With one-third of our pieces in place, and another two-thirds waiting to be assembled, rachtzah prompts us to focus on an essential perspective necessary to attaining the freedom of Passover. This is the awareness of our ability to make changes in life. To cleanse ourselves of corrosive habits which stymie our efforts for fulfilled living. If life is about growth and growth means change, then, to pick up where one sixties-era lyricist left off, Freedom's just another word... for change! Or, as William James put it, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude."

Rachtzah is exactly what it appears to be. It is a washing away of those rusty attitudinal routines which threaten to lock our lives into a holding pattern for mediocrity. There may be nothing more liberating than recognizing the possibility of liberation. The realization that one is capable of change and growth qualitatively alters the rules of the game. Where once the deck seemed to be stacked against us, the odds are now clearly in our favor.

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