Rosh Chodesh Nissan

It's Rosh Chodesh Nissan. 

To me, it feels like a lifetime from Rosh Chodesh Adar. It's hard to believe that only a month has passed.

A month that was fraught with stress, overwhelming with uncertainty and exhilarating with miracles.

It's been a long month of Adar. And now we're up to Nissan.

חודש שישועות בו מקיפות - A month in which salvations are abundant.

We need to stand ready, open, prepared to receive the salvations.

'התיצבו וראו את ישועת ה - Stand ready to witness the salvations of Hashem!

The Maharal (Gevuras Hashem 61) asks a very obvious question. What is the whole big deal about Yetzias Mitzrayim? It's true that then we were freed, but since then we have been enslaved so many times! What does it help? We had generations of suffering under hateful rulers, and till this day we are in a torturous exile.

The Maharal explains that it wasn't only that He took us out of Mitzrayim. It was that Yitzias Mitzrayim transformed us into בני חורין - free men. We were imbued with an essence of freedom. That internal freedom has stayed with us no matter which galus we were in, and no matter which wars we are battling today.

Our exile is circumstantial, our redemption is intrinsic.

We tap into our freedom whenever we are faced with struggles, it gives us permission to rise above inner servitude.

We connect to our freedom when our enemies make us feel trapped.

We exercise our freedom when we feel most enslaved.

בכל דור ודור חייב אדם לראות את עמצו כאילו הוא יצא ממצרים -  because he did. He received that inherent freedom as his birthright. No matter what struggles he might face, he is never trapped, he always has the capacity to make the choice that his highest self wants.

And so, dear friends, we face our Mitzrayims today.

It is a difficult and overwhelming time and many of us feel trapped internally and externally.

How can we choose from a place of internal freedom?

Let's Write!1. Choose one area of your life that you feel trapped in. Write a few sentences about it.

2. Read over the struggle you wrote about and try to identify what the limiting belief is in that struggle. What feels like a fact to you right now? And because of that fact you are completely stuck.

3. If you can access your inherent freedom, meaning that you have choices without any blocks in this world, what would your limitless belief would be?

4. During this month of Nissan, what are three things that you can do to help yourself believe your new belief?

5. Describe your Pesach seder with as many details as possible in which the salvation that you desired occurred. Try to include as many details as possible. 

6. Read it all over and write a reflection.

7. End with:

I have the freedom to choose.

I choose _______ over _______. I choose _______ over _______. I choose _______ over _______.

Wishing you a special and meaningful Pesach and a deep, internal liberation.

Sincerely,

Yocheved