Question:
I am running our family Seder this Pesach so I want to be prepared. One part where we always get lost is the eating of the egg. I have looked through the Haggadah, and it doesn't say anywhere why we eat the egg. The matza and bitter herbs are all well explained, but the egg not. So why do we eat it?
 
Answer:
Chickens and eggs are the subject of some of the greatest philosophical conundrums. Like which came first? And why did one cross the road?
 
Here is yet another poultry riddle:
 
When is a chicken's birthday? When the egg was laid, or when it hatched?
 
There is a strong argument to say that a chicken should celebrate its birthday on the day the egg was laid. After all, that is when it became detached from its mother. On the other hand, one could argue that it is not really born until the day the egg was hatched. Only then is it a chicken, not an egg.
 
If I were a chicken I would celebrate both. The day my egg was laid is significant. That's when my mother gave birth to me. But the day my egg hatched is the day I came out into the world. An egg is a birth yet to happen. But it is the start of something. So I'd have a small party on the earlier date, and the main event on the latter.
 
Pesach is the like the laying of an egg. It is when we were redeemed from slavery, when G-d took us out of Egypt and led us into the desert. But that was just the beginning of a big story, the first step in a long journey that goes on until today. We gained freedom, but we are still fighting for freedom. Our oppressors were conquered, but we are still fighting oppressors. Pesach is when the egg of redemption was laid, but it hasn't hatched yet. Complete freedom can only be when all evil is vanquished. That will be when Moshiach comes.
 
The Jewish people are at the centre of a global drama, the struggle to liberate the world from all negative energy and allow goodness to prevail. The struggle began in Egypt, continues today and will end in Jerusalem. On Pesach, when we eat the egg, we celebrate the laying of the egg of freedom, and we pray the complete redemption be hatched - next year in Jerusalem.

 

~ Rabbi Aron Moss

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