The Passover holiday highlights a recurring theme in Jewish history. As in every generation, a mighty civilization does its utmost to crush Jewish life, spirit and continuity. God ultimately swoops in and performs miracles to liberate his oppressed people, but these miracles stood on the shoulders of one group in particular:

The Women.

When the Jews came out on the other side, from slavery to freedom, as they arrived to dry shores from walkingthrough a split sea, the women broke out into song and dance- with a particular instrument: the tambourine.

“All the women came out…with tambourines and with dances.”

Where did these tambourines come from and why does the Torah mention them? Also, how would slaves possess tambourines, much less have them accessible as they ran for their lives from Egypt in such a hurry?

Rashi, the great Torah commentator explains that these tambourines were symbolic of a mentality that the women had long before they had freedom: one of faith.

The outburst into song, dance and praise to God was spontaneous, but the tambourines were not. In fact, the women created these tambourines way before anyone could have envisioned freedom, with plans to dance with them when redemption finally arrived.

The Jewish men in Egypt were broken. For generations  they were enslaved, demoralized, physically brutalized and forced into soul & body crushing labor. The women were enslaved and tortured too. Their newborns were ripped from their bellies and drowned in the Nile River, their husbands were worn and shattered and life was bitter.

But the women’s spirit endured.

They soothed and comforted their battered husbands with soft words and promises that they would soon be free men. They snuck into the work camps with hot food to sustain their husbands and warm water to tend to their wounds.

Most of all, the women took the lead when it came to intimacy. As slaves, the Jewish men were too physically and emotionally beaten down to engage sexually with their wives. The women were not deterred and came to their husbands, seducing them under apple trees with their mirrors.

They would flirt with and tease their men and “then they would take the mirrors, and each gazed at herself in her mirror together with her husband, saying endearingly to him, “See, I am more beautiful than you!”

The men, if just momentarily, would forget their pain and allow intimacy to reconvene-  giving them the strength topersist and also ensuring the continuation of their people.

The awesome Exodus from Egypt was in the merit of these women, whose faith in God and His deliverance was unwavering. They believed it all along and when redemption came, the women were prepared.

Ready to rejoice with their tambourines.