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 47 The Passover Haggadah Egypt, as it is written: “You shall say: It is the Passover offering in honor of the Lord, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he smote the Egyptians and spared our houses. The people bowed and worshiped.”!

‘The leader points to the matzah:

Why do we eat this matzah? Because the supreme King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be he, revealed himself to our fathers and redeemed them even before their dough had time to ferment, as it is written: “They baked matzoth of the unleavened dough which they had brought out of Egypt; they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any food for their journey.”?

‘The leader points to the maror:

Why do we eat this bitter herb? Because the Egyptians embittered the lives of our fathers in Egypt, as it is written: “They made life bitter for them with hard labor, with mortar and bric and with all kinds of work in the fields; whatever work they im- posed on them was rigorous and harsh.”

In every generation it is man’s duty to regard himself as though he personally had come out of Egypt, as it is written: “You shall tell your son on that day: This is on account of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Zgypt.’" It was not only our fathers whom God set free from slavery; along with them he freed us too, as it is written: “He brought us out from there that he might bring us home, to give us the land which he had pledged to our fathers.”

‘The matzah, rich in ethical symbolism, is a reminder of the joyous eager- ness which marked the departure from slavery into freedom, and also suggests purity of heart since leaven is a symbol of decay. In the Zohar, matzah is called celestial bread cax>y Xam in the sonse that it is sorved as an antidote to Egyptian bondage and corruption.

1 Brodus 12:27, 39. “Exodus 1:14; 13:8. *Deuleronomy 6:23. �