Sefat Emet on Pesah

(2) Now one has to consider: On the Passover the Israelites emerged from their subsistence on the [spiritual] bread called “leaven” to be nourished by the more honourable bread called Mazzah (unleavened). Now, when the Israelites were worthy (on the Day of Pentecost) to eat a more excellent bread, would it not have been more appropriate that the “leaven” should have been abolished altogether and not been in evidence at all? Why, then, was that sacrifice based chiefly on leavened bread, as it is written: “They (the two loaves) shall be baken with leaven” (Lev. 23, 17)? Moreover, on that day (Pentecost) the “evil inclination” (leaven) came to naught, and the Torah, called “Freedom”, was then given.

(3) We may, however, explain by the following parable. A king had an only son who fell seriously ill. After a time the prince expressed a desire to eat, but he was forbidden to eat any food other than that prescribed by the physicians, and orders were given that for the set term of that diet no other viands should be found in the palace. All was carried out accordingly. But when the prince was come to the end of the period of his special diet the ban was lifted, and it was intimated that now he was free to eat whatsoever he fancied, since it would not harm him.

(4) Similarly, when the Israelites came out from Egypt they knew not the essence and mystery of the Faith. Said the Holy One: “Let them taste only the medicinal food, and before they have finished it be shown no other food soever.” But when the mazzoth were finished, which was the medicine by means of which they were to enter and to comprehend the mystery of the Faith, then the Holy One proclaimed: “From now on they may see and eat leavened bread, because it cannot harm them”-especially on the Day of Pentecost, when the supernal bread, which is a cure of all ills, was prepared for them.