Now let’s return to our questions. It has been said that if Judaism had to be summed up into a single concept, it would be that of a relationship with Hashem. The entire Torah is directed towards this goal. This relationship began (on a national scale) on Pesach. Pesach is the birthday of the Jewish People. Until the Exodus, we were a disparate group of people descended from common ancestors. But when Hashem passed over our houses and struck only the Egyptians, we were set apart as a people, a unique nation – the Children of Hashem. The fact that Hashem passed over our houses during the final plague is not a minute detail at all. Hashem choosing us as His nation is the sum total of the Yom Tov and is indeed the only reason there were any plagues in the first place. Our relationship with Hashem thus began.
However, as the expression goes, it takes two to tango. By definition, a relationship is comprised of two parties. Hashem did His part; we still had to do ours. The job of Bnei Yisrael is avodah – service of Hashem. Avodas Hashem is the tool we use to make a relationship with the Almighty. Every mitzvah brings us closer to Him, and every aveira distances us from Him. When the predestined time for the Exodus came, Bnei Yisrael were lacking any merits to be freed. They had no mitzvos which made them unique as a people or worthy of being passed over when Hashem punished the Egyptians. So Hashem provided the korban pesach, the prototype mitzvah in that it tested the new nation to see if they would take that step to initiate a relationship with the Creator. Doing this service, with all its requisite laws, would show that the people believe in the one and only Master of the Heavens and the Earth. By offering up this korban they would be declaring their willingness to begin working on a life-long relationship with G-d. Then, and only then, would they be worthy of being passed over. Only through avodah are we Hashem’s people.
I think that we can now understand the Korech sandwich. This sandwich is made up of three ingredients – the korban pesach, matzah, and marror. As mentioned, the pesach declares the oneness of Hashem. This idea of oneness is essential if we are to have a relationship with the Creator. He is omnipotent, and everything comes from Him. Nothing happens in the world if He doesn’t decree it first. All good things that happen to us (read: matzah) stem from His will, as do all negative things that occur (read: marror). When bitter things happen we are very quick to blame G-d; with happy occasions, less so. But our avodah is to wrap it all together and “ingest” the idea that there is but one Source for everything that occurs. If we can realize that the same all-powerful and loving Father who sends the good is the same all-powerful and loving Father who sends the bad, perhaps we’ll merit seeing how the bad that He sends is, in reality, good.
