*Rabban Gamliel said: One who doesn’t mention three things on Passover has not fulfilled his obligation. They are pesach, matzah,andmaror: All of these things are mentioned in the Mishnah which concludes: “In every generation each person is obligated to see himself as if he personally went forth from Egypt…” Rava adds: He must also say: “And us he freed from there that he might take us…”⁹⁰ There are several surprising things about this passage! The Talmudmakes the following statement: In our time we do not eat the matzah and the marortogether since matzahis a Torah commandment and maror is a rabbinic commandment – the rabbinic commandment would disqualify the Torah commandment. In the time of the Temple, however, when all three foods were Torahcommandments and were consumed together then there was no question since they were all eaten at once. To understand this statement we must return to the earlier discussion regarding why we eat the matzahbefore themaror.* Since themarorsymbolizes slavery and the matzah symbolizes freedom, we should have eaten the maror before we ate the matzah. And nowadays when we eat them separately we must wonder why we eat them in the wrong order. This was not a question in the time of the temple since all three could be consumed together in a sandwich. The same question arises regarding Rabban Gamliel’s statement. Why does he say that we should mention pesach, matzah, and maror; marorshould have been mentioned before the matzah.In the time of the Temple, while all three were consumed together, the same question could be asked about which should be mentioned first: the matzah or the maror? The answer to this question can be found in the following statement in the Mishnah:“In every generation one should see himself as if he personally went forth from Egypt…” The Shach⁹¹on halachic matters comments on the order in this statement by suggesting that it is not talking about the Exodus but about Israel’s future experience: matzah alludes to freedom. When our actions are proper we will be free but if not we will experience maror, bitterness. The Shach suggests that maror here is referring to Israel’s subjugation to the four great kingdoms. That is why maror is mentioned last in the verse. We begin then with matzah – because we are suppose to see ourselves as among those who went out of Egypt and are free. We then receive a warning – if our actions are not proper we will experience bitterness. Even though we are now living in exile and in bitterness, we do not mention this first because we are obligated to see ourselves as one of those who went forth from Egypt, just like the people of the generation of the Exodus. What does Rava’s statement add to this discussion? We have already seen that for some people, matzah symbolizes slavery since it was the food which slaves eats (it is difficult to digest). If that is the case then matzah and maror are both symbols of slavery. Rava’s statement emphasizes that matzah is a symbol of freedom since ‘God took us out from there.’ When Rava suggests we should also make this statement, he is alluding to the fact that only one fiftieth of the Israelites left Egypt – the rest died because they became impure and worshipped idols. Therefore we say “And US He freed from there.” – We were freed and not the others who died during the plague of darkness.⁹², all those Israelites who were unworthy of redemption mysteriously disappeared during the plague of darkness, According to Rabbi Ginzburg, only one out of fifty of the Israelites left Egypt. This number is based on the verse hamushim alu banai, Now the Israelites went up armed. (Exodus 13:18) The word hamushim, armed, is understood here asHamishim– one fiftieth.

footnotes: ⁹⁰ Deuteronomy 6:23 ⁹¹ Rabbi Shabtai Hakohen Katz (1621-1663?) A well known and respected commentator on the Shulchan Aruch ⁹² According to the Midrash