art by Phillip Ratner Commentary by Yehuda HaKohen) “You shall safeguard the matzot, for on this very day I will have taken your legions out of the land of Egypt; you shall observe this day for your generations as an eternal decree. In the first, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening shall you eat matzot, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening.” (SHEMOT 12:17-18)
“Matzot shall be eaten throughout the seven-day period; no hametz may be seen in your possession, nor may leaven be seen in your possession in all your borders.” (SHEMOT 13:7)
The Maharal of Prague explains in Gevurot HaShem that “matzah is simple as it is not combined with additional ingredients such as leaven, which would compound and complicate it. Simplicity in essence denotes independence, for an independent being is free and not bound together or dependent upon others. A slave is bound to his master and completely dependent upon him while a free man stands independently, not bound to anyone else. Hence, matzah specifically is an appropriate symbol for the Exodus.”
The concept of matzah as simplicity and hametz as complexity is an essential key to understanding the Jewish attitude in the exile. The word hametz shares the root letters of l’hahmitz (to miss), symbolizing the idea of missing an opportunity. Because it includes leaven, hametz is complex and something complex is often prone to miss out.
If a person were to define himself according to his complexity – by what he has acquired in life – he would be unable to live as his pure inner self. An illustration of this is a Jew who has completed medical school and now thinks of himself as a Jewish doctor. Another example could be a Jew that is made to feel comfortable in the United States and calls himself an American Jew or a Jewish American (the order of the words is not important). One who defines himself according to the external factors that he has acquired in life is complex and therefore frightened to take risks.
In the years leading up to the calamitous Holocaust, many Jews in Europe had property and professions that they were not prepared to abandon. Their complexity kept them psychologically trapped like slaves until it became too late for a physical escape. The Jewish leadership in America, meanwhile, was frightened to sacrifice the comforts they had amassed and therefore felt powerless to save their brothers overseas. They feared accusations of disloyalty if they were to focus on the “Jewish aspect” of the war effort against Germany. And they feared that a great influx of Jewish refugees would increase anti-Semitism within the United States. Due to the complexity of the Jewish mentality in the exile, an opportunity was missed and six million were lost.
A complex person is generally not ready for sacrifice because he is frightened of losing what he has acquired in life. While external factors alone do not cause one to be complex, how a person relates to these factors can easily reveal his inner truth. A rich man who is fearful of becoming poor is not ready for Redemption. In times of crisis, he would be unwilling to part with his material possessions and comfortable lifestyle. A wealthy Jew with the ability to be simple, however, is willing to leave behind everything he owns. Although he may know how to appreciate worldly goods, they do not define, trap or complicate his soul. Such a person is ready to sacrifice his money at any moment in order to assume responsibility for the future of his people. Instead of viewing himself as a wealthy Jew, he is simply a piece of the Nation of Israel.
Matzah represents simplicity, which is the true essence of a person’s soul. While it is often necessary for people to become doctors, soldiers and plumbers, these are only talents acquired in life and not the true essence of a person at the soul. Practicing medicine, fighting wars and fixing sinks are things that Jews must often do – especially when building an independent Hebrew state – but they can never define who or what a person is. Being simple, therefore, is the self-awareness of one’s truest inner essence.
While matzah is the bread of affliction, it is also the bread of liberty. One who only sees himself as simple can never be trapped by complex external factors. He has no difficulty recognizing who his brothers are and identifying a danger before that danger becomes mature enough to strike. So long as one understands his true essence in its simplicity, he cannot be enslaved and is ready for Redemption.
The courage of simplicity stems from the understanding that a person has absolutely nothing to lose. He is prepared to risk everything in order to take responsibility for his people. This willingness to sacrifice oneself for the Nation of Israel is born out of a love that elevates one’s soul from the level of the individual to that of the collective. Because fear is the shell of love, the stronger a person’s love grows the weaker his fears become. Therefore fear and selfishness are symptoms of complexity while love and courage are products of simplicity. Fear results from a lack of compassion and paralyzes a person into irresponsible dormancy. But the less fear one possesses, the more he is willing to sacrifice and the stronger his light can shine to the world. He becomes capable of daring action due to the freedom of simplicity that the matzah represents.
The Hebrew Nation received a chance to be born out from Egypt but eighty percent of Israelis at the time viewed themselves as Egyptian Jews. They defined themselves according to their complexity and therefore perished in the ninth plague of darkness, missing the opportunity to be born with their people. The twenty percent of Hebrews, who defined themselves as simply Israel, snatched the opportunity to be born and went on to receive the Torah at Sinai. They realized that they had nothing to lose because all they really were at the soul was Israel and one cannot truly live up to being Israel while existing in an unhealthy state of exile. As the Redemption process continues to unfold and we are confronted with newer and greater challenges to overcome, we must strive to attain a genuine simplicity so that we may succeed in evacuating our brothers and sisters from the Diaspora, building the Kingdom of Israel in full glory and shining HaShem’s blessing to all of mankind.
With Love of Israel,
-Yehuda HaKohen
Am Segula
