The Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim, which evokes meitzarim, the "narrow straits." When the Israelites were freed from slavery, they were freed from a narrow place, a place that constricted them. And the haggadah instructs us to personally identify with the Exodus narrative such that we imagine that we ourselves came forth from Egypt, from those narrow straits.

Today, when asked the question "where are you from?" regardless of where our house sits in the Metro area, many of us respond, "Detroit." Detroit comes from the French word, détroit, which means "strait." We live in a place that similarly challenges us to examine our own experiences of narrowness - in our personal lives, in our communities, and in the structures that shape them.

So as we tell Passover's personal and communal narrative of redemption, it is a time to reflect on what is constraining us, and the people around us, from redemption today. And to commit to doing something about it.

One of the things that excites me about our March 25 seder is the chance to do just that. To hear the Exodus story, to hear others' stories, and to examine our own.  It might make that night different from all others, or it might inspire us to keep marching toward our own vision of a Promised Land.

With gratitude,
Rabbi Silverman