Born to Fly
THIS MATZA – that we eat: what does it recall? It recalls the dough of our ancestors, which did not have time to rise before the King, King of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed Himself and redeemed them, as it is said: “They baked the dough that they had brought out of Egypt into unleavened cakes, for it had not risen, for they were cast out of Egypt and could not delay, and they made no provision for the way.”
THESE BITTER HERBS (Marror) – that we eat: what do they recall? They recall the bitterness that the Egyptians imposed on the lives of our ancestors in Egypt, as it is said: “They embittered their lives with hard labor, with clay and with bricks and with all field labors, with all the work with which they enslaved them – hard labor.” – The Haggadah
If Matzah teaches us anything, it is utter simplicity. The recipe is no secret, and it could not be reduced to any fewer ingredients: Flour and water and intense heat! That is it! No more! No less! That delivers freedom. Simplicity is not deprivation. It’s the art of prioritizing, trimming, and weaning ourselves from anything that is not essential. How is that liberating?
In the fifteen steps of the Seder two of those major headliners are Matzah and Marror, in that order. The word “Seder” means order. Here the Seder itself is out of order. That’s serious! When the copy machine at work is not functioning, the sign reads, “Out of Order!” This is especially problematic when the entire event is named, “Order”.
When we introduce the Matzah and Marror we refer first to the Matzah as a reminder of the time when we exited Egypt in such a hurry that the dough did not have time to rise. We can look at it as our boarding pass. “The passengers from section 1 begin boarding. Please have your boarding passes ready.”
The Matzos are our tickets to freedom!
We then reference the Marror which reminds us of the bitter experience we had at the hands of the Egyptians. Chronologically, the Marror should precede the Matzah. Why are they listed in reverse order?
Every year I look for a new answer to this question. I have a few classic approaches. The Ohr Gedaliahu says that we are only capable of making a blessing on the Marror once we have left the hardship behind. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight we can first appreciate how that bad situation prepared us for something better. Then we can upgrade it even more with the Korech, the Hillel sandwich, where we lean like free people again with the realization that the whole experience was part of a beneficial plan.
Let us imagine a magnificent and majestic bald eagle that finds himself in a chicken’s coop. He senses that something is wrong. He feels awkward and strangely different. He tries to pick up as many of those tiny kernels as he can just like the chickens around him, but they don’t really satisfy him. One day he notices a slight opening in the wire that defines his home. He manages to squeeze out and now he sits atop the wire cage. Instinctively, he takes a wild jump and to prevent a hard fall he spreads his broad wings and surprise he begins to fly and soar. He climbs higher and higher until he can view the entire vista of mountains, rivers, and fields. It is so beyond what he had ever imagined before.
The time flies as he does, and the sun begins to set. So, he descends to that familiar place down below that he had always called home. He lands on the chicken coop and squeezes himself back through the opening. The farmer comes along to feed the chickens and noticing the breech, mends it quickly to make sure no birds escape. He realizes now that he is an eagle trapped in a chicken coop, this wire home is a prison that limits him severely.
After a liberating experience, a person can then find themself painfully aware of how constraining their current setting is. They live with existential angst and a longing for freedom. Matzah and then Marror.
Now, imagine a majestic bald eagle limping along encumbered by a cell phone in one hand and a big gulp drink in the other. He is unable to fly! He is unaware that he can fly! This is tragic. His only hope to ever fly is to simplify and to learn how to let go of whatever it is that is holding him down. He – we were born to fly!
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Date: April 5, 2025
