The journey from Mitzraim to Sinai is the initial stage of the fundamental Jewish arc of fulfillment.

Torah lays out the process as we cross over from the narrow place of enslavement to the height of the wilderness, where we can hear the divine voice and receive revelation; we transform from slaves to sacred community.

The plagues can be understood as the process of altering the consciousness of constraint to becoming a Hebrew - one who crosses over; the dismembering of life in servitude. Counting the Omer, then, is the next step, of remembering ourselves in the divine image; of opening ourselves to new perspective. Then, when we arrive at Sinai we can orient ourselves as a community listening for the sacred; assembling together in divine covenant.

Each class will look to Torah for description of a step on this journey - the plagues by which we leave Mitzraim, the omer offerings of the wilderness, and revelation at Sinai.

 

"They came to the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mountain (as one person with one heart)'." Exodus 19:2 (Rashi)