5 Life Lessons, Brought to You By Pesach

One of the obligations of the Pesach seder is to see ourselves as if we personally were freed from Egypt. We’re supposed to go beyond just telling tales of long ago and actually experience that same feeling of freedom and redemption.

The emotions and lessons from the first Pesach need to feel as relevant to us as they did to our ancestors. Thinking about the Pesach story, I realized in addition to feeling freedom, there are other lessons that are applicable to our lives today. What can our generation learn from the Pesach story?

1. Believe in yourself. Before Moshe stood commandingly in front the Red Sea, splitting that thing right down the middle, he was an Egyptian fugitive, hiding out in Midyan tending sheep. An inauspicious beginning for our most fabled leader. In fact, when the whole burning bush incident happened, and God told him he needed to go down to Egypt land, Moshe’s reaction was “Who me? You MUST be joking.” He never thought that he was leadership material. But with God’s prodding (and yes, it is always easier to have self-confidence when God Himself is whispering “You can do it!”), Moshe accepted his daunting mission to free the Jewish people. The lesson? The key element of success is not where you come from or how impressive you look on paper. To succeed, you need to believe in yourself, to believe with conviction that you can do [insert seemingly daunting task here]. And actually, knowing that God only give us what we can handle, well, that’s kind of like Him whispering, “You can do it!”, right?

Still, belief in yourself doesn’t mean that you can’t…

2. Ask for help when you need it. Moshe did accept his mission, but on one condition—that his brother Aaron would come and do the talking. Moshe knew he would be a more powerful advocate for his people if he brought his eloquent brother along for the ride. And God agreed. Because believing in yourself doesn’t mean you need to go it alone. Knowing when to reach out to others makes you stronger, not weaker.

Of course, even with self-confidence and a helping hand, things might not always go as planned, but remember…

3. If at first you don’t succeed… you know the rest. Nothing says “failure” like approaching Pharaoh over and over (and over) only to be told “NO!” again and again (and again). Even worse, Moshe’s in-your-face attitude just made Pharaoh meaner, causing the Jewish people even more backbreaking labor and hardships. And worse than that? The Jewish people, the very people Moshe needed to save, turned their backs on him, resentful and angry at his involvement. But did Moshe give up and run back to Midyan! NO! He was steadfast and true to his mission, till the very end.

When you’ve done all you possibly can, pushed yourself hard and think you just can’t go any further, you might need to…

4. Take a leap of faith. Egyptians behind you. Churning waters in front of you. God says, “Into the waters you go!” And you think, “For real???” But sometimes, sometimes, after weighing all the options (Fight the Egyptians? Start swimming?) and deliberating and debating, there still isn’t a clear-cut solution. And you just need to start doing, having faith that whatever path you choose, you’ll be able to handle it.

Because no matter what, whether you feel you succeeded or not, remember that…

5. God has a plan. Before the generation that experienced the Exodus, there were countless generations before them that were born into slavery and died as slaves. They knew only hard work and oppression. But I have to believe that those hard-pressed generations had faith that God would save them, one day. And even if it wouldn’t be in their lifetime, they trusted that ultimately, God would redeem His people in a blaze of glory. We, too, experience dark days—or months, or perhaps years—but even (or especially) when things look bad, we have to trust that God always has our backs. In the end, somehow, it will all be okay.

Wishing all of the JVO-niverse a happy and meaningful holiday!