Why Matzah? A Reflection on Passover - To be read before or during the seder.

Mark Chagall. Exodus Series.

It's Passover, and we eat the matzah and say: 

"We were slaves, now we are free people."

Ok, but: Why matzah?

• First idea:

1. We were in a rush when it was time to be free, and couldn't wait
for the bread to rise / God wanted us out of Egypt, and fast. 

Delivery and redemption - the change we so desperately wanted - couldn't come fast enough, we couldn't wait / God wouldn't wait, even the minimal time required for bread to rise. 

I think there's a power to this idea -- that which is unacceptable has to come to an end immediately.

Imagine if we thought about our modern day plagues this way...

• Second idea:

2. This is the bread of poverty - this is honestly the message I find
most meaningful - it's about remembering that, once upon a time the
only food we could afford or were given was matzah. Matzah is
delicious once, even twice, maybe even for a whole week if necessity dictates,

but the challenge is to imagine that this flat dry cracker was the entirety of
your diet.


And so we learn about pesach - it's about people that are living
subsistence lifestyles. As members of the lowest rung on the social
chain of Egypt, 

we learned what makes a people holy: treating humans
like humans.

The way the Seder proceeds is that through the telling and actions we are 
supposed to see "our selves as if we were in Egypt". We celebrate freedom, but we also mourn loss - the drops of wine at the ten plagues are a physical reminder that our happiness is lessened by suffering, even if it the suffering is felt by people that have done us wrong.




A story is told in our tradition about a king and his son, traveling through the desert. When the son has a need for water, the king orders that a well be dug and a sign placed showing the location. 

The prince, confused, asked: 'Why not just send someone to one of the nearby town to fetch water?'
The king responded, 'Right now we have access to water, but many years from now, when that town is no longer here you'll be able to access the water."


According to the tradition, that's what the holidays are to us -
access to the special energy of the day. On Shabbat we enter the
"palaces in time that we create", to quote Rabbi Heschel of blessed memory, 
and on each of the holidays we are called upon to dig deep, to tap into those reservoirs,
to access those special waters. So if Shabbat's special 'water' is rest and appreciation for the world of creation, what is the energy, the 'special water' we have access to on Passover night? 
Freedom. Freedom from tyranny - Pharaoh, and freedom from forced labor and poverty - Matzah.  


And so, we get to the meal - we sit, we eat, we sing, and by
consciously trying, we access that ancient energy - the special water
of the day that's only available right now. What is it? It's interdependence. 
We rely on God, the world, each other, and our tradition to build meaningful lives. 

Dayeinu - aren't we fortunate.

Wishing everyone reading a happy, healthy, and meaningful pesach.

Mick Fine