Hilchot Tefilla - הַחֹ֧דֶשׁ הַזֶּ֛ה and חָמֵץ

החודש הזה לכם ראש חדשים, from now on these months will be yours, to do with as you like. [you have My authority to organise your own calendar. Ed.] This is by way of contrast to the years when you were enslaved when you had no control over your time or timetable at all. [Freedom, i.e. retirement from the “rat race,” means being able to formulate one’s own timetable. Ed.] While you were enslaved, your days, hours, minutes even, were always at the beck and call of your taskmasters.

Rav Aḥa bar Ya’akov said: And one must mention the exodus from Egypt in the kiddush of Shabbat day, despite the fact that Shabbat is not directly connected to the Exodus. The proof is that here, with regard to Passover, it is written: “That you may remember the day when you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life” (Deuteronomy 16:3); and it is written there, with regard to Shabbat: “Remember the Shabbat day to sanctify it” (Exodus 20:8). By means of a verbal analogy of the word “day,” these verses teach that one must also recall the Exodus on Shabbat.

ראשון הוא לכם, “it is a first for you;” from now on this will be a first month for you, the reason being that you will start counting by months as a reminder of when you received your freedom from slavery. It will forever remind you of the Good that I have done for you. Up until now, the month of Tishrey had been the first month and Nissan the seventh. This agrees with what is written in Kings I, 8,2: בירח האיתנים בחג, “in the month of the original ones “ (the patriarchs, or in the months whom the early generations of mankind referred to) as the seventh month.”Yonatan ben Uzziel translates the word איתנים as “the ancient generations of man called it the first month and now it is the seventh month.”

AND UNLEAVENED BREAD, ‘AL’ (WITH) BITTER HERBS THEY SHALL EAT IT. The purport of the verse is as follows: And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and with unleavened bread with bitter herbs, they shall eat it. [The word al here thus means “with,” and not “upon,” as it generally does.] Similarly: ‘al’ unleavened bread and bitter herbs means “with”; And they came both men ‘al’ women [means “with” the women]; its head ‘al’ its legs ‘v’al’ the inwards thereof [means its head “with” its legs “and with” the inwards thereof]. Scripture does not say im (with) [but instead uses al] in order to instruct that it is not obligatory to wrap them together, [i.e., insert the paschal meat and the bitter herbs between the unleavened bread], and eat them. Thus [the word umatzoth (and unleavened bread)] is missing the letter beth, [which would make it ubematzoth (and with unleavened bread)], similar to the expressions: they shall wash ‘mayim’ (water) [the word missing a beth, which would make it b’mayim, (with water)]; And Seled died ‘lo’ (no) children, [the word lo missing a beth, which would make it b’lo (without) children]. Thus Scripture teaches that there is no commandment for eating the bitter herbs alone, but only with the eating of the flesh of the Passover-offering. Concerning unleavened bread, however, Scripture repeated it by commanding, At even ye shall eat unleavened bread, even by itself [when there is no Passover-offering], as is the opinion of our Rabbis.
A more correct interpretation is that we say that the word, umatzoth (and unleavened bread), is connected with the earlier part of the verse: And they shall eat the flesh … and unleavened bread. The verse then continues to command that the flesh mentioned be eaten with bitter herbs. Thus He commanded the eating of the flesh with the eating of the unleavened bread, but He did not command the eating of bitter herbs, except by saying that they should eat the meat with bitter herbs, thus hinting that there is no [separate] commandment regarding the bitter herbs. It is only that the meat must be eaten with them, and when there is no Passover-offering there is no specific commandment [of the Torah] regarding the eating of the bitter herbs. It also teaches us that the bitter herbs do not invalidate the meat. Thus, if one ate the meat of the Passover-offering and did not eat bitter herbs, he has [nevertheless] fulfilled his duty of eating the Passover-offering, since the commandment concerning the eating of the Passover-offering is like the commandment of eating unleavened bread, each one an independent commandment in itself.

צרורות בשמלותם, “bundled up inside their garments.” This line is the reason why we have the practice of wrapping the afikomen” in a serviette or tablecloth after breaking it and saving it for being eaten at the end of the Seder meal.

לחם עני THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION — i.e. bread that calls to mind the affliction to which they were subjected in Egypt (Sifrei Devarim 130:5).

כי בחפזון יצאת FOR THOU CAMEST FORTH [FROM THE LAND OF EGYPT] IN HASTE, and the dough therefore had no time to become leavened, and this (the eating of unleavened bread) shall be unto you as reminder of this. The haste, spoken of here, was not on thy part, but on Egypt’s part, for so it states, (Exodus 12:33) “And Egypt was urgent upon the people [hastening to send them out of the land]” (Sifrei Devarim 130:6; cf. Berakhot 9a).

(1) בעשור לחודש הזה, ויקחו להם, “on the tenth of this month, when they shall take or purchase for themselves etc.” The tenth of the month during that year was on a Sabbath. As a reminder of the fact that on that Sabbath the people collectively performed this first commandment, it has since been named שבת הגדול, “the great Sabbath.” [Compare an article on this subject in the miluim to Torah shleymah by Rabbi Menachem Kasher of blessed memory Ed.]

אך אשר יאכל לכל נפש, “However (work needed) for preparing the food for the person is permitted to be performed also on those two days. The reason why the Torah had to add this line is because it had written previously that כל מלאכה, every manner of work is prohibited on these two days, it had to spell out the exception to that rule. On another occasion (Leviticus 23,7) where the festivals are discussed, the work prohibition was mentioned already with the term מלאכת עבודה, the type of menial work performed on the week days, instead of the Torah writing: כל מלאכה “all manner of work.” The Torah wishes us to know that preparing food is not considered “menial work.” The only days on which even this kind of work is forbidden are the Sabbath and Yom Kippur, (which is also called Sabbath) [and had been forbidden in the desert before the Torah had been given as soon as the manna had fallen on the sixth day. Ed.]