The most characteristic Mitsva of Pesach is to consume matsa (in English: matzah”). Matsa actually replaces “bread.” And it is, in fact, a type of “bread”, flat, with no salt, and without the soft, inner part of the bread (=crumb). It is made without waiting for the dough to rise through the normal fermentation process and without adding yeast.
So, why do we eat Matsa on Pesach?
There are two reasons. One is explicitly mentioned in the Tora, and the second, lesser-known reason, is briefly mentioned at the beginning of the Haggada, the text that we read at the Seder.
BREAD FOR SLAVES (לחם עוני)
Let’s start with what the Haggada says. For many years, when we lived enslaved in Egypt, we ate exclusively Matsa for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This inexpensive “bread”, called by the Haggada lachma aniya, “the poor bread” or “the poor’s bread” had no yeast, no salt, and no additives. Matsa was conceived by the Egyptians as the ideal food for the working Jews: Matsa is digested slowly and lasts longer in the slaves’ stomachs, who complained less about being hungry. Matsa was also the lowest-cost food that could be produced: flour and water were two of the cheapest and most abundant elements to be found on the banks of the Nile. In addition, there was an element of deprivation and a virtual mental torture of the Jewish slaves. Eating Matsa meant that there was no lunch break. Normally, to produce a common bread, the dough is left to rest for about 20 minutes. And once the dough rises through fermentation, it is placed in the oven and turned into delicious bread. But the Egyptian slave masters did not grant the Jewish slaves those 20 minutes of rest… The Hebrew slaves had to prepare the dough and bake it on the spot and get back to work immediately (or perhaps, they were forced to eat Matsa “while” they were working…). The Haggada reminds us of this by pointing out that the Matsa we eat at the Seder “is the bread of affliction that our ancestors ate in Egypt.” The experience of eating only Matsa for so many years, and its psychological effect, was engraved in our memory, and when we tried it, we relived the taste of captivity.
THE SECOND TIME WE ATE MATSA
The explicit reason that the Tora mentions regarding Matsa is different: at the time of our departure from Egypt, we ate Matsa. Why? The final order to leave Egypt occurred “at the last moment” (bechipazon) between Nisan 14 and 15, after the last plague when Pharaoh and the Egyptians felt forced to expel us from their territory. Leaving Egypt was an operation that lasted hours, not days. Let’s try to visualize it: we must take the essentials with us, and leave all our belongings behind. We need food to travel the desert. The journey will take several weeks or months, and we must prepare as much food as possible. Who knows when we will have time, and whatever is needed, to make food again! Now, when we are about to leave, and we are packing our essentials, do we have time to wait twenty minutes between bread and bread until the dough rises? Probably not. We had to make as much bread as possible, as fast as possible… and for this reason, we just made the flat dough. We left Egypt carrying the dough on our shoulders, and this event is remembered at the Pesach Seder by Sephardic Jews when we “perform” the משארותם צרורות.
WHAT DID I REALIZE THIS YEAR?
This year, teaching Masechet Rosh HaShanah, I noticed a detail that I did not realize during previous years. In light of the two reasons for the Matsa that I just explained, I always wondered “why was the bread of the days of Pesach different from all other days because it seems that Jews ate Matsa uninterruptedly… However, the Sages say that our slavery did not end on Passover, that is, in the month of Nisan: forced labor was interrupted on Rosh haShana of that year! That is, 6 months before leaving Egypt. This event is referenced in the Tehillim Psalm 81, which we recite on the night of Rosh Hashanah (הסירותי מסבל שכמו). If so, I suppose (although I have not found this explanation in other sources…) that once slavery ended, our ancestors consumed “normal bread”, that is, fermented bread! But now, when we had to prepare to leave Egypt in a hurry, we were forced, ironically, to consume again “poor people’s bread”. But this time it was for a different reason. This time, the Matsa did not have the bitter flavor of slavery but the taste of freedom that was taking place swiftly and miraculously in front of our eyes.
THE DOUBLE TASTE OF MATSA
The Matsa, then, represents both the bitterness of slavery and the sweet taste of our providential freedom. By eating the Matsa, we celebrate our redemption without forgetting our suffering. On the one hand, we remember the affliction we suffered as slaves in Egypt. And on the other hand, we recall our departure from Egypt. Which was not the consequence of a progressive “revolution” that fermented in the Jewish people over several years, and whose final outcome occurred after endless battles…. We were rescued by Bore Olam in a swift act of redemption; unrepeatable in the history of mankind.
