Day Three
Escaping the Leavening
The First Command
Now, these symbolisms of the matzah for the first two days are excellent reasons for the dough that didn’t rise, because they were driven out. And had it been the case that they left Mitzrayim first and only then they were commanded to eat matzah, so we’d understand that these are the only reasons.
But actually it wasn’t so. They were commanded to eat matzah before the story of Yetzias Mitzrayim even took place! They weren't driven out yet when they were given the mitzvah of achilas matzah for the first time. And so it’s a question. That matzah that the Bnei Yisroel were commanded to eat on Pesach night, even before the story happened, what is that telling us? After all, when we eat matzah on Pesach, we’re eating because of that first command too and so we must understand what it’s testifying about.
A Hint of Chometz
The answer is they were told to eat matzos on Pesach night in order that they should understand an entirely new lesson. Pay attention now because what does it mean to make matzah? To make matzah you wait a certain amount of time but you can’t wait too long; you have to bake it quickly before it turns chometz. You have to watch the matzah, because if you wait a second too long, it becomes chometz. That’s what we say ‘eighteen minute matzos’, because you have to be careful that it shouldn’t be nineteen minutes. Now the truth is it could be nineteen minutes too; we are being machmir when we say eighteen but whatever it is, if you don’t watch the matzos, then sooner or later it becomes ‘spoiled’ – instead of the mitzvah, now it’s kareis, chametz on Pesach.
Now the Kadmonim in the early seforim taught us that chometz signifies the yetzer hara; it’s a remez in general for the yetzer hara but especially the yetzer of gentile influence. And so chometz means that you’re already too long in a gentile influence and that you’re leavening, you’re spoiling.
On Pesach night in Mitzrayim, even before we went out, we were commanded to eat matzah in order to let us know that our time was up, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu was taking us out of Egypt now because we couldn't afford to remain there one more day. You must get up and get out of Mitzrayim to save yourselves – or else you'll perish as a nation.
Quicksand
It's like a man sinking in a quagmire in the swamp. So first his knees go down into the mud. He has no place to hold on to; all around him is only mud. But he’s not in danger yet of being destroyed. A little more time and now he’s down to his waist; it’s closer to the point of no return. And then he’s down to his shoulders and then to his chin. He’s drowning in mud! One more minute his nose is going to be submerged and he’ll be lost forever.
Don’t you see what’s happening in America, the wickedness that we’re drowning in today? All kinds of chometz, all kinds of gentile influences are in the air today. Everything is included in chometz. The academicians and the colleges and the press – even the Jewish press – it’s filled with the stupidities and the shekarim of materialism and atheism and leitzanus.
All around us, bilge water, sewer water is filling our minds. And don’t say you’re not being affected. Even the frumme get spoiled; no question about it, frumme get spoiled. Even the biggest chossid in Williamsburg, with the longest payos, is changing. A person has to know, maybe he’s already sinking. That's what happened to our forefathers in Egypt – they were sinking into the shaarei tumah. Egypt was a gentile nation and the Am Yisroel, when they’re too long among the gentiles something happens to them, something fatal chalilah. A Jew can only be so long among the nations; he sinks into the mire until chas v’shalom it's too late.
And so the Am Yisroel, their nostrils were beginning to touch the level of the mud, and now Hakadosh Baruch Hu went into action. Forget now about Pharaoh driving us out; this is between us and Hakadosh Baruch Hu. He was driving us out! He had to take drastic and rapid action to save us. We had to hurry up and save ourselves because we couldn’t wait a second more. We had to be pulled out of Egypt before we would leaven.
Change of Plans
That’s – He calculated that it doesn't pay to let the Bnei Yisroel remain in Egypt any longer. If they wait a little longer they'll become chometz and so I have to hurry up and bake the nation before they spoil. They resisted the influence of Mitzrayim for 210 years. Even their names they didn't change; nobody called themselves with gentile names in Mitzrayim. 210 years! Imagine Jews who came to America in 1780 and until 1990, they didn't change their names. They didn’t change their language or their clothing.
But that was the nation in general. Some people however were yielding already; some people were no good already and they didn’t go out of Mitzrayim. You know, some Bnei Yistoel weren't worthy of going out; they were lost in Mitzrayim. It was a great test and many passed the test but too much they couldn’t endure. Two hundred and ten years is a long time to be in the tumah of Mitzrayim; it’s an ordeal which even the Am Hashem wouldn’t be able to withstand.
Now don't get any wrong ideas. It doesn’t mean they would be like the Egyptians. The Egyptians didn't sink down to their nostrils – they were already far underground. All the nations were miles underground. But the Am Yisroel, their nostrils were beginning to touch the level of the mud – they were the best of all the peoples in the world, but for the Am Hashem they weren’t good enough – and now Hakadosh Baruch Hu went into action.
The Emergency Rescue
But there’s a prophecy of 400 years? Hakadosh Baruch Hu had told Avraham that the Bnei Yisroel would be in Exile for four hundred years! Where does 210 years come in? The answer is that for the sake of the survival of Am Yisroel, Hashem calculated a new end. “If I wait any longer,” He said, “the Bnei Yisroel will go lost and the purpose of creation will go lost.” And so He made now a new calculation.
It doesn’t mean ‘new’ the way we think. Hakadosh Baruch Hu said, “When I declared My prophecy to Avraham Avinu that his children would be 400 years in an eretz lo lahem I had in mind many things. I could have calculated it in a number of ways. It could have been four hundred years in Mitzrayim from the time that Yaakov and his sons came to Egypt. It could have been even more because when Yosef was alive they really didn't suffer bondage. So it could have been four hundred years after Yosef’s death. It could have been any number of calculations because when Hakadosh Baruch Hu gives a prophecy, we don't know exactly what He means. It's only after it's all done then we look back retroactively and we discover what He meant.
And so Hashem calculated the keitz and he said, “They have to go out. I can’t keep them here any longer. I see it’s too dangerous for them to remain any longer and so the 400 years means from the time that Yitzchok was born.” And so Hakadosh Baruch Hu learned a different pshat in His nevuah. The pshat is going to be, not four hundred years from their coming into Egypt, but four hundred years from the time when Yitzchak was born, That’s also an eretz lo lahem because Yitzchok was also among goyim. He lived in Eretz Canaan. The Canaanim were abominable people. Canaanim and Mitzrayim both came from Cham; they’re wicked people, both of them. And so, in order to save the Am Yisroel, Hashem used that calculation instead and immediately, presto, they were driven out of Egypt before it was too late.
Matzah: Snatched From Oblivion
It’s not drush what we’re saying now; we're not trying to force any symbolism into the matzah – we're merely taking out the symbolism that’s already there. That's why the matzos on that night were eaten in order to symbolize that there's a time when it becomes too late, when people are too long under gentile influence and they become chometz.
And so when we eat the matzah today we should keep in mind that we are grateful that we were snatched out of the jaws of oblivion while we were still matzah. It’s not merely we went out to freedom; it’s that we were saved to be Hashem’s beloved nation. Hakadosh Baruch Hu loves His people and that’s why He pulled us out of Mitzrayim before we leavened, in order that we should merit to be His eternal nation.
The Matzah Testifies:
Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim in haste, to ensure that we do not sink into oblivion. It means that He cares about us and will take whatever steps necessary to ensure our survival as a nation as long as we fulfill our side of the deal by being loyal to Him even when faced with the chometz of the world around us.
