Remembering the Future
By Yanki Tauber (chabad.org Passover 2011)
(Helpful Passover thoughts from our Hebraic roots)


"In every generation," say our sages, "a person is obligated to see himself as if he himself has come out of Egypt."


Mitzrayim, the Hebrew word for "Egypt," means "boundaries" and "constrictions"; yetziat mitzrayim, "going out of Egypt," is the endeavor to rise above all that inhibits the soul of man, be it limitations imposed by an outside force, or the physical, psychological or spiritual limitations imposed by habit and nature.


One of the most constricting elements of the human condition is the phenomenon of time. Time carries off the past and holds off the future, confining our lives to a temporal sliver of "present." But on the first night of Passover we break the bonds of time, having received a mandate to experience the Exodus "as if he himself has come out of Egypt." We recall the Exodus in our minds, verbalize it in the telling of the Haggadah, digest it in the form of matzah and wine. As we passover the centuries, memory -- those faded visages of past that generally constitute our only answer to the tyranny of time -- becomes experience, and history is made current and real.


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