Mordechai's Triumph
“In every generation a person must look upon himself as if he personally had gone out of Egypt.”
The Haggada explains that not only did Hashem redeem our ancestors from Egypt, He actually redeemed us together with them!
Why is it so important for us to get this message? Why do we have to know that we ourselves were freed from Egypt?
The Haggada answers: because if Hashem had not taken our ancestors out of Egypt, then we, and our children, and our children’s children would still be slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt.
In other words, the Exodus from Egypt is not something that happened a long time ago to our great-grandfathers and grand-mothers.
It is as if we were all slaves in Egypt, parents, children, and grandchildren.
And G-d in His great kindness, took us out from there, “from slavery to freedom, from darkness to a great light.”
What is that “great light?”
The great light is Torah, for the Torah is light, rut.
G-d gives us this light as a gift, “an eternal inheritance to to every single Jew in the congregation of Yaakov.”
Every Jew is a descendent, a grandchild, of the Jews who stood at Mt. Sinai, and we receive the Torah from them.
Our Sages have told us that the neshama of every Jewish child (even children who were not yet born) was also present at Mt. Sinai, and received the Torah personally from G-d.
This is the great gift of the light of the Torah, that Hashem gave to us. It shines ahead of us, showing us the right path in life, teaching us to do good and turn away from evil.
This is the whole point of our going out of Egypt. G-d took us out of the darkness of slavery to a great light of Torah.
By making good resolutions to increase in our Torah learning in the days and weeks ahead, we become truly free - free from all opposition to serving Hashem.
And Hashem will bless us with happiness, and good health, and the ability to learn Torah and be united with the Torah, even more than ever before.
And in this way we get ready for the ultimate freedom, which we will experience with the complete and true redemption, with Moshiach Now!
