Pesah, which our ancestors ate at the time when the Temple existed: What was the purpose of Rabban Gamliel’s first question since the Torah already explains the purpose of the Passover offering Also, why do the verses from the Torah which explain the purpose of this offering end with the words, “And the people bowed in homage?”²⁵⁹ The reason for this has to do with the connection between the Passover offering and the matzah which we eat now. Normally, the Passover offering is consumed after the Festive offering. Yet the Talmud explains that if one has already recited the blessing for the Passover offering, he is exempted from the Festive offering.²⁶⁰ in the final chapter of Pesachim says: “If he recited the blessing for the Passover-offering, he thereby exempts the [festival] sacrifice; [but] if he recited the blessing for the sacrifice, he does not exempt the Passover-offering:” this is the view of R. Ishmael. R. Akiba said: “the former does not exempt the latter, nor does the latter exempt the former.” The Festive offering is supposed to come first, before the Passover. If one recited the blessing for the Passover offering first, he is now considered exempt from doing so for the festive offering The Passover offering is presented twice. It was brought to the celebrant after pouring the second cup of wine but it is not consumed until the end of the meal. The reason for this is to reflect its double meaning. Similarly, today we eat matzah twice during the Seder: at the beginning of the meal (when we recite the motzi) and at the very end of the meal (the afikomen). The question *al shum mah,*then, is meant to point to the two reasons we eat the Passover at the *Seder:*it is a symbol of our redemption from Egypt as well as the promise of our entrance into the land of Canaan. Here the verse is meant to answer both reasons for the Passover offering: first to remind us that God took us out of Egypt and second – of our eventual redemption and entrance into the land (“And the people bowed down in homage.”) Both explanations are hinted at in our answer to Rabban Gamliel’s question, al shum mah?

footnotes: ²⁵⁹ Exodus 12:27 ²⁶⁰ The Mishnah