Day Two
Hashem’s Timetable
Valid Testimony
Now, when we eat matzah on the second day of Pesach, it’s a good idea to add a second thought, an additional reason why Hakadosh Baruch Hu arranged it so that our dough shouldn’t have time to rise. And don’t think that “additional” means that it’s not a true kavanah. Because there’s a statement י שָׁ מָ עְ תַ יִם זוּ קִ ים שְׁ תֶֹר אֱ לִּ בּאַ חַ ת ד – Hashem said one thing and I heard two things (Tehillim 62:12); which means that the words of Hakadosh Baruch Hu are very, very profound and it is an error therefore to ascribe only one interpretation to them. When Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks in the Torah He has many things in mind, many different explanations, and so we can add now a second idea that’s included in what the mitzvah of matzah wants to tell us.
Why are we eating matzah today and reminding ourselves of the haste, the rush, of being sent out of Mitzrayim? Because there’s an important principle that we have to incorporate into the corpus of Torah attitudes we have in our minds: That when Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants something to be, His timetable will be the timetable. And in order to emphasize that, that’s why ְצֵקָם לְהַחְמִיץ א הִסְ פִּיק בֹל – it happened so suddenly that there was no chance for the dough to rise.
My Time, My Laws
That's what the matzah says b’pashtus, that when the time comes, Hashem's plan is carried out to the second. The Pharaohs can be stubborn for 210 years. “You’re stuck here!” the Pharaohs used to say. “It’s against the law to leave Egypt.”
“Law shmaws,” Hashem says. “I’m the One Who makes the laws and now is My time!”
That’s why Hakadosh Baruch Hu played along with them until the time came that He wanted and then in a split second, in the middle of the night, Pharaoh came running.
It has to be in the middle of the night? Just wait till the morning already. No; Hakadosh Baruch Hu disregards everything and He wakes up Pharaoh from his bed because He wants to make an especial display of this principle of ץֵׁ ב אֶת הַקּחִ ש, that His calculation, His timetable, is the only timetable. “You’ll see,” Hashem says, “that when My moment arrives, when the time that I planned comes, even if Pharaoh has to jump out of bed and order you out of the land, that’s how it’s going to be.” And in memory of that night, in order that it should be remembered forever, we had to bake matzah; the matzah demonstrates that everything is calculated to the second by Hakadosh Baruch Hu.
And so as we’re chewing on the matzah on the second day of Chag HaMatzos we are reminding ourselves that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has a timetable of history; He is the וֹרוֹת מֵ רֹאשׁ קוֹרֵ א הַ ד – the One Who proclaims the generations beforehand (Yeshayah 41:4). But not just the generations; the weeks and the days and the hours and the minutes. That’s what the Bnei Yisroel saw that night; that Hashem is the Boss, that He’s in control, and when He presses the button, that's the time to leave.
The Talking Matzah
And so when something happens, the matzah is testifying that He is the One Who decrees that it has to happen at that moment. He is in control of history and therefore when the time comes He is the One Who gives the signal for things to happen. “Don’t despair!” the matzah says. “There’s nothing to worry about. Hashem is on the job and therefore nothing is late and nothing is early. Everything is in the Hands of the All-Powerful One, Who presses the buttons when He wants and how He wants.”
Even today there are some places, in Teiman I think, where there is still a custom on Pesach night by the Seder to have a staff in hand and bundles on their shoulders when they eat the matzos to show that they are ready to leave. Because that’s included in eating the matzah, to imagine how the Bnei Yisroel were dressed that night; מָ תְ נֵ י כֶ ם חֲ גֻ רִ י ם, ready to go.
We Want Moshiach Now
Now, we don’t have that minhag but it’s still true; that’s what the matzah wants us to know, that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge. And so when the time comes it doesn’t matter what the Pharaoh will say or how much he likes to be comfortable under his blanket; we are going to go out to our destiny and freedom.
And it means also that even though for a long time we have waited for Moshiach – we thought, “So long we waited already. Who knows how much longer we have to wait?” – all of a sudden, maybe on a Wednesday afternoon, everybody is in his business, out of nowhere Moshiach is here! We’ll have to drop everything and go. We’ll all board huge jets and רִ נָּ ה וֹ ן בּנַ עֲ לֶ ה לְ צִ י. But our businesses, our
