Re Spring Issue of Parabola 2011

Reading the Spring issue of Parabola Magazine has given me new inspiration and understanding.
Jonathan Omer-Man describes my personal relationship with suffering via a hasidic interpretation of
the Jews' slavery and Moses' role in the scenario. He says : in the initial stages of their slavery, the Jews' coping mechanism (and mine) was to buffer themselves against pain, they suffered a loss of identity (as I did) and fell intoa melancholic non-action. They accepted slavery as their fate. Omer-Man says they felt wretched and alone, hopeless. (Been there,done that, too.) Then, Moses was the deus ex machinae. In order to provoke a shift inside them, Moses provoked the Pharoah into worsening their condition so that they would not be static anymore. The pain became so excruciating that they were forced to make a choice: "We don't want to live this way any more." Thus began the Exodus! I don't know about you, but I LOVE Parabola Magazine - it just clarified things for me. I had never heard this interpretation before. All I have to do is make the "shift," get off my duff and move -- no more hiding, no more buffering--make the change! Thank you, Jonathan Omer-Man, for sharing this wisdom. I love you!