How can the Exodus from Egypt help me with anxiety?

Rabbi Landau teaches that the real exile today, “Mitzrayim today, is actually around your mind.” When inner slavery starts sounding true, “that’s the whole root of anxiety.”

Even in Egypt, he notes, “we also allowed ourselves to become slaves. That’s how it’s all started.” The same thing happens inside us. When anxiety sets a trap, the thoughts begin to sound like the truth.

That is why the Haggadah says that a person must see himself as if he himself left Egypt. Today Mitzrayim “is no longer a country. It’s a condition of consciousness.” The Exodus “is not only a history you remember, it’s a prison that yourself must refuse.” If your thoughts make you feel cornered, crushed and powerless, Rabbi Landau says, “that’s called Mitzrayim.”

And you have the power to include yourself in the redemption. “The first step out of Egypt is your refusal to stay mentally enslaved.”

Going deeper: Rabbi Landau's teaching, level by level

Surface claim

Mitzrayim today is not a country but a condition of the mind, and inner slavery is the root of anxiety.

Fear, vulnerability, or tension

Anxious thoughts make a person feel cornered, crushed and powerless, and they start to sound like the truth. Rabbi Landau notes that in Egypt, too, the slavery began when the people allowed it.

Underlying need or longing

A person needs to know he is not locked in. In A Soul at Peace, Rabbi Landau writes that the power of the Exodus is not locked into one time and place; whoever connects to it draws strength from it now.

Deepest human truth

The first step out of Egypt is refusing to stay mentally enslaved. Seeing yourself leaving Egypt is something you do here and now.

More questions from this teaching

• What does the Haggadah mean by seeing yourself as if you left Egypt?