The Zohar's Formula: Matzah + Vav = Mitzvah

(18) In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening.

(3) You shall not eat anything leavened with it; for seven days thereafter you shall eat unleavened bread, poor man's bread—for you departed from the land of Egypt hurriedly—so that you may remember the day of your departure from the land of Egypt as long as you live.

(1) ששת ימים תאכל מצות SIX DAYS THOU SHALT EAT UNLEAVENED BREAD — But in another passage it states, (Exodus 12:15): “seven days [ye shall eat unleavened bread]’’! ... Another explanation is: It teaches regarding the eating of unleavened bread on the seventh day of Passover that it is not obligatory; and from here (from this law concerning the seventh day) you may derive the law for the other six days. For the seventh day was included in the general statement (“seven days, thou shalt eat unleavened bread’’), and in the text: “six days thou shall eat unleavened bread” it has left the general statement, to teach ... eating unleavened bread on it is not obligatory but optional. Now, according to the well-known rule, it did not leave the general statement in order to teach this regarding itself alone but regarding everything that is included in the general statement. Now how is it with the seventh day? It is optional as regards the eating of unleavened bread (as explained in the earlier portion of this comment)! This, too, according to the rule, applies also to everything that was included in the general statement, and therefore all the other days are also optional in this respect, with the exception, however, of the first night of Passover, for which Scripture has fixed it (the eating of unleavened bread) as an obligation, as it is said, (Exodus 22:18) “at evening ye shall eat unleavened bread” (Pesachim 120a; cf. also Rashi on Exodus 12:15).

Rabbi Chiya opened and said, One verse says, "In the first month on the fourteenth day in the evening you shall eat matza", and another verse says "Seven days you shall eat matza, poor man's bread", it says "poor man's bread." This issue was discussed by the colleagues and they said: When Israel was in Egypt, they were under the dominion of another (Pharaoh). When Hashem wanted to bring them close to Him, He gave them poor man's bread. Who is the poor man? King David, who writes of himself, "For I am poor and impoverished."

And this poor man's bread is called matza, the feminine without the masculine, when they initially encountered the matza it was impoverished, but when they came closer to it, Hashem brought them to a higher level and attached masculine to feminine. And like this, when the matza is attached to the masculine it is called mitzvah with the added "vav", and that is what is meant by "for this mitzvah". Because of this, it is initially called matza and then mitzvah.

Anyone who uses the light of Torah, which is called the dew of light, the light of Torah will revive him; and anyone who does not use the light of Torah, the light of Torah will not revive him.

(1) And [so] their existence will be dependent upon that which is made physical from the radiance of the Divine presence — like the generation of the wilderness who grasped the radiance of the Divine Presence at the Sea, as they said (Mechilta Shemot 16:2), "A maidservant saw upon the Sea what Yechezkel the prophet did not see," and from that time, their soul became elevated to subsist from its products, which is the manna.