[Avodah] They didn’t even prepare any provisions for themselves

[Akiva Miller]

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>>> They will eat the meat on this night; fire-roasted and matzos, they
will eat it with bitter herbs. (Shemos 12:8)
>>> Guard the matzos, for on this very day I will have taken your company
out of the land of  Mitzrayim... (12:17)
>>> ... And you - no one may exit from the doorway of his house until
morning. (12:22)
>>> Mitzrayim was hard on the people, rushing to send them out of the
land... (12:33)
>>> The people picked up its dough before it could become chometz, their
leftovers wrapped up in their clothes, on their shoulder. (12:34)
>>> They baked the dough that they took out of  Mitzrayim; it was matzah
loaves, because it did not become chometz. For they were expelled from
Mitzrayim, and couldn’t delay, and they didn’t even prepare any provisions
for themselves. (12:39)

To review, everyone ate the Korban Pesach in the evening, and everyone knew
that they would be leaving Mitzrayim in the morning. In fact, they were not
allowed to leave until morning arrived. And yet, no one had time to prepare.

In recent years, I have wondered how that could possibly be. It seems to me
that they had all night to prepare! After they were done with dinner, why
couldn’t they make fresh bread for the road?

If I heard any good answers to this question in previous years, I do not
remember them. So a new answer came to me this week, and I’d like to share
it:

History repeats itself.

Is it possible that Shavuos morning was NOT the first time that Klal
Yisrael overslept?

As I described above, once the Seder in Mitzrayim had ended, we SHOULD have
been so excited about the coming geulah that we would have stayed up all
night preparing. But maybe we didn’t. Maybe we all went to bed as usual.
Imagine what happened next:

Cue the scene. It's like when the FBI decides to arrest the mobsters that
they've been investigating. But there's a twist to the story.

At the crack of dawn, the Mitzrayim Police Department descends en masse
(well, with whoever was still alive after Makas Bechoros, at least) upon
the Jewish neighborhoods. (The Jewish homes, by the way, were easily
identifiable from the red paint on the doorways.)

Loud knocking, hard pounding on every single door. “Everyone! Wake up! Now!
Paroh orders you all to leave the country immediately!!!! NOW!!!!”

But inside: “Immaaaa!!!! I’m huuungry!!!!”

“I know sweetie, but we have no time. We have to get going. Let’s just
throw some dough together, and we’ll bake the bread later.”

Al ayleh ani bochiyah.  Had we taken Moshe Rabenu’s words to heart, we
would indeed have stayed up all night preparing (like how we should have
stayed up all night on Shavuos in anticipation of Matan Torah). We would
have had plenty of freshly baked bread to sustain us on the road out of
Mitzrayim. And for future generations, the prohibition of chometz would
apply only to the Korban Pesach. And matzah would be a reminder only of the
slaves’ bread, irrelevant to our newfound freedom.

Could it be?

Akiva Miller
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