מַצָּה Matzah is the central item that we must explain of the three things Rabban Gamliel says one is obligated to mention on Passover night. This is because it is an obligation to eat matzah on this night from the Torah. Even maror is only a rabbinic obligation. (We mention matzah) in order to make sure we are especially conscious of its observance, as is stated in Scripture, “You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread…” (Ex 12:17) We mention pesach and maror in order to arouse God’s compassion so that when God sees our suffering, the Divine will pass over to the end of time and redeem us. When the Haggadah states, “To commemorate that our ancestors' dough was not yet able to rise…” it means to say that our ancestors “had not yet become leavened” while they were in Egypt, for they had only entered forty-nine gates of impurity.²⁷¹. לְהַחֲמִיץ means both to become leavened, to rise, and to sour or spoil. The word מַצָּה matzah comes from the word מצץ which means, to press, suck out, or to push out; in other words, God pushed us out from among the Egyptians. Therefore, that is why this special bread is called matzah. ואולם However, it is fitting to carefully read the language of the Maggid when he says, “To commemorate that our ancestors' dough did not to rise…” לְהַחֲמִיץ “To rise” is a transitive verb, like lihatzdik (to cause justice for X), lihatir (to entreat X ), lihamtir (caused to rain to fall on X) etc, when it could have said, lichametz or lihitchametz (it become leavened). Further, the Maggid states, “until (ad) the King of the kings of kings, the Blessed Holy One, was revealed to them and redeemed them…” which implies that after God was revealed God’s self, (their dough) became leavened. And if it had not become leavened at all, then the verse would have said, על שנגלה עליהם “Because God was revealed to them…”²⁷² Furthermore, what proof is there, in the verse, “And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt…” when it implies that the dough did not become leavened because God revealed God’s self? This verse implies that the dough didn't rise because they fled from Egypt hastily and there was no time to delay for the dough to become leavened! When they were traveling there was not enough time to allow leavening, because while they were making dough it did not have time to rise. אמנם. However, one needs to know that human beings are referred to as “dough” (in the Talmud) and that the sages compared the evil inclination to “the leaven in the dough that prevents (us from fulfilling God’s will).”²⁷³ Also, the Sages said that, “Adam the first man,” is called “the ḥalla at the completion of the world.”²⁷⁴ In other words, in relation to the other nations who came into the world, Israel was considered holier than any of them, like the challah²⁷⁵ that is taken from the dough. Just as there is a difference between one type of dough and another - some is made from wheat, others from barley and some from legumes, so too there is a difference between one nation and another. Israel is compared to wheat in many places, and therefore, the evil inclination rules over Israel more than other nations. Behold, when Abraham came and made God known to the world, the other nations should have believed him. For he debated with the philosophers of his time and convinced them with many proofs that there is one God who rules over everything and that God created the world as was mentioned in the words of the elders. Despite this, since they were following their forefathers’ traditions, they didn’t think it was such a sin if they didn’t change their customs. Besides, it’s hard to change from one set of beliefs to another. Besides, Abraham did not perform miracles in order to convince them to believe in God and he did not speak in God’s name like the prophets because he was not commanded to do this. But when the Israelites left Egypt, God’s Divinity and power was known throughout the world, and the nations should have converted or, at the very least, they should have come to believe that there is no god like Israel’s God. Even though they were filled with terror, they refused to rise up or tremble before God. Just the opposite, they sought to join others in battle, like Amalek, Sichon and Og, and the kings of Canaan. Their heart grew even more sour than it already was and they deserved to be punished. This is what the Maggid writes: “The matzah which we eat, for what reason? The dough of our ancestors' (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) did not cause “leavening'' in the nations.” That is, it did not make known the “leavening” in them so that they would be found liable and would be punished for their stubbornness. (This did not happen) until the Holy One revealed Himself before the Egyptians and redeemed them, as is stated, “God performed marvels in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, the plain of Zoan.” (Ps. 78:12) God appeared before them with miracles, wonders and many signs. Only then did they recognize their leavening חימוצם, their inability to believe in God and that there is only one God. Therefore we eat matzah so that our fear of God will constantly be before us. By remembering that God took us out of Egypt and commanded us to to obey the מצוות mitzvot. The word מצות matzot is spelled the same as mitzvot.²⁷⁶ and mitzvot are similar though Mitzvot has an extravav - though it can be written without it. The Maggid brings a proof from the verse, “"And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt into matzah cakes…” (Ex. 12:39) It would have been enough to say, “And they baked the dough into matzot when they fled from Egypt.” But the intention of the verse is to say that the dough was called עוגות uggot, cakes, but now they called it matzot, a reference to the matzot that were hinted at there. This was so their hearts would not become soured/leavened like the nations that had become soured/leavened and how they became soured/leavened when they were expelled from Egypt. They should have gone out in the same way as “Great multitude.”²⁷⁷ refers to the many Egyptians and other peoples who followed the Israelites out of Egypt Since Israel committed evil in the eyes of God by making the Golden Calf, certainly one might say that it was better that Egypt did not leave with them since they accrued some merit by not leaving Egypt (with Israel). If they had left with Israel, there is no doubt that the other nations would have also converted, something that the other nations did not do when they saw how stubborn Egypt was, so that they were smitten by plagues. This allowed the nations to say that Egypt knew that the Holy One was only the God of the Hebrews. If they had reason to believe that there was no god but God they would have believed. If the Egyptians did not part from their service to their god why should we do more than them? But this was not enough of a claim because the other nations could also say, the Egyptians were fools and everyone knew that they were a stubborn nation and they could have prevented the plagues which struck them but they didn’t!

footnotes: ²⁷¹ And had not the fiftieth gate of impurity at which point they would become hametz ²⁷² The difference between עד ad, until, and al על because, would seem to be as follows. If the word is עד then it suggests that “only once God appeared” was there leavening. If it is al על, because God appeared, would suggest that when God appeared the dough stopped leavening. ²⁷³ BT Berachot 17a ²⁷⁴ Bereshit Rabbah 14:1, 17:8, Based on a note in Sefaria - Challah is a portion that is separated after the completion of the making of dough, and is endowed with sanctity, given to a priest to eat. Adam was intended to be the sacred finale to the creation of the world. ²⁷⁵ While we often refer to challah as the bread we eat on Shabbat, in point of fact, challah is the bit of dough that we remove for the kohanim or today that is burned and destroyed. ²⁷⁶ The words matzot ²⁷⁷ The Erev Rav