All Dressed Up and Ready to Go Pesach Matzah and Maror

Passover - the Passover-lamb that our fathers ate during the time of the Beit Hamikdash - for what reason [did they do so]?

Because the Omnipresent passed over our fathers’ houses in Egypt, as it is said:

“You shall say, It is a Passover-offering to the

L-rd, because He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He struck the Egyptians with a plague, and He saved our houses. And the people bowed and prostrated themselves.”

This Matzah that we eat for what reason?

Because the dough of our fathers did not have time to become leavened before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself to them and redeemed them.

Thus it is said: “They baked Matzah-cakes from the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, because it was not leavened; for they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay, and they had also not prepared any [other] provisions.”

This maror that we eat for what reason? Because the Egyptians embittered our fathers’

lives in Egypt, as it is said:

“They made their lives bitter with hard service, with mortar and with bricks, and with all manner of service in the field; all their service which they made them serve with rigor.”

Blood, Sweat and Tears

The Jewish people have already been told that they will be liberated from Egypt. Nine of the ten plagues have already been dealt. The Egyptian people are at their wit’s end.

At this point, the Torah, in the portion of Bo continues, that G-d tells Moses to command the Jewish people to take a lamb and tie it to their beds on the tenth of the month. They were to keep them there, ready for the fourteenth day of the month when they will sacrifice the lamb to G-d.

In addition, they were told that only those who were circumcised would be permitted to partake of the Paschal Lamb offering.

These two Mitzvot—the Passover lamb sacrifice and circumcision—our sages tell us were given to the Jewish people at precisely this time—right before their exodus—for a good reason.

Rashi quotes the Talmudic sage, Rabbi Matya ben Charash who puts it this way:

“The time had come for Me to keep My oath that I had made to the patriarchs, that I will redeem their children. Alas, they did not have any Mitzvot in their hands with which to be preoccupied, so that they may be redeemed, as it says, ‘And you were naked and bare [of Mitzvot].’ He, therefore, gave them then two precepts, the blood of the Paschal sacrifice and the blood of circumcision.”

The long arduous exile that was punctuated with sweat and tears, was to culminate with blood; the blood of the Paschal sacrifice and the blood of circumcision.

Why these Two Mitzvot?

The question may be asked. There are so many Mitzvot G-d could have given them. Why did He choose these two specifically?

Secondly, why did He have to give them two mitzvot? Even if they had observed one mitzvah they would no longer have been considered “naked,” from the spiritual point of view. Could not one Mitzvah be considered a valid garment?

Removal of Two Impediments to Redemption

The Jewish people in Egypt were lacking two distinct qualities. They were firstly lacking in positive actions and were therefore ill prepared for the pro-active form of service to G-d that Sinai would have demanded of them.

Secondly, there were deficient in their ability to distance themselves from evil. Had they not altered this state of affairs, they would have then left Egypt with their evil intact. With that evil still in their possession they could not have survived as a Jewish people, whose values conform to the Torah.

To remove the two impediments to the Exodus, there was therefore a need for two distinct precepts that paralleled their two shortcomings:

The covenant of circumcision is the most dramatic way one shows one’s commitment to G-d and activates one’s reservoir of positive energy.

Circumcision is the only Mitzvah that actually leaves its imprint on the person permanently. Consequently, circumcision exemplifies the Jew’s unqualified and unconditional devotion to doing that which G-d wants, at all times.

The blood of the Paschal sacrifice, conversely, represented the repudiation of the negative. It was well known that the Egyptians worshipped the lamb as a god. By slaughtering the lamb and sprinkling its blood, thus, one demonstrated his utter abhorrence for and absolute rejection of evil.

Getting dressed for the occasion

The Torah tells us (and our sages reinforced the belief) that the pre-Messianic times in which we are situated now parallel the pre- Exodus period.

All the reasons that were given for our stay in exile have all since expired. Why has G-d kept us here anyhow?

One answer given is that G-d wants us to enter into the Messianic period “fully and ornately dressed.” Rather than just thrust us into a new world of unadulterated goodness and holiness, unprepared, He gives us numerous opportunities to “dress” ourselves, with yet another mitzvah. Every mitzvah we do now will make us more comfortable with and receptive to the G-dly light that will shine in the Messianic Age.

However, the fact that we are fully dressed in the spiritual sense of the word does not suffice. We have an obligation to see to it that not one Jew remains in an unprepared state. And if we have specialized and excelled in one category of Mitzvot, it may not suffice. The A-mighty might want us to be fully dressed to cover up all of our inadequacies.

Every new Mitzvah to which we apply ourselves and every Mitzvah we provide for another Jew might be the final mitzvah that was needed for the A-mighty to say, “s’iz shoin genug-it is already enough” There is no need to keep you here longer because every Jew is adequately “dressed” for the coming of Moshiach.

From the book Light from the Future: Haggadah Shel Pesach by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.