Redeeming, Fast and Slow: Two Components of the Exodus and of Redemption In Our Time

Rabbi Josh Blaustein

One of the basic halachot of the Seder is that we must “say,” or explain “pesach,” “matzah,” and “maror.” In fact, matzah and maror must be eaten specifically in that order, or one has not properly fulfilled the mitzvah.

In his commentary to the Haggadah, Rav Avraham Yitzchak Kook explains that this specific order corresponds to stages in the historical process of redemption. Matzah corresponds to God’s “yad chazakah” (strong hand) and maror to His “zero’a netuya” (outstretched arm). That is to say, matzah represents redemption through yad chazakah–sudden, strong, overpowering, and top-down. Indeed, we state at the Seder that we are eating matzah because “lo hispik betzekam l’hachmitz ad shenigleh aleihem…Hakadosh Baruch Hu u’ga’alam,” Hashem appeared and redeemed us suddenly–before the bread we were baking could even finish rising. Matzah, then, is a perfect symbol of redemption that comes in a flash, whether we are ready or not.

On the other hand, maror represents a slower, incremental redemption, one that we are necessary participants in, a sort of bottom-up redemption. To Rav Kook, the bitterness of the maror and its connection to a long period of slavery reminds us that as we taste the bitterness of exile and oppression and of a long, hard history until final redemption, we are aware that it is only temporary bitterness. This is the “zero’a netuyah”–Hashem’s “arm” stretches through the length of history to pull us slowly towards redemption and stretches into each of us to encourage us to become active participants in the process. That is why matzah must come before maror. Only when God reveals himself in a sudden, overpowering way and gives us a glimpse of redemption do we sense the goal towards which we are working. Only then are we able to see the necessity of our own role in the redemption and to believe that it will happen even if it lies at the end of a long, twisted, torturous journey–a bitter journey.

The process of leaving Egypt and the laws of matzah and maror at the Seder teach us that both elements of redemption are needed. It is essential that Hashem provide overpowering, sudden salvation to provide a glimpse of what lies ahead and to show us what a different reality can look like. But the next part of the process is a human-driven, slow, incremental redemption in which we draw inspiration from Hashem’s obvious intervention in the world and we commit ourselves to playing a role in moving towards the future we believe in and desire.

The parallels to our own historical period seem to be obvious. After Hashem’s intervention to redeem the Jews in Egypt, we started the long bitter journey to Israel and to nationhood in our allotted land. In the modern period, after one of the most bitter stretches of Jewish history, Hashem again used His “yad chazakah” to show how important it is to Him for His people to be in His land. The miraculous nature of the events of the Independence War in 1948 and of the Six-Day War in 1967 energized Jews throughout the world, and are celebrated on Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim each year. We are now at the stage at which this inspiration must sustain us in another long and bitter historical period, one in which the ultimate redemption can seem elusive and distant. The message of the maror is especially relevant now, and it is easy to lose sight of. Many of our brothers and sisters do not see the religious significance of the modern State of Israel and of its founding, and many think that if the redemption was not completed then it was not authentic or divine, that we must wait for and depend on Hashem to play the only active role. But this is to focus only on the lesson of the matzah and the “yad chazakah” and to ignore the lesson of the maror and of the “zero’a netuyah.” The integration of both matzah and maror into the Seder, and the order prescribed for them, remind us that redemption can be long and bitter and that we have an active role to play in this historical process. But, as Rav Kook taught, Hashem’s “zero’a netuyah” stretches through history and into each of us, drawing out our potential and guiding us as we do our best to work towards our nation’s fulfillment and destiny. Hashem does his part; it’s now up to us to keep moving forward.