החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, from now on these months will be yours, to do with as you like. [you have My authority to organise your own calendar. Ed.] This is by way of contrast to the years when you were enslaved when you had no control over your time or timetable at all. [Freedom, i.e. retirement from the “rat race,” means being able to formulate one’s own timetable. Ed.] While you were enslaved, your days, hours, minutes even, were always at the beck and call of your taskmasters.

ושכנו הקרוב אל ביתו. Even though numerous Egyptian families might have lived between the house of the Israelite and the nearest house occupied by another Israelite, such an Israelite is described by the Torah as “his neighbour,” seeing that he is closer to his house than the houses of other Jews.

מתניכם חגורים, ready to commence marching. We find a similar expression in connection with the prophet Elijah in Kings I 18,46 where he is described as וישנס מתניו, “he bound up his loins.” The expression reflects absolute confidence in G’d’s assistance of the undertaking one is about to embark on. This is displayed while the prisoner is still inside the walls of his jail, the door not having opened yet to let him out.

ועברתי, in the sense of Psalms 78,50 יפלס נתיב לאפו, “He cleared a path for His anger;” something an agent, i.e. angel could not do. [once the agent has been given permission to wreak havoc, he cannot distinguish between the innocent and the guilty in that domain. Ed.]

והכיתי כל בכור, “I, personally, seeing I can distinguish between the drops of semen which become a firstborn and those that do not.”

ובכל אלוהי מצרים אעשה שפטים, I will humble the celestial representatives of the nation of Egypt. Once I have neutralised them, I can apply My retribution to their protégées with increased force.

'אני ה. This is something reserved for G’d personally, exclusively. The author of the Haggadah shel Pessach paraphrases this by writing אני הוא ולא אחר, “I alone and no one else.” This expression explains all that has been written before, i.e. why in this instance G’d personally had to mete out the retribution as opposed to the angel who killed 185,000 men of Sancheriv’s army all in the same night without assistance. (Kings II 19,35) There the angel did not have to divine who was a firstborn and who was not.

ולא יהיה בכם נגף למשחית, so you will not be struck with a plague as a corollary to the retributive action I am taking against Egypt.

בהכותי, G’d caused other harm to the Egyptians during that night, in addition to killing all their firstborn. Had it not been for the “passing over” He had performed as an act of pity for the Israelites, they would not have escaped that judgment even if their firstborn had not been killed. The matter is similar to what the angel had told Lot concerning his not turning around, when he warned פן תספה בעון העיר, “lest you will be wiped out on account of the guilt of the people inside the city.” (Genesis 19,15) G’d commanded the Israelites to smear the blood as a sign so that they would escape. This was for the sake of His great name, as we know from Ezekiel 20,9 when the prophet reminded the people that G’d had said בדמיך חיי, בדמיך חיי, ”by your blood you shall live, by your blood you shall live.”(Ezekiel 16,6) [both the blood of the circumcision and that of the Passover lamb. Ed.]

ושמרתם את המצות, which are called such to reflect the speed with which they have been baked without giving the dough a chance to ferment and rise.

כי בעצם היום הזה, “on this self-same day;” for on the same day they were all being gathered. They were not being given time to assemble over a period of a few days and nights (seeing that we are speaking of between 2-3 million people)

הוצאתי את צבאותיכם, the entire community of Israel including their flocks and herds all simultaneously.

מן הדם אשר בסף, so that every sprinkling be preceded by immersion of the hyssop in the blood, in accordance with G’d’s instructions in verse 6 “on the two upright posts and the lintel.” The sprinkling of the upright posts with the blood had to precede that of the lintel. This could not be accomplished unless there had been three separate sprinklings to reflect the three letters י which served G’d as a means with which to create the universe. This is based on the saying in Menachot 29 that the world of the future (or the world in which we spend our afterlife) was created with the letter י, as opposed to the material universe we live in now, which was created with the letter ה. The other two occasions when the letter י symbolised a world in a state of perfection was before Adam had sinned in Gan Eden, and on the day the Jewish people accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai until the day they sinned with the golden calf (40 days) All this is based on Isaiah 26,4 כי בי-ה ה' צור עולמים. The reason why the letter י is presumed to symbolise this kind of perfection is that it is a mere dot (when written) and requires no physical outline, צורה, as do all the other letters. Not only that, the uniqueness of that letter symbolises the uniqueness of the Creator Who presides over two universes both of infinite duration, or over heaven and earth (one single universe consisting of two parts both parts of which are eternal).

