The Pesah holiday is referred to as "z'man heruteinu", "the time of our freedom". And that's exactly how it was: almost all of our people became the people of liberated slaves. But it must be remembered that many Egyptians, who were not slaves in Egypt, joined them.

The Jews were like "serfs" of Pharaoh but to a large extent, they were free. And the great number of different nations who lived in Egypt joined them. Not all of them were slaves, but they were all carried away by the idea of entering the unknown promised land flowing with milk and honey. Nobody saw and knew this land, they heard about it from the stories of the old people, and those heard it from their ancestors. And this land seemed to them as a fairy-tale picture.

But then it turned out that the way to the promised land was through the desert, and that they would be persecuted by their enemies. They did not expect that! They began to complain!

The problem is that God's obvious, amazing, and terrific presence was from without. The problem is that the Jews of that time were only prepared for outer blessings. But even if the miracles from without happened in the past but they did not have them at present, they immediately lost their faith, started to be displeased, started to complain.

Friends, how important it is not just to think of the future great reward when we enter into Heavenly Jerusalem at the end of our earthly journey. How important it is that we meet our Lord at the very beginning, more and more long for intimacy with Him. How important it is that we are not just led by an outer cloud, but that we would be covered by the cloud of God's presence.

And how important it is that the One who will meet us at the gates of Heavenly Jerusalem would be our Leader, our Guide, already on this earthly journey!

And not just the Guide, but an older brother, a friend, who would help us to walk through various obstacles, to bypass what we cannot overcome and hug and lift us over the abysses in difficult moments. It is very important that we enter into close unity with our Savior.