Word Prompt – SABABA – Tamir Goodman

Here in Israel, when we say everything is sababa, it usually means everything is okay. But the Torah teaches us not to settle for “okay,” rather to strive for greatness – to win the day.

How do we do that? By remembering the Exodus from Egypt.

In these parshiyot, we go into great detail about leaving Egypt. We celebrate Pesach, and we constantly repeat the Exodus in our davening. Why do we need to remember and repeat it so often?

Because Mitzrayim (Egypt) comes from the word meitzar – constraint, limitation. Egypt represents the boundaries that hold us back, exactly what the yetzer hara wants: for us to be satisfied with sababa.

But the Torah teaches that our goal is to break through the meitzar, to push past limitations, to fly forward – to be great and to serve Hashem with joy.

So, while sababa is nice, the Torah teaches us to reach for more.