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On the evening of March 27, 2002, Jews across the world will celebrate an event that occurred 3300 years ago: the Exodus of our people from slavery in Egypt. The Ten Plagues, followed by the miraculous splitting of the Red Sea was the watershed event that propelled our people out of Egypt, to receive the Torah at Sinai, and intimately to build a Temple in the land God gave us, Jerusalem.
If each Jewish holiday has its symbol, the symbol of Passover is the matzo. In the words of the Torah, “Seven days you shall eat Matzo, as in a hurry I have taken you out of Egypt” (Exodus 20:20). The Jews had prepared dough to bake into bread for their journey to freedom. However, the events of the Exodus unfolded so quickly that they did not have time to allow it to ferment and rise, but baked it as thin unleavened crackers. The matzo symbolizes the speed in which we left Egypt: the quality of our departure: there was nothing holding us back to slavery.
As a symbol of freedom, tradition says that matzo is to be eaten in a reclining, royal, manner.
Yet, a question remains. Matzo is an entirely simple food. It lacks the additives of yeast, eggs, water, and sugar which most bread include. Commonly eaten by poorer elements in society, it is not the kind of food that would deem to express freedom.
Yet, it is.
One of the great Jewish thinkers, Rabbi Yehuda Lowve of Prague (known by his acronym Maharal; 1512-1608) comments. The value of ‘freedom’ he notes, has to be defined in absolute terms. One that is not subjective to
He begins by defining the antithesis of freedom. The antithesis, he says, is an alloy. Each element in not free to express its own identity and is inherently unfree.
For this reason, the simple matzo-breads express freedom. It is a food that contains just the basics of bread: flour and water. Its taste and character are not influenced by other items that can alter its character. It is a “free-bread.”
It typifies the Jewish experience of freedom.
The Jews were freed from slavery, and brought directly to Sinai where they were gable to connect with God at Sinai. Their freedom was defined as being able to express their essential selves – their souls – with the only entity it knows: God and Godliness.
With no foreign body subjugating them, they were free because their essence was free to expression.
In developing the theme further, Maharal notes that the jews were given the Torah in the desert: a place that naturally defies human habitat. Thus, with no commerce, no enemies, no friends, no treaties and no pacts, the Jews were free to connect with God.
That is also why the Jews were given manna. It freed the Jews from having to engage in commerce to acquire food. It saved them the bother pf preparing and harvesting food. Free of distractions, their essence was able to bond with God.
Similarly, Midrash says that Torah as given on Shabbat. As day on which creative physical action is prohibited, the Jews were further limited in their connection to the world. Thus, their essence was free to bond with God.
A few months ago, this concept came to mind. I was calling my rabbi, Rabbi Naftali Cohen of Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem, a man of extreme piety and character, to discuss a personal issue. When we finished our conversation I took his fax number, and then asked if it was available for faxes 24-hours a day.
“Yes,” he replied. And then, in an undertone, he added: “I wish that I was as connected and faithful to God as the fax machine is to us. Always waiting to receive, always
Here is man that is entirely soulful. His very essence is always connecting to, thinking of God and spiritual reality.
In our entire talk, the one that left me was the afterthought
A joyous and meaningful Passover to all!
Rabbi Rosenblatt, a member of the Rabbinical Faculty of DATA, is the author of All I Need to Know, I Learned in Yeshiva, (Targum Press, 1995) and Maharal: Emerging Patterns (Feldheim Publishers, 2001)
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