A significant difference between the two manifestations of being is to be seen in the fact that only as a thing does the world have solidity and tangible durability. Only as It can the world be circumscribed by the coordinates of time and space. Being, however, as a personal presence, as Thou that meets us, does not endure in time, nor can it be placed in space beside another presence. The relation between I and Thou is only possible in the spontaneity of a timeless now. A meeting remembered is no longer the living relation. In memory, one’s former Thou has already become an It. In each encounter one meets only one presence at a time. The moment the I becomes aware of a new presence, one has brought an encounter to a close and entered into a new relation. The former Thou has now sunk down into the world of thinghood as a past experience. All presence exists for me in the actuality of my encounter with it. Without such actuality all reality turns for me into thinghood. All relations with one’s Thou are exclusive. The It borders on other Its; the Thou does not border. However, being that cannot be caught in the net of the time-space coordinates lacks solidity. Thus, the I-Thou aspect of reality is fleeting. One encounters one’s Thou unexpectedly and loses it again without warning. A Thou may reveal himself to one in a flash and will fade away again with equal speed. It is man’s melancholy lot that every Thou must turn for him into an It most of the time of his life.
Matzah: Origins of a Treat
וַיֹּאפ֨וּ אֶת־הַבָּצֵ֜ק אֲשֶׁ֨ר הוֹצִ֧יאוּ מִמִּצְרַ֛יִם עֻגֹ֥ת מַצּ֖וֹת כִּ֣י לֹ֣א חָמֵ֑ץ כִּֽי־גֹרְשׁ֣וּ מִמִּצְרַ֗יִם וְלֹ֤א יָֽכְלוּ֙ לְהִתְמַהְמֵ֔הַּ וְגַם־צֵדָ֖ה לֹא־עָשׂ֥וּ לָהֶֽם׃
And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had taken out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, since they had been driven out of Egypt and could not delay; nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves.
וגם צדה לא עשו להם. הגיד הכתוב מעלתם של ישראל כי האמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו ולא אמרו איך נצא אל המדבר הגדול והנורא בלא צדה.
והנה זה גודל מדת הבטחון ועל זה הקב"ה משבחם ע"י הנביא הוא שאמר (ירמיהו ב׳:ב׳) זכרתי לך חסד נעוריך אהבת כלולותיך לכתך אחרי במדבר בארץ לא זרועה.
וגם צדה לא עשו להם, “nor had they made provisions for themselves.” The verse is a compliment to the Jewish people who believed in G’d and Moses His servant (14,31). They did not ask how they could be expected to move into the great and terrible desert without even having made provisions for themselves. This was the ultimate expression of faith in G’d. G’d praised them for this act of faith still over 800 years later when Jeremiah publicly recited G’d’s appreciation of that act by the Israelites in Jeremiah 2,2, when he was told to say in G’d’s name: “I accounted to you as a favor the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me into the wilderness, into a land not sown.”