When we sit around the Seder table and bite into the crisp matzah, we often recall the classic explanation: “The dough of our ancestors did not have time to rise before God redeemed them.” This image of hurried departure, of last-minute scrambling, is compelling. But if we look more closely at the Torah’s words, a deeper, more profound picture emerges—one that reveals that matzah was not a hasty improvisation, but a central part of God’s plan from the very beginning.
Already in “Shemot (Exodus) 12:8”, “before” the Israelites even left Egypt, before the panic and the packing, God commands:
“They shall eat the meat that night, roasted over fire, and matzot, with bitter herbs shall they eat it.”
This is before Pharaoh says go. Before the dough is even made. The command to eat matzah is part of the Korban Pesach instructions, not a reaction to circumstance.
So why matzah? If it’s not merely the bread of haste, then what does it represent?
The answer lies in a key word that appears throughout the Exodus story: “Chipazon”—“haste, urgency, swiftness”. But not just in the sense of rushing. Chipazon is about readiness. It’s about the ability to move forward, to jump into history, to seize the moment when the call of redemption comes. Matzah is not just the bread of affliction—it is the bread of action.
Redemption required not only waiting for God’s signal, but also “responding immediately” when it came. No delay, no hesitation. The mitzvah of matzah was given “before” the Exodus to train us in chipazon—to be spiritually and mentally prepared to leap when the time is right.
At the same time, the Torah warns us against living in constant Chipazon. Life is not meant to be a never-ending race. The everyday service of God requires patience, planning, and thoughtful growth—like chametz, which takes time to rise and mature. That’s why the commandment to eat matzah lasts only one week out of the entire year. For most of the year, we are meant to be thoughtful builders. But for this one week, we relive the moment when everything changed in an instant—and we remember the power of seizing that moment with faith.
Matzah reminds us that freedom doesn’t come to those who wait passively. It comes to those who are calm and grounded—but ready at any moment to rise and run. That balance—of awareness and action, of patience and preparedness—is what true spiritual maturity looks like.
So when we eat the matzah this year, let’s not think of it as an accident of poor timing. Let’s remember it as a sacred symbol, planned by God, to teach us to live with alertness, boldness, and the courage to jump forward into our destiny—when the time is right.
Chag Kasher VeSameach!
Elisha Guberman and the JET Team
