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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