Why WE Eat Matzah vs. Why THEY Ate Matzah
Every year we read Rabban Gamliel's explanation for why we eat matzah on Pesach, but why did the Israelites in Egypt eat matzah on the night of the Exodus? Here are three approaches.
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Why WE Eat Matzah vs. Why THEY Ate Matzah
The Question
Why do we eat matzah on Pesach? Rabban Gamliel (Pesachim 10:5, cited in the Haggadah) explains:
Why do we eat this matzah? Because the dough of our fathers did not have time to rise before the King of kings, Ha’Kadosh Baruch Hu, revealed Himself to them and redeemed them immediately, as it is stated: “They baked the dough that they had brought out of Egypt into matzah cakes, for it had not leavened—because they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay, and they had not prepared any provisions for themselves” (Shemos 12:39).
It’s easy to forget that our post-Exodus observance of the mitzvah to eat matzah wasn’t the first. The original command to eat matzah was given to the Israelites before they left Egypt, on the night of Makkas Bechoros (the Plague of the Firstborn), as a component of the korban Pesach (Passover offering). They were instructed to “eat the meat [of the Pesach] on this night, roasted over fire; on matzos and mrorim shall they eat it” (ibid. 12:8).
This matzah wasn’t baked in haste as they were being driven out of Egypt. It wasn’t an unintentional or spontaneous product of their flight. It was baked deliberately, in obedience to Hashem’s command. As the Torah states: “The Children of Israel went and did as Hashem commanded Moshe and Aharon, so they did” (ibid. 12:28).
The question is: How did the Israelites in Egypt understand the matzah they were commanded to eat on the night of the Exodus, and how does the reason for their mitzvah compare to the reason for ours? In what follows, we’ll consider three approaches to this question.
Approach #1: Matzah as a Sign of Tomorrow’s Hasty Departure
The Abudarham (Haggadah, Matzah Zo) offers an elegant answer to these questions from R’ Yosef Kimchi:
One may ask: the mitzvah to eat matzah was not given “because their dough had not become leavened,” since earlier [the Israelites in Egypt] were commanded to eat matzah without any explanation for the reason. Therefore, R’ Yosef Kimchi explained that the earlier commandment to eat matzah was in anticipation of the future, for Hashem, Who knows future events, knew that they would be leaving Egypt in haste. Even if they had wanted to allow their dough to rise, they would not have been able to. [Accordingly,] He commanded them to eat the Pesach with matzah and maror, and to eat matzah for seven days.
The Shibbolei ha’Leket (ibid.) and the Rid (ibid.) offer a similar explanation:
Since HaKadosh Baruch Hu sees the future—He foresees and observes what is destined to happen—He therefore commanded [them] the night before, in anticipation of the miracle that would take place the next day.
Our matzah falls into the category of mitzvah known as eidos (testimonies)—mitzvos that function as historical commemorations. The matzah eaten by the Israelites on the night of the Exodus was a special subcategory of eidos—an anticipatory commemoration, meant to evoke an event that had not yet occurred. The Ohr ha’Chayim (Shemos 12:15) identifies a precedent for this subcategory of eidos in the korban Pesach itself, which sheds additional light on the role played by the original matzah in the redemption:
The reason [for eating matzah] is that their dough did not have time to rise, and the Redeemer redeemed them. And if you ask: but the people who were leaving had not yet left—how could they be commanded to commemorate the event? Behold, even the Pesach offering which Hashem commanded them to take, “a lamb for each household,” etc., had not yet been passed over—yet it was in the merit of this mitzvah that Hashem would pass over [their homes]. So too with the matzah: in the merit of this mitzvah, He would hasten to redeem them. And so it was.
According to these commentators, if the Israelites in Egypt had conducted a seder similar to ours, Rabban Gamliel’s explanation of matzah in the Haggadah would have made perfect sense to them. The only thing they would have needed to change was the tense: instead of “Because the dough of our fathers did not have time to rise,” they would have said, “Because our dough will not have time to rise.”
Approach #2: Matzah as a Hasty Food
Ralbag (ibid. 12:11) emphasizes the common denominator between the korban Pesach, matzah, and maror:
[Hashem] commanded them to eat the korban Pesach in the manner of travelers—without loosening their belts, without removing their shoes from their feet, with their walking-sticks in their hands, and to eat it hastily and quickly, like people who are about to set out on a journey—in order to make clear to them that this time, Pharaoh would certainly send them out, even though he had hardened his heart throughout all the previous plagues. In this way, their conviction in Hashem, may He be exalted, would be strengthened upon seeing that what He had promised them was already being fulfilled. For the entire purpose was to extricate them from their corrupt belief [in the Egyptian gods] and bring them into the true conviction [in Hashem], for through this they would attain human success and become worthy of inheriting the Land.
One might assume that Ralbag understands the association of matzah with chipazon (haste) as a reference to the hurried departure that would take place the next day. If that were the case, the Israelites observing the Pesach Mitzrayim (the original Passover in Egypt on the night of Makkas Bechoros) would not have known the reason for this connection. That’s why Ralbag clarifies at the end of the chapter (ha’toeles ha’shelishi):
He commanded [the Israelites in Egypt] to eat the Pesach with matzos and mrorim to indicate haste. For one who wishes to prepare bread quickly will bake it as matzah, since he doesn’t need to wait for it to leaven. For this same reason, species of bitter vegetables were included – such as chazeres (Romaine lettuce) and similar types – because a person can dip them when he wishes to eat in haste, without needing to wait for condiments like fermented spread to be prepared for his bread. For this reason, they were commanded to eat it in the manner described by the Torah – namely, with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in hand, as we explained above.