ואתם לא תצאו, from the house which has been marked with blood. ופסח, and in this fashion G’d will skip, pass-over. The meaning of the words is similar to Ezekiel 9,4 והתוית תו על מצחות האנשים, “you will mark the foreheads of these men with a sign, etc.”

לנגוף, to afflict them with the afflictions G’d will visit on the Egyptian people other than deadly plagues. Whenever the expression נגף is used it refers to afflictions that do not result in death. A well known example of this is found in Exodus 21,22 ונגפו אשה הרה ולא יהיה אסון, “and he pushes a pregnant woman without causing any death, etc.”

המשחית, the Egyptian people by one of G’d’s other attributes expressing His anger.

מה העבודה הזאת לכם?, which is performed on a day that does not even bear the appellation מקרא קודש, “holy convocation? All the other mandatory communal offerings are offered on days designated as festivals. Not only that, but the whole day is available for slaughtering those offerings whereas the offering known as Passover is only accepted from noon until sunset [roughly, in fact even less time than that. Ed.] Besides, why does not a single communal offering serve as this memorial of the Exodus? Other public offerings serve each for the whole community.

זבח פסח הוא, this offering commemorates the skipping over by G’d of each individual Jewish home, something that occurred at midnight. Accordingly, the offering should really have been brought after midnight when the Jewish firstborn had already experienced that G’d saved him. As a result it really would have been at night. However, since we have a rule that offerings must not be brought on the altar at night, it had to be brought at a time which is closely associated with the impending night, i.e. the period described here as בין הערבים.

וה' הכה, while the Jews were busy with preparing and eating the Passover offering, G’d was busy with killing the firstborn of Egypt and orchestrating the redemption of His people.

וצאן ובקר, of the mixed multitude who were leaving Egypt with the Israelites to take up residence among them together with all their belongings.

כי לא חמץ, it had not had time to rise and ferment due to the short period of time it took to get from Ramses which was still part of Egypt to Sukkot which was already beyond the boundary of Egypt. Our sages in the Haggadah shel Pessach described the experience in the following words: “the dough of our forefathers did not have time to rise and become leavened during the brief time it took for the Lord our G’d to manifest Himself and to redeem them.” The reference of the author of the Haggadah is to the appearance of the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire as soon as the Israelites had reached Sukkot and left Egyptian soil behind the, This was the manifestation of the Lord G’d of whom he speaks. The Torah there begins to speak of G’d walking in front of the Israelites (Exodus 13,21).

אשר ישבו במצרים שלושים שנה וארבע מאות שנה, the sum of 430 is arrived at by commencing the count from the time G’d took Avraham out of Ur Casdim in order to conclude the covenant of the pieces with him. During that conversation with Avraham, G’d had specifically taken credit for taking Avraham out of Ur Casdim, (generally understood as saving him from the fire of Nimrod’s furnace when Avraham had been a voluntary martyr for his belief in the G’d of heaven. Genesis 15,7) This is the reason why the author of Seder Olam, an ancient historical text, describes Avraham as having been 70 years old at that time.

ליל שמורים הוא לה' להוציאם, the night G’d had been looking forward to, to take the Jews out from there. G’d had not caused the Israelites all this suffering in Egypt out of caprice, just in order to keep to a timetable of His, but He simply had not found them ready and worthy of redemption until that particular night. He had reserved this night for that event because He is so full of loving kindness. This is what our sages meant when they stated that G’d was מחשב את הקץ, He had manipulated history in order to bring about the redemption so much earlier than even the Israelites had thought it would come, based on the prophecy to Avraham. (Haggadah shel Pessach.)

הוא הלילה הזה לה' שמורים, just as G’d had looked for ways and means to bring the redemption to the Jewish people from their suffering in Egypt, so He is looking for legal ways and means to redeem us from the present exile and to bring on the final redemption. Isaiah phrased this asולכן יחכה ה' לחננכם, “Truly, the Lord is waiting to show you grace.” (Isaiah 3018)

לכל בני ישראל לדורותיכם, in accordance with the statement of our sages in Rosh Hashanah 11 “just as the Israelites have been redeemed from Egypt in the month of Nissan, so the final redemption will also occur during the month of Nissan.”

זאת חקת הפסח, for the generations following the Exodus. The Torah legislates where it is to be eaten, by whom, how, when, etc. Only the requirement to put the blood of the sacrificial animal on the doorposts and to eat it in haste, ready for marching, were commandments applicable to the first such offering. All the other ordinances would apply for all future times. (compare Pessachim 96)