ליל התקדש החג
Only matzoh – כולו מצה
Because of this Hashem did for me – בעבור זה עשה ה' לי
'והגדת לבנך לאמר בעבור זה עשה ד' לי בצאתי ממצרים' – ‘And you shall tell your son saying, ‘Because of this Hashem did for me when I left Egypt’ (Shemos 13:8). Rashi explains, ‘Hashem did for me – The Torah alludes to a response to the wicked son, as if to say, “Hashem did for me and not for you, for had you been there you would not have been worthy of being redeemed.”’ HaKadosh Baruch Hu expressly tells us, ‘I took you out in order to serve Me and keep My mitzvos, but for the wicked one who does not want to keep the mitzvos, we expressly tell him had he been there he would not have been worthy of being redeemed.’ We must remember this when we keep mitzvos, it is because of this that HaKadosh Baruch Hu took us out of Egypt, and as the author of the Haggadah says, ‘had HaKadosh Baruch Hu not taken our forefathers out of Egypt, we, our children and our grandchildren would be subjugated’. This is how every father and mother must train their children, this is the essence of life, because of this Hashem did for me when I left Egypt.
The holiday of freedom – חג החירות
We say in the Haggadah, ‘It is one’s duty to regard himself as though he personally had gone out of Egypt’. Many ask: How? How can I regard myself as if I left Egypt, when I do not have an inkling of what slavery is? The truth is that the servitude or the leaving it does not have to be in realm of Egypt of then, the servitude can be today, yesterday, or tomorrow, here, or anywhere we might go. Chazal said (Kiddushin 30b), ‘A person’s yetzer threatens to overpower him every day and seeks to kill him. And if not that HaKadosh Baruch Hu aided the person, he would be unable to withstand him’. Every day we leave Egypt, every day a new miracle occurs for us and we go out from slavery to freedom.
Food of cure, food of faith – מיכלא דאסוותא ומיכלא דמהימנותא
Eating matzoh is the great mitzvah that sanctifies the holiday as explained in the holy Zohar (Cheilek 2 183:2) that the matzoh is Food of Cure, that is, matzoh cures the person of all illnesses of the soul, the matzoh is especially qualified to strengthen and instill the pure emunah in the heart of the person in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, King of all Kings. Therefore, it is also called Food of Faith. All year the person is bust with the pursuits of life, and the bother of earning a living, and so on. Because of this it is possible that he might forget that this is from Hashem Yisbarach, until it seems to him that he alone had the power to do this. Therefore, the person must eat the holy matzoh once a year, and this extends emunah and tahara all year.
Chometz and matzoh - yetzer tov and yetzer hara
There is much inner meaning to eating matzoh and its virtue, but first, understand the simple meaning. Matzoh is not made from many ingredients, just flour and water which is basic to the body, immediately after kneading we take the dough, pound it thin, and right after that it goes in the oven and bakes as is, flat and thin.
Chometz is not like that. Besides flour, there is yeast which causes it to rise, and then we wait until it is a high thick dough, and only then does it go into the oven, and we take out a high thick nice loaf.
The holy Zohar explains (Cheilek 2 40:2) that this is the basic difference between these two foods, chometz teaches arrogance and personal importance, which is a basic flaw and is in all sins. Chometz is also compared to the yetzer hara which tempts the person to sin as Chazal said (Berachos 17a) ‘It is revealed and known before You that we want to do your will, and what hold us back? The yeast in the dough!’ Rashi explains, ‘the yeast in the dough – the yetzer hara in our hearts, which sours us.’ Matzoh is not like this. It hints at negating the personal and completely subdues the heart without personal connection or thought, just Hashem.
And so, on this great and holy night, the night of the seder, when every Jew can elevate to a lofty level, much more than is deserved based on his actions, we only eat matzoh which hints to the yetzer hatov, for now is time for the yetzer hatov to reign, as brought in the holy seforim. On the night of Pesach, every Jew merits the holy illumination at a high and lofty level, as if he skipped and jumped out of order. Usually, he would have to go from the easy to the hard, one step in sanctity after another going up levels, but on this night every Jew merits to skip levels to higher levels in kedusha, more than he prepared himself for.
As the Ohr HaChaim HaKadosh wrote (Parashas Balak Bamidbar 23:22) in the name of those who know the inner meaning of the Torah, ‘Every Pesach night the powers of kedusha separate from the encrustations, and increases in Bnei Yisrael, that is, on this night the side of kedusha overpowers the opposite side. As it is written in the holy sefer ‘Bais Aharon’, ‘On the night of Pesach, if the person wants to slaughter his yetzer, he is able to leap before the King. This night is propitious that one need not think about turning from bad, rather one skips all and enters the holy.
Based on this, we can explain what we say in the Haggadah, ‘Why do we eat this matzoh? Because the dough of our forefathers did not have time to rise and the King of Kings, HaKadosh Baruch Hu redeemed them.’ That is, the category of chometz, arrogance, was taken captive and removed from the world, for every creature was nullified before HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and only matzoh and humility remained ‘without time to sour’.
It is known from holy seforim that the sanctity of these days is forever, and every year when the time of the miracle arrives, the miracle returns and awakens the kedusha of that time. The lights that illuminated for our forefathers in those days, returns to illuminate for us as well. We find that every year on this great and holy night of Pesach we remove the yeast and crust of arrogance from our houses and we are left with matzoh and humility. Therefore, even though ‘on all other nights we eat chometz or matzoh’, all year the yetzer hara is mixed in our lives, but ‘tonight only matzoh’, on this night there is no yetzer hara and no reign over us, since it just wants to bring arrogance in our hearts, but when we act with humility like this night, it has no power or substance (Orchos Tzaddikim Shaarei Gaivah V’Anava).
It is filled with humility – תוכו רצוף ענוה
If we think about it we see that many customs on this night are based on humility. For example, the maror hints at humility as the Rambam wrote (Moreh Nevuchim Cheilek 3 Ch 43). Even dipping twice on this night, the maror in charoses and karpas in salt water teaches humility, as Rebbe Dovid of Leluv said that the basic dipping is to go lower in levels which perhaps is why we dip twice, to remember to accept the yoke of Malchus Shamayim.
We can also say that this is why we break the middle matzoh before saying the Haggadah (yachatz), to instill in us a broken heart, that we do not even have a whole matzoh for ourselves. When we retell the story of the Exodus and when HaKadosh Baruch Hu and His entourage come down to hear us praise Him, we must leave the arrogance of Egypt and conduct ourselves with humility, so our mouths can say lofty and holy words.