In other words, although Ralbag agrees that the theme of haste on the night of Makkas Bechoros was designed to bolster the Israelites’ conviction in the speedy redemption that would follow, he does not hold that they were commanded to eat matzah as a prophetic or anticipatory symbol. Rather, matzah and maror were selected to accompany the korban Pesach because they were the kinds of food one eats when in a rush—what we might call “fast food.” If Hashem had given us this mitzvah today, perhaps He would have commanded us to eat the kinds of road trip snacks people buy at gas stations, like chips and beef jerky.
According to Ralbag, the first part of Rabban Gamliel’s explanation—“Because the dough of our fathers did not have time to rise”—would not apply to the matzah eaten by the Israelites in Egypt. The idea that Ha’Kadosh Baruch Hu would “reveal Himself to them and redeem them immediately” was instead communicated through the kinds of food they were commanded to eat, and the manner in which they were commanded to eat them.
Approach #3: Matzah as the Bread of the Egyptian Exile
The Abravanel (Zevach Pesach, Matzah Zo, theory #3) offers a radically different approach:
There are two distinct reasons for the mitzvah of matzah. One is that the matzah symbolizes the galus (exile), being “lechem oni” (the bread of affliction)—a bread that doesn’t rise and is suited for laborers—just like the kind they ate in the land of Egypt. For this reason, it says regarding the mitzvah of [korban] Pesach, “on matzos and mrorim they shall eat it,” implying that the Pesach comes after the matzos and mrorim, just as Makkas Bechoros came after the exile and the bitterness of affliction.
The second reason for matzah is taught by Moshe Rabbeinu: “For seven days you shall eat upon it matzos, the bread of affliction, because you left Egypt in chipazon (haste), so that you shall remember the day of your exodus from Egypt all the days of your life” (Devarim 16:3). There, he explained that matzah is a reminder of the hasty departure, not of the galus. Likewise, he said … “Remember this day on which you went out of Egypt… no chametz shall be eaten… for seven days you shall eat matzos” (Shemos 13:3).
Since Rabban Gamliel observed this contradiction in the reason for the mitzvah, he resolved it by saying that the matzah commanded in the Pesach Mitzrayim was not for the same reason as the matzah commanded for future generations. The matzah in Pesach Mitzrayim was a remembrance of exile and suffering, while the matzah commanded for future generations is a remembrance of the haste and speed of the redemption …
That is why, at the beginning of the Haggadah, we say: “Ha lachma anya – This is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt,” because that declaration refers to the exile and suffering, as I explained there. But here, where Rabban Gamliel gives the reason for the mitzvah as practiced in future generations, he said: “because their dough didn’t have time to rise.”
The Abravanel’s interpretation here builds on what he wrote earlier about matzah (ibid., Ha Lachma Anya):
Matzah is difficult to digest in the stomach and tends to remain there due to its hardness; therefore, a small amount of matzah suffices for those who eat it … [as a result, it] is more suitable as food for laborers than leavened bread. The Egyptians, out of their hatred for the Children of Israel and in order to make a small amount of bread suffice for them, would give them matzah as food in the construction of the king’s buildings and in their brickwork.
According to the Abravanel, Rabban Gamliel’s explanation of matzah would have been completely irrelevant to the Israelites in Egypt. His aim is to explain our mitzvah of matzah, but their mitzvah was an expression of the slavery they still had not yet escaped.
(This raises a new question: Why would Hashem command the Israelite slaves, on the eve of redemption, to continue eating the very bread their masters had afflicted them with? I intended to write about that in this article, but I guess it’ll have to wait. Bring it up at your seder and let me know what you come up with!)
Conclusion
We’ve explored three ways to understand the mitzvah of matzah in Egypt:
It was commanded to commemorate the same idea, in the same way as our matzah—namely, the speed of the redemption—except that for us, matzah is retrospective whereas for them it was prospective.
It was commanded to underscore the speed of the redemption because matzah and maror were viewed as “fast foods,” especially when eaten in haste alongside the korban Pesach.
Our matzah represents redemption whereas theirs was a reminder that they were still in slavery.
Each approach offers a different way of identifying with our ancestors who were redeemed so long ago. But the deepest identification comes from the mitzvah we share—and the God we serve.
I’m curious to hear what you think about the original question, the three approaches, and the question raised by the Abravanel’s approach.
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I was thinking of an idea, perhaps related to your third answer. I once heard Rebbe say that ancient Egyptians were the first ones to have created the leavening process. (It seems like Google and Wikipedia confirm this too.)
Maybe the Egyptians restricted leavened bread to free people and the wealthy. Meaning, it was a luxury product that was not allowed to poor slaves. Also, it could be like your third answer suggests, that it’s better for slave’s productivity to eat matzah.
No doubt, the Israelite slaves always fantasized about becoming like their Egyptian overlords and eating chametz. But that wasn’t God’s idea of redemption that they should satisfy their carnal desires and become like an Egyptian.
The idea of the redemption was to become servants of Hashem, which is the antithesis of the Egyptian way of life. Therefore, when God took them out of Egypt, he frustrated their desire to become like Egyptians and eat chametz. Rather, he forced them to continue to eat the poor man’s bread to signify to them that the objective of the redemption was not pleasure, but rather to become a transformed spiritual human being.
This can resolve the apparent contradiction between poor man’s bread and the bread of redemption. The entire idea of redemption is symbolize by the fact that they still continue to eat poor man’s bread, even though they were free.
I had a thought around the cultural phenomenon of downtrodden and oppressed people taking ownership of the very cultural aspects that oppressed them and turning it into a point of pride. So the matzah went from being something that was fed to them as slaves, to being something that they had to take ownership of and empower themselves. But after reading Aaron’s comment, I like his idea better!