Leaving Mitzrayim in an uncertain time
Freedom has never meant the absence of fear or uncertainty.
As Pesach approaches each year, Jewish families gather around their Seder tables and proclaim the festival to be Zman Cherutenu, the time of our freedom. We retell the ancient story of our ancestors leaving Egypt and remind ourselves that the defining narrative of the Jewish people is the journey from slavery to liberation.
But this year, those words feel more complicated.
The Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayim, shares its root with meitzar, a narrow place, a place of constriction. In the Torah, it names a geography, but in Jewish memory, it has always meant something more. Mitzrayim is what it feels like when the horizon narrows, when the future feels uncertain, and the path forward unclear.
Many Jews today recognise that feeling.
The trauma of the past years has been relentless. Since the horrors of October 7, Jewish life has felt like it is living through a prolonged emotional earthquake. Israeli society has stood at its epicentre, while Jews in the Diaspora have felt the aftershocks in ways both visible and subtle.
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