Shemot 12:11 (Bo) – Eating the korban pesach in Egypt: To gulp down?

12:11 records that G-d told Moshe that the korban pesach was to be eaten in haste. Why did the people have to eat the sacrifice quickly? The most popular answer is that the people had to eat quickly to be ready to leave Egypt. Yet, the people ate the sacrifice at the beginning of the night and they were not going to leave Egypt until the morning. They were not even allowed to leave their homes in the middle of the night, 12:22. Furthermore, if the reason for the haste was that they people would be ready to leave in the morning, then they should have been told to finish their food by midnight or some other time.

Hizkuni (on 12:11) writes that they had to eat the sacrifice fast since they also left Egypt quickly, see Devarim 16:3. Yet, why should there be this parallelism? Again, the leaving was many hours after the eating?

Maybe the reason for eating in haste is because when one eats quickly one does not enjoy the food. The point was that the people should realize that the sacrifice was because G-d commanded them and hence the following words after the commandment to eat in haste, are that the “sacrifice is for G-d.” The people were not to make the sacrifice into a type of goodbye party for leaving Egypt. The sacrifice was because G-d commanded them and not for their enjoyment. This was an important lesson by their very first commandment.

The Mishnah (Pesachim 9:5) records that only the korban pesach in Egypt had to be eaten in haste but not by future generations. Yet, if the reason for eating in haste was to show that one was following G-d’s command, why should this requirement not have remained forever? Maybe the answer is that by the korban pesach in Egypt, the crucial aspect was the sprinkling of the blood, while the eating was secondary and hence it was eaten hastily, which is not even really considered as eating. However, for the future generations who would not sprinkle the blood, if they ate the sacrifice hastily, then there would remain nothing significant to the sacrifice. One person would offer the sacrifice, but the family would just gobble down the food. However, if the family savored the sacrifice, then the korban pesach would be part of celebration of the festival.