WHAT’S THE HURRY?

The festival of Pesach is intimately associated with Matzah, the dry cracker-bread which resulted from the bread dough not being able to rise in time before the Israelites left Egypt.

The passage in Exodus that records this connection refers to God as the “King of all Kings”. Why specifically with reference to the dough not rising is God referred to as ‘Melech Malchei Ha-Melachim’? Moreover, it would seem that Matza is an irrelevant aspect of the Exodus narrative, when compared with the miraculous redemption itself.

So why does the Torah incorporate Matzah into the name of the festival, calling it ‘Chag Hamatzot’? More puzzling is why the redemption was so rushed and disorganized in the first place. What was the reason for such haste? Could God not have given the Israelites a few more hours or days so that they could leave in an organized, dignified manner?

Rabbi Dunner addresses these and other critical questions regarding the Exodus event, offering a foundational explanation that cuts to the core of Jewish identity, and to our relationship with God through the medium of a timebound physical world.