The word for "Egypt" in Hebrew,  Mitzrayim,  comes from the root " tzar , " which means "narrowness." The same root comprises the word for suffering--  tzaa'rah.  When G-d appears to Moses from the burning bush, He promises Moses that He will “rescue them [the Israelites] from the hand of Egypt and to bring them out of the land to a good and spacious land— l’hatzilo miyad mitzrayim leha’aloto min ha’aretz ha’hi el eretz tovah u’rehava ” (Exodus 3:8). G-d promises Moses that He will take us from that place of  tzar  and bring us to a place that is  rahav -- wide, spacious, expansive. 

We face many situations throughout our lives of narrowness, of tzar -- of feeling that we are stuck in our personal or spiritual lives, that we are emotionally or physically in a "tight spot." Redemption is about being released from a place of spiritual constriction to a place of spiritual expansion. From "I can't move forward" to "look at all of these possibilities." Redemption is about the "I can." Let us be assured that just as G-d redeemed us from Egypt and brought us to a spacious land, that we too will be redeemed-- that we too can move from a place of impossibility to a place of possibility. When we cry out, G-d will hear us-- Exodus 2:23: "They groaned from their work and they cried out. G-d heard their moan." The Israelites' wordless cry was enough to show G-d that the Israelites still had faith; they still believed in the possibility; in the concept that their lives could be better. When a person falls into a pit, as long as he screams for help, you know he is alive. It's only when he stops that you know he is really in trouble. 

We may all be redeemed from our personal  Mitzrayims--  whatever it is in our lives that is making us feel the "I can't"-- if only we believe in the possibility of redemption. We may all move to a place of expansiveness-- if only we express the desire to. 

May we find expansiveness and freedom in a time which seems outwardly to be constricting. May we find within our physical and emotional quarantines the freedom of expansion.


haggadah Section: Nirtzah
Source: Paraphrased from Shira Smiles (Torah Tapestries: Shemot)