(א) וְשָׂרַי אֵשֶׁת אַבְרָם לֹא יָלְדָה לוֹ וגו' (בראשית טז, א), אָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחָאי הָגָר בִּתּוֹ שֶׁל פַּרְעֹה הָיְתָה, וְכֵיוָן שֶׁרָאָה פַּרְעֹה מַעֲשִׂים שֶׁנַּעֲשׂוּ לְשָׂרָה בְּבֵיתוֹ, נָטַל בִּתּוֹ וּנְתָנָהּ לוֹ, אָמַר מוּטָב שֶׁתְּהֵא בִּתִּי שִׁפְחָה בְּבַיִת זֶה וְלֹא גְבִירָה בְּבַיִת אַחֵר, הֲדָא הוּא דִכְתִיב: וְלָהּ שִׁפְחָה מִצְרִית וּשְׁמָהּ הָגָר,
(1) ...Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai said Hagar was Pharaoh's daughter. When he saw the deeds on behalf of Sarah in his house, he took his daughter and gave her to him, saying, 'better that my daughter by a maidservant in this house than a mistress in another house.' This is what is written: "She had an Egyptian handmaid whose name was Hagar."
Cynthia Ozick, Metaphor and Memory
Four hundred years of bondage in Egypt, rendered as metaphoric memory, can be spoken in a moment; in a single sentence. What this sentence is, we know; we have built every idea of moral civilization on it. It is a sentence that conceivably sums up at the start every revelation that came afterward….”The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the home-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”
Leviticus 24, verse 22, insists further: “You shall have one manner of law, the same for the stranger as for the home-born.” A similar injunction appears in Exodus, and again in Deuteronomy, and again in Numbers. Altogether, this precept of loving the stranger, and treating the stranger as an equal both in emotion and under law, appears thirty-six times in the Pentateuch. It is there because a moral connection has been made with the memory of bondage. Leviticus 24, verse 22, demands memory, and then converts memory into metaphor: “Because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Bondage becomes a metaphor of pity for the outsider; Egypt becomes the great metaphor of reciprocity. “And a stranger shall you not oppress,” says Exodus 23, verse 8, “for you know the heart of a stranger, seeing you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” There stands the parable; there stands the sacred metaphor of belonging, one heart to another. Without the metaphor of memory and history, we cannot imagine the life of the Other. We cannot imagine what it is to be someone else. Metaphor is the reciprocal agent, the universalizing force: it makes possible the power to envision the stranger’s heart.
Hevrutah:
Keeping in mind Cynthia Ozick's insights given metaphor and memory we will now explore the symbol of Matzah. What is Matzah? What are the various meanings imbued in this strange and crunchy food?
Read texts 4-9-- you won't have time to get to all of them, but read as many as you can. Ask yourselves-- based on these texts, what is Matzah? What is its function and meaning at the time of the Exodus? What is its function and meaning now?
(ג) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל־הָעָ֗ם זָכ֞וֹר אֶת־הַיּ֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְצָאתֶ֤ם מִמִּצְרַ֙יִם֙ מִבֵּ֣ית עֲבָדִ֔ים כִּ֚י בְּחֹ֣זֶק יָ֔ד הוֹצִ֧יא יְהֹוָ֛ה אֶתְכֶ֖ם מִזֶּ֑ה וְלֹ֥א יֵאָכֵ֖ל חָמֵֽץ׃
ולא יאכל חמץ. כדי להשריש הזכירה בלב על ידי איזה פעולה המראה ומזכיר זה הענין צויתי שלא יאכל חמץ, דמצה אין בה יתרון על ידי האדם להעלות העיסה יותר מהקמח והמים שנבראים ממנו יתברך...
HaEmek Davar on Exodus 13:3
You shall not eat chametz. I commanded you not to eat chametz in order to root the awareness of this idea in the heart through some action that teaches and reminds us. Matzah does not benefit from the stratagems of human hands, to rise the dough any more than bread and water- which were created by the Blessed One.
Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin (20 November 1816 in Mir, Russia – 10 August 1893 in Warsaw, Poland), also known as Reb Hirsch Leib Berlin, and commonly known by the acronym Netziv, was an Orthodox rabbi, Rosh yeshiva (dean) of the Volozhin Yeshiva and author of several works of rabbinic literature in Lithuania.[1][2]
(ה) רבן גמליאל היה אומר: כל שלא אמר שלשה דברים אלו בפסח, לא יצא ידי חובתו, ואלו הן: פסח, מצה, ומרור. פסח - על שום שפסח המקום על בתי אבותינו במצרים. מצה - על שום שנגאלו אבותינו ממצרים. מרור - על שום שמררו המצרים את חיי אבותינו במצרים. בכל דור ודור חיב אדם לראות את עצמו כאלו הוא יצא ממצרים, שנאמר (שמות יג) והגדת לבנך ביום ההוא לאמר, בעבור זה עשה ה' לי בצאתי ממצרים...
(5) Rabban Gamliel used to say: Whoever does not mentioned these three things on Passover does not discharge his duty, and these are they: the Passover-offering, matzah, and maror. The Passover-offering, because God passed over the houses of our ancestors in Egypt. Matzah, because our ancestors were redeemed from Egypt. Maror, because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our ancestors in Egypt. In every generation a person must regard himself as though he personally had gone out of Egypt, as it is said: “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying: ‘It is because of what Hashem did for me when I came forth out of Egypt.’” ....