Here’s a suggestion for a transformative and redemptive approach to making sense of, and finding meaning in, our challenging or traumatic life experiences.

G‑d told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and would be enslaved in Egypt and suffer for many years, but that they would come out with great wealth, with rechush gadol.1 This promise was fulfilled beyond measure, with both physical and spiritual riches.2

Chassidic wisdom teaches that every day, at every moment, each of us is also coming out of our personal Egypts.3 In addition, we re-experience an exodus with an even greater quantum boost every Passover, when those same spiritual energies are activated.

As we overcome our personal traumas, we, too, experience the rechush gadol in the form of the treasures of resilience, wisdom, depth, compassion and spiritual growth.

We can be confident that whatever experiences we are going through right now—no matter how difficult—there will be transformative potential and great treasures. Focus your mind, heart and soul to search for it. That faith and trust alone draws down unlimited blessing.4

The women who came out of Egypt generously donated their riches, their gifts and their talents to the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). We can follow in their footsteps by using all the rechush gadol—the qualities that we have amassed through our wholehearted efforts—to nurture those around us and heal our world, even in the face of our most difficult experiences. This is how we make our own unique contribution to the complete transformation of the world’s darkness to light.