Pesach

“This month is for you the ‘head’ of months, the first of the months of the year it shall be for you” (Shemot 12:2). The Mechilta (Bo 1) comments on this: Moshe had trouble telling when the new month was considered to have come … until Hashem showed him the moon as it was renewed and said to him: “See the moon when it is like this and sanctify it.” The nations of the world count from Tishrei; Israel counts from Nisan. We have a tradition that Nisan is the month of liberation: “In Nisan they were liberated; in Nisan, they are destined to be liberated” (Rosh Hashana 11a).

Matza is a remembrance of freedom and serves as a reminder that all the ways of Hashem are reliable results that follow the true general nature of the Nation of Israel. True freedom is to develop according to the nation’s internal nature, without allowing the intermingling of foreign elements that disturb matters.