The Lesson and Legacy of a Hurried Exodus
This week’s parsha informs us of how the Jewish people left Egypt so quickly, the dough did not have time to rise.[1] Indeed, as we know from Seder Night, the Haggadah itself this aspect of our swift departure the reason for the mitzvah of eating matzah on Pesach.
However, many commentators raise a simple a question on this explanation: We were already told to eat matzah on the night before we left Egypt. Included in the commandments given to Moshe for the celebration of Pesach on the night before leaving Egypt, the verse states: ‘In the first month, on the fourteenth of the month in the evening you shall eat matzos’![2] How is it possible to commemorate something before it has happened?
Moreover, what is the crucial significance of the fact that we left Egypt in a hurry, whereby this aspect of our Exodus subsequently becomes embodied in the mitzvah of matzah, as well as in the very severe prohibition against eating or even owning chametz during Pesach? Presumably, the main thing to commemorate is that we left, whether or not we did so in a hurry does not seem to be a major element within the story!
Leaving Egypt in No Time at All
The Maharal[3] explains that leaving in a hurry is indeed a matter of utmost significance; in fact, it ultimately reflects our very status as Hashem’s people.
One of the most important aspects of the Exodus is remembering that when Hashem delivered us from Egypt, He took us towards Him as His people. In other words, the full impact of that event was not merely negative in natue, defined by what we were not (slaves to Pharaoh), but positive, defined by what we became (Hashem’s nation). This is why we say that the redemption from Egypt was performed directly by Hashem, and not through the agency of an angel, in order for us to connect directly and completely with Him as we left. Hashem is beyond time, for time itself is something that He created. The notion of taking us out in a hurry reflects the fact that Hashem was redeeming us in a ‘Godly manner’, namely, in a process where time did not play a role. Being taken out in this way – in ‘no time at all’ – imbued the Exodus with a transcendent quality whereby not only did we stop being slaves in Egypt, but we started being Hashem’s people.
It thus emerges that the fact that we came out in a hurry is not a mere detail of the story of our Exodus, it is a defining characteristic of what we became when we left. The eating of matzah and avoidance of chametz is ultimately a statement about the unique status and mission of Israel as Hashem’s people. That is why these mitzvos are dealt with so stringently by the Torah.
Historically, this concept was embodied in the experience of leaving Egypt in a hurry. For subsequent generations it is embodied within the food of matzah, which does not allow time to affect it by causing it to rise. This is true of matzah even when it is not eaten while leaving Egypt in a hurry; it is latent within the food itself. Matzah is the food of redemption.
History in the Baking
In light of the above idea, when we say that eating matzah commemorates the Jewish people leaving Egypt in a hurry, we are not merely noting that this is historically what they ate when they left. Given the timeless nature of their Exodus, there was no more appropriate food for them to eat than matzah, for it is the theme of timelessness which unites them. Since matzah intrinsically reflects this idea of ‘a level beyond time’, we understand how it is that the Jewish people were already commanded to eat matzah on the evening before they left.
In fact, not only does eating matzah beforehand not negate its connection to the event of leaving Egypt in a hurry, it may well have been what allowed that event to happen: By eating matzah, which embodies the concept of timelessness, the Jewish people where thereby elevating themselves to be able to experience being taken out of Egypt by Hashem the following day.
It turns out that the element of leaving in a hurry is relevant specifically to the spiritual aspect of the Exodus; in terms of the physical salvation it would make no difference whether we left in a hurry or not. We can thus appreciate the significance of the idea that the Torah calls the festival of our freedom: חג המצות – the Festival of Matzos. The fact that Torah refers to the entire festival by this name is tribute to the primacy which the Torah places on the spiritual element of the Exodus.[4] Not only does this define the opening chapter of our national history, it also imparts a lesson to serve to guide us towards chapters yet unwritten.
[2] Ibid. v.18.
[3] Gevuros Hashem chap. 36 and 51.
[4] See Malbim Haggadah.