Moksha (liberation); trapped in ignorance, desire, and attachment. It’s akin to the way Christians refer to one’s condition before accepting Jesus as savior, or Daoists talk about the lack of virtue.

To be liberated, the Pharaoh, symbolic of the ego and its limited consciousness, has to be defeated. You have to change your mindset away from the false gods of the ego to Truth.

The Children of Israel are enslaved to their ego. In comes Moses, God’s surrogate, who attempts to free the slaves from their bondage, or the trap of their limiting, false beliefs. But as we know, liberation from our conditioned beliefs is not easy. Moses’ attempts fail, and the people start to get frustrated. They want to give up and stay in their bondage. It’s easier and familiar. The more Moses tries to liberate them, the more the enslaving ego – Pharaoh – doubles down – and makes their bondage harsher. If you have ever observed what happens when you get close to that moment of ego-dissolution, you know how the ego can get terrified, fortify its resistance, and stop you.

So, God/Moses has to try harder. He brings plagues, all of which are meant to coax the ego down a few notches, but they don’t work. Until the last one – the death of the firstborn of Egypt. In other words, it’s time for the big guns: the ego must die.

Again, this is similar to the teachings of Buddhism, Vedanta, and Daoism; we must die to our egoic selves before we can be free. Even Jesus teaches this: “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?’ (Luke 9:23-25 NIV)

In all cases, the Divine is trying to show us that until we let go of our “self” with a small s, we cannot realize our “Self,” capital S or our Divine Nature. We have to get out of the narrow places that constrict us. There is another interpretation: The Divine is telling us there is an Ultimate Reality that is not subject to moral or political relativism. There is, in fact, an Absolute Truth: it’s all One, and we are One. This is the entire point of a spiritual life, no matter which tradition.

Back in Egypt, the cries of death and grief across Egypt convince Pharaoh (the ego) to let go. Before he changes his mind, the slaves have a small window of time to escape and pass through the narrow place of the Red Sea – a metaphoric birth canal – to the other side, where freedom is possible. It’s the moment of enlightenment. The ego regroups and tries to follow, but the waters return, drowning the armies, and the slaves reach liberation.

But that’s just the beginning. The newly freed slaves could go directly to The Promised Land in a matter of days, but God makes them wander around the desert for forty years. Why? Because they have to learn how to be a free people. Their consciousness must evolve.

Enlightenment is only the beginning. The ego doesn’t let go that easily and it takes time to learn to live in expanded consciousness. It’s one thing to get the people out of Egypt, and another to get Egypt out of the people. As the Children of Israel wander, they must overcome all kinds of obstacles. They must learn to trust God and what He gives and tells them; they must learn how to behave with each other; they must learn how to defend themselves against enemies and temptations; they must let go of the all the limiting, conditioned beliefs that have become embedded in their consciousness and embrace the liberation of Truth. They must unlearn bondage and learn what freedom actually means.

One of the interesting things we know from social psychology is that it takes two generations to forget, or two generations to outgrow the old ways of doing things. Two generations are approximately forty years. Those who had been slaves must die and the third generation must have time to mature without those ancestral limiting beliefs.

So, for forty years, the Israelites wander and evolve until they are ready to live free as their own people, in their own land. This is the Promised Land, Nirvana; without limiting beliefs, without egoic false idols, fear, greed, attachment, and desire, we live whole and free in relationship to the sacred. Moses, however, doesn’t get to go with them. He represents the older generation. He did his job, and now, they are strong enough to go forward on their own. When the student is ready, the teacher disappears.

The rest of the story is how the Israelites continue to evolve (or not). Freedom – an expanded consciousness - requires diligence: it’s not easy to maintain. The entire Torah from the Exodus forward is an extended metaphor for how we must work to remain free of limiting beliefs, to stay in the Promised Land, to be free. We don’t always succeed. Neither did the Israelites. But they keep trying.

In the Haggadah, the book which retells the Exodus read on Passover, Jews are reminded of having once been slaves in Egypt and taught that “if one person remains oppressed, we are all oppressed.” In other words, if one person remains stuck in limited consciousness, we are all stuck there. Like a Bodhisattva, who vows to work for the liberation of all beings from the suffering of ignorance, desire and attachment, Jews are exhorted to work for the liberation or expanded consciousness of all people. Jews are tasked to be “a light unto the nations.” What does a light do? It shows the way…from darkness, bondage, and slavery to freedom.

Why is the story of Passover so relevant right now? If we think about the conflicts in the Middle East and globally, we are in a narrow place, stuck in fear, ignorance, greed, power, attachment, and desire and blocked from freedom by the limiting, relativistic, egoic narratives that define our actions, both individually and collectively.

And yet, as the tensions between freedom and peace, or war and destruction are the highest they’ve been in recent history, we have a unique opportunity to get out of of our “narrow places” by expanding our consciousness. Like the Israelites in the desert, we can – we must -- change our minds. We must allow our egoic pride, desire, greed, and fear to be defeated and die. We must return to the explicit goals of the covenant, to justice and holiness for all, so that we may be lifted up to a higher plane of existence. We must hope and pray that our world leaders will also allow their egos and narrow narratives of nationalism, war and greed to die, so that we all might live in a Promised Land.

I’ll be honest: This year, as I sit down to Passover Seder, my heart is heavy with grief and fear. When I retell the story of the Exodus, I will be talking as much about our expanded spiritual consciousness as I am about the desperate state of the world today. My thoughts will be with the Israelis and the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Ukrainians, the Russians, the Sudanese, the Chinese, the plants and animals, rivers and forests that are under attack, and all the many other people and beings across the globe suffering under bondage right now.

And, as I ritually open the door for Elijah, the prophet who reminds us to turn away from our false idols toward the Divine and peace, I will fervently recite this Passover prayer:

Blessed are You, Adonai, who provides for all. May You remember us on this day of Passover to bless us with kindness and mercy for a life of peace and happiness. We pray that You who establishes peace in the heavens grant peace for us, and all of mankind, and let us say, Amen.

May we all find our way out of the narrow places that constrict us. May we be free.