The Maid's Epiphany - 7th Day Pesach

Making a change which involves a sense of gaining one's independence can be an exciting and thrilling moment. Whether it is going from being a salaried employee to being an entrepreneur, getting out of a bad relationship, release from jail - these all represent a change where the person will now be in greater charge of their own destiny.

The Midrash describes such an epiphany. In the story of the splitting of the Red Sea, read on the 7th day of Pesach, the Midrash tells us that a maidservant saw at the Sea, what the great prophet Ezekiel did not see in the Vision of the Chariots.1 My Rabbi, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein, z"l, explained that the maidservant was able to see vacation and free time.2

The Midrash then, is describing that great feeling of liberty that comes with the realization that one is truly free - free to decide when to wake up, when to go to sleep, when to work, when to take a break, even when to enjoy the sunset. Therein lays the excitement. To be able to choose one's destiny is perhaps the highest level of choice we as humans can reach in the never-ending path towards meaning and fulfillment in life.

Freedom of will is a basic component of our humanity.3 As slaves, we were limited in our ability to feel that though there always remains a level of freedom which cannot be taken away - the freedom of choosing one's attitude towards any given situation.4 As free people, we can choose to use it at will. When we use that freedom wisely, we can fulfill our dreams and reach our own personal height.

Imagine the thrill of the person who realizes this concept for the first time in their life. A maidservant, escaping from Egypt rule, felt such a thrill at the realization that the Egyptians would never come back to capture and re-enslave her. If even a lowly maidservant could experience that thrill, how much more so can we feel the rush when we allow ourselves to be open to such a concept - we can create our own destiny!

Let us be open to experience that thrill, that epiphany, that "aha" moment, once again and be prepared to create our own individual and unique destiny.

 

NOTES

  1. Sechel Tov - Shemot 15:2
  2. Unfortunately, I do not remember how he then developed this idea.
  3. Freedom of Will is one of a 3-pronged approach of Viktor Frankl, founder of logotherapy, towards living a meaningful life
  4. Viktor Frankl expounds greatly on this topic as well - calling it "the last of the great human freedoms."

 

Have A Great Shabbat!laughing

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