EXOD142 According to Rabbi Soloveitchik (Reflections of the Rav, ed. Abraham Besdin, Jerusalem: World Zionist Organization, 1979, pp. 198-99), the reason that a slave cannot testify in a Jewish court (Maimonides, Hilchut Edut 9:7) is that a slave has no real sense of time, an essential aspect of testimony. Since each day for the slave is precisely the same and there is little hope anticipation for the future, time is not dynamic and special for this person. A free individual is uniquely conscious of the concept of time. That is why, in transforming the Jewish people from the slave mentality in Egypt into a free nation, God had to make the Jews keenly aware of time in the commandments He gave them prior to leaving Egypt. The first mitzvah given to the people in Egypt, as noted earlier, was the setting up of the Jewish calendar (this verse). The lamb taken for the Paschal sacrifice had to be selected on a specific date, the 10th of the month of Nisan, (Exodus 12:3) sensitizing the Jews to that specific time. The people were also commanded to sacrifice a lamb at a specific time during the day, in the afternoon (Exodus 12:6). Even the actual eating of the sacrifice was related to time, as God commanded the people to eat the Pascal lamb in a state of haste and in readiness--loins girded, shoes on the feet, and staff in hand.(Exodus 12:11) Only a free person could have this sense of anticipation to leave, expectation related to time. Finally, the Jew had be to be sensitive to complete the eating before morning (Exodus 12:10) Thus, the entire preparation and eating of the Pascal sacrifice sensitized to the Jewish people to time and help them attain a sense of freedom.

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EXOD143 (Continued from [[EXOD132]] Exodus 10:11 No AMJV 194). In order to insure that the Jewish family was truly unified, God commanded the Jewish people to take the Egyptian god, the lamb, and eat it as a united family, on what became the night of the Seder in Egypt. And if there were too few people in the nuclear family to finish the lamb, then they had to invite their neighbors-usually the extended family of grand parents and siblings-to join them and eat the lamb together. God also commanded the Jewish people to perform another ritual act to symbolize the unity of the Jewish family. In each Jewish home (which is the symbol of family), they were to replace the blood of that lamb on the door posts as a sign that this was a unified Jewish family. (Exodus 12:7) only then, after each Jewish family came together, could did Jews leave Egypt.

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EXOD144 See [[EXOD142]] Exodus 12:2 month AMEMEI 283

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EXOD145 See [[EXOD165]] Exodus 12:43 apostate CHINUCH 14

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EXOD146 See [[EXOD142]] Exodus 12:2 month AMEMEI 283

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EXOD147 See [[EXOD143]] Exodus 12:3-4 household AMJV 194

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EXOD148 Do not eat meat of the Pesach offering raw or cooked. The Torah specifies that the meat of the Pesach offering must be roasted in order to help the People of Israel remember the miraculous Exodus from Egypt. At that time, the Jewish people went from slavery to freedom. It is the way of kings and their courtiers (who are free, not enslaved) to eat roasted meat, for roasting seals in the juices and imparts a very tasty flavor. Usually, the little meat that commoners eat is cooked. On the Seder night, we conduct ourselves like princes enjoying their freedom and eat the meat of the Pesach offering roasted, in the manner of royalty. [We eat the roasted meat of the Pesach offering only when the beis HaMikdash is standing in Jerusalem. Current practice is to avoid eating any roasted meat on the Seder night so that no one will think the meat dish is a Pesach offering, which we cannot bring in the interim. Ed.] Another reason for eating the meat roasted is to recall that the Children of Israel left Egypt in haste. There was no time to cook the meat in a pot.

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EXOD149 Do not leave over any meat of the Pesach offering. Our nation must recall the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt, and it must be fixed in our hearts that Hashem redeemed us, freed us and elevated us to greatness. We became like kings, and a king has no need to leave over food from one day to the next. If any meat of the Pesach offering remains on the morning of the 15th of Nisan, it must be burned, as kings do to dispose of what it is no longer of any use to them.

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EXOD150 See [[EXOD142]] Exodus 12:2 month AMEMEI 283

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EXOD151 See [[EXOD142]] Exodus 12:2 month AMEMEI 283

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