Pesach VIII - B'chipazon / Escape Velocity

כי בחפזון יצאת For you came out of 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 your 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]”

The reason why we have to remember this state of haste is because haste is a form of pressure. It was because you always had to rush while being slaves that the redemption when it came also came in the guise of extreme haste. Jeremiah 31,12 describes such an experience in the words והפכתי אבלם לששון, “I will turn their mourning into joy.”

“for when you departed from Egypt you were in a great hurry;” God could have waited until the Israelites had baked their dough by taking their time. However, God wanted them to have an eternal reminder of the haste in which their departure had taken place, and therefore God urged them to act with haste.

The reason for eating matzah is to remember the miracle that was done for Israel - that they dough did not become chametz when they left Egypt in a hurry, as we have explained (Shemot 12:39), and even though they were already commanded to eat matzah when they were in Egypt, this was meant for the future, because God knew that they would take out their dough before it had risen, and because of this merit, that they kept God's commandment and were very careful with their dough to bake it into matzot lest they be compelled to leave before they baked it, thus God worked the wonder of this miracle for them that their dough did not rise, therefore the haste they did with matzah was was meritorious, and the reward for the haste was the miracle, and the matzah that has been eaten for generations is a remembrance of this haste.