This Passover especially, getting out of Egypt is an issue with which we are all struggling, whether or not we are Jewish. In Hebrew, Egypt is Mitzrayim, which means a tight spot. And who among us right now isn’t wrestling with getting out of a tight spot, at least a little?
The tight spot we’re in may be economic, or political. Perhaps it is personal relationship affected by all of that and more. So this year, perhaps more than any year in recent memory, we are trying to figure out how to leave Mitzrayim — the tight spots in our lives.
The ancient Israelites left Egypt 3,000 years ago and they did so with the help of some very wise women. They got out, and so can we by following their example.
Miriam and the women of Israel knew that we can help liberate ourselves by expecting the best, even when things seem to be at their worst. According to Exodus, Ch. 5, verse 20, after successfully crossing the Red Sea, “Miriam, the prophetess, took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went after her to dance with tambourines.”
Where did those tambourines come from?

Why did these women pack musical instruments in the midst of an exodus so quick that even the bread didn’t have time to rise?
They believed there would be a time to sing, and that packing for that time would bring them all closer to it. They knew that the act of preparing for better times can empower us to make them happen.
This year, as many of us find ourselves facing so many different challenges, we need to ask ourselves what tight spot we are trying to leave. And we need to ask ourselves what we are doing to prepare for the time when we are no longer in them. Like Miriam and all those women who joined her, we will be brought closer to liberation by preparing for it.
What object would you, or do you, carry with you to invite hope and inspire your ability to liberate yourself?