Matzah: Why Do We Eat It?

(1) Matzah: A Remembrance of History and a Symbol of Hope:
This is like the bread of poverty which our ancestors ate: As we begin the Haggadah, we do so by emphasizing the power of God. Matzah serves as a symbol of memory. When we refer to the bread of affliction we are reminded that despite the fact that Pharaoh was so powerful that no slave ever escaped from Egypt, we were able to do so with the help of God. Matzah teaches us that we could not have escaped from Egypt on our own. Other people would have taken credit for their escape, but the bread of affliction is a reminder that we were powerless on o ur own. When we contemplate the meaning of Matzah which our ancestors ate and through which our ancestors merited God's blessings, we are affirm that the hand of God is all powerful, the creator of light and darkness. Matzah is not the food of slavery but an affirmation of God's providence, the One who creates the rich and the poor.
Therefore, all who are hungry come and eat: We invite the needy to come and eat with us. Even though the sages tell us that the poor are often humiliated by their poverty, having contemplated the meaning of the Matzah we can now say to them: "Don't be ashamed". What we have is not ours. Everything comes from God. We are eating at the table of the Merciful One. Even though you are now in great distress and need, your lowly state is meant to raise you up so that you can accept God's exalted inheritance.
All who are in need: We should invite not only those who are hungry but those who do not have the means of celebrating and honoring the festival.
Come and celebrate Passover: We invite him to come take whatever he needs to celebrate the holiday for he and we are the same. One should speak gently to a needy person. Say to him: "Consider this! Has any creature created something from nothing? Can one create fullness out of emptiness? Surely God can make the dejected feel secure and raise up those who have faltered!"
Now we are here (in a place where God's face is hidden) Next year in the land of Israel (where God's providence will be revealed): This is a reference to Deuteronomy 31:17: "Then my anger will flare up against them and I will abandon them and hide My face from them…And they shall say on that day, 'Surely it is because God is not in our midst that these evils have befallen us.:'"
Now we are slaves, next year free, each person underneath his vine and fig tree. We can only be free when we recognize the power of God. Matzah alludes to the power of renewal. With almost nothing we make Matzah. God renews the world ex nihilo, out of nothing, just as the bread of affliction is made without leaven to begin its preparation. The preparation of Matzah, however, begins with something: flour; human beings cannot really create something out of nothing. From the Matzah, then, we are made aware that God is all powerful and has the ability to reward or punish.
When this idea is firmly in our hearts, then we will be 'in the land of Israel' and 'we will be free.' For there is no real redemption like the liberation of the mind, and there is no exile as complete as an imperfect intellect. One is 'free' when one's desire for material possessions is sublimated to his intellect, and one's intellect surrenders to God. Each person is obligated to see himself as if his intellect went out from the exile of foolishness and materialism. That is why we say:

(1) Ha lachma anya: At the beginning of the Maggid, we open the story of the Exodus with a statement in which we call matzah the bread of affliction (or possibly the bread of poverty) which our ancestors ate while they were still in Egypt. Later in the Haggadah, we explain matzah differently: we say that our ancestors ate matzah when they left Egypt; the dough did not have time to rise because they left Egypt hastily. The two explanations seem to contradict one another. In his commentary, Rabbi David Abudraham wonders why we begin the Haggadah by referring to matzah as “the bread…which our ancestors ate in Egypt.” The Torah explains that matzah was baked when our ancestors left Egypt: “For they baked unleavened cakes of dough …when they went forth from Egypt…because they were thrust out of Egypt. If matzah was the bread baked as they left Egypt, how can we say that it is also the bread our ancestors ate while they were still slaves? There is no contradiction here since the Torah also tells us that matzah was part of the meal at the original Passover sacrifice while the Israelites were still in Egypt: “They shall eat (the Passover offering) with matzah and with maror.”
Why did the Israelites eat matzah before they left Egypt? It was a portent of what was to come for the Israelites. It was a sign that they would leave Egypt in such haste that they would not have time to bake bread or for their dough to rise. Abudraham offers this explanation later when commenting on the passage in the Haggadah, “This matzah, for what reason?”
But there are other reasons that we eat matzah as well. The poor eat matzah because it takes time to digest and they will not be hungry as often. Also, it is easy to prepare so those who are hungry will not have to wait long for it to be baked when they return home to eat dinner.
We begin the Seder with this statement, ha lachma anya, so that the needy who come to our home Passover will not take offense at the type of food that we are serving them. They might assume that the reason we are serving matzah is because this is the common fare of the needy. As a result they might take offense and refuse to come to our homes. We, therefore, begin by explaining that this is the type of food our ancestors ate in Egypt and that we are following their example on this night. By explaining it in this way they will understand that we are not eating such food because we are being miserly toward the needy. Just the opposite; having referred to the matzah as the bread of poverty, we continue, “All who are hungry come and eat!” That is, even if you have enough to eat the week of Passover, if you are hungry right now (because you have been fasting in anticipation of the Seder), come and eat. “All who are needy,” - those who do not have enough provisions for the whole week of Passover “Come and celebrate Passover,” with us all the days of the holiday.