The Freedom to Be Youself (at a Passover Seder)

Whenever I speak with clients, with couples, everybody really wants the same thing. They want to just be able to be themselves without having to edit themselves. Some people find unhealthy strategies by which they do that. But we all have the ability within ourselves with within to be ourselves and just to be free. To feel connected, to feel connected to God. I'll give you a a biblical example of where we see this play out. Yosef Joseph and his brothers they they don't get along, right? The brothers tried killing him then they ended up selling him. He goes down to Egypt. And this is the start of the story of Pesach. This is ironically the start of the story of our freedom. Yosef is uh gets him through his ability with God-given ability to interpret dreams. By the way, it's not only his ability to interpret dreams, it's his sensitivity to see that people need their dreams interpreted. That's a part of it. But through his immense sensitivity he works his way toward being the viceroy of Egypt, second in command. The brothers come and Yosef starts pulling their leg, you guys are spies, right? Because they didn't recognize him, he recognized them. The simple interpretation is that he was a young boy of 17 when they had sold him and now it's decades later, he looks different, but they look pretty much the same. Rashi says, prior to this Yosef didn't have a beard, now he does. They didn't recognize him. The way the Kabbalists explain them is that there was a quality that Yosef was representing that was foreign to the brothers. You mean to say that you could retain your identity as a Jew, as a as a Jew as a child of Jacob? Retain your identity as a Hebrew, as the people of God, as somebody so different? You could retain that identity without being a farmer in the middle of the land of Canaan? You could do that in Egypt as the viceroy? That was foreign. I understand retaining your spiritual identity and freedom away from distraction. But you're in the heart of it. And you still have the ability to retain who you truly are. To be comfortable with who you truly are. And to feel free about it and feel good about it. That was completely foreign to Joseph's brothers. They didn't recognize him. Like, who are you, man? And that's what we're celebrating on Pesach because on Pesach that is not an anomaly. That is the reality we all tap into. Coolanu Mesubin, we are all experiencing this reality on Pesach, this incredible deep freedom where we lean. We just relax and be ourselves in front of God because we're so connected to God. We are all in this paradigm of Atzilus. Where connection is not something that seems like an anomaly. But true connection and identity is like a This is who I am.