Chametz Lunch and Learn

(7) They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it. (8) They shall eat the flesh that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs. (11) This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the LORD. (12) For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I the LORD. (13) And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. (14) This day shall be to you one of remembrance: you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD throughout the ages; you shall celebrate it as an institution for all time.

(21) Moses then summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, “Go, pick out lambs for your families, and slaughter the passover offering. (22) Take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and apply some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. None of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning. (23) For when the LORD goes through to smite the Egyptians, He will see the blood on the lintel and the two doorposts, and the LORD will pass over the door and not let the Destroyer enter and smite your home.

(15) Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. (17) You shall observe the [Feast of] Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your ranks out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day throughout the ages as an institution for all time.(19) No leaven shall be found in your houses for seven days. For whoever eats what is leavened, that person shall be cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is a stranger or a citizen of the country. (20) You shall eat nothing leavened; in all your settlements you shall eat unleavened bread.

You may not eat chametz: In order to instill the memory in our hearts through a physical action which shows and reminds us of this idea: With regards to matzah we are forbidden to allow the dough to rise, creating a simple substance made of the flour and water that God created. This is different than "chametz" (leavened bread) which can rise and grow through human ingenuity. Matzah is therefore a sign to remind us that the survival of the nation was purely through God's grace.

(1) החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, “this month shall be for you the beginning of the months, etc.” It is significant that at this juncture God did not instruct Moses and Aaron to relay the content of this message to the Jewish people. Surely the word לכם, “for you,” implied that the fixing of the new moon was a commandment applicable to each and every Israelite! Failure of God to issue the customary instruction: “say to all the Israelites, etc.,” therefore indicated that the determining of the new moon was something reserved for the elders of the people, a court of experts, and was not something incumbent on the individual Jew. This is why these instructions were addressed to both Moses and Aaron in their capacity as the experts at the time. The word לכם, in this instance means: “to the likes of you, to trained experts.”

The word החודש הזה is a reference to the month of Nissan. The Torah calls it ראשון, “the first,” both here and again in verse 18. Seeing that the month of Tishrei is the first month in the compilation of years [something we have in common with the rest of mankind, Ed.] the Torah had to add the word לכם, “for you,” to show that Nissan is unique to the Jewish people as the first in our list of months. The implication is that we count these months as a symbol of the month in which we attained our freedom as a nation. It follows that wherever mention is made of the month of Tishrei, the Torah refers to it as the seventh month. This means it is the seventh following Nissan. Incidentally, this is the reason that the Torah has no names for the various months, but refers to them as a ordinal numbers, i.e. “second,” “third,” etc. By doing so the memory of the redemption from Egypt is constantly invoked when we read about any of the festivals which occur during certain months of the year...

We learn from all this that the Torah itself did not give specific names to the months just as it did not assign specific names to the days of the week as is customary amongst the Gentile nations. We refer to the days of the week by their proximity or otherwise to the Sabbath, i.e. “the first day after Sabbath,” “the second day after Sabbath,” etc. We do this in order to maintain the centrality of the Sabbath in our calendar. This is the plain meaning of Exodus 20,8: “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” The Torah demands that we remember the Sabbath on a daily basis.