Rabban Gamliel would say: Anyone who did not say these three matters on Passover has not fulfilled his obligation: Pesach, matzah, and maror.

Pesach because the Omnipresent passed over [pasaḥ] the houses of our forefathers in Egypt [as it is stated: “That you shall say: It is the sacrifice of the Lord’s Paschal offering for God passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses” (Exodus 12:27).]

Matza is because our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt [as it is stated: “And they baked the dough that they took out of Egypt as cakes of matzot, for it was not leavened, as they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual” (Exodus 12:39).]

The reason for bitter herbs is because the Egyptians embittered our forefathers’ lives in Egypt [as it is stated: “And they embittered their lives with hard service, in mortar and in brick; in all manner of service in the field, all the service that they made them serve was with rigor” (Exodus 1:14).]

In each and every generation a person must view himself as though he personally left Egypt, as it is stated: “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying: It is because of this which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8).

Therefore we are obligated to thank, praise, glorify, extol, exalt, honor, bless, revere, and laud the One who performed for our ancestors and for us all these miracles: Who took us out from slavery to freedom, from sorrow to joy, from mourning to a Festival, from darkness to a great light, and from enslavement to redemption. And we will say before God: Halleluya.

(8) They shall eat the meat that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire, with matzot and with maror.

(22) Then Moses caused Israel to set out from the Sea of Reeds. They went on into the wilderness of Shur; they traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water.(23) They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water of Marah because they were bitter; that is why it was named Marah. (24) And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”(25) So he cried out to ה', and ה' showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and the water became sweet.

(1) Setting out from Elim, the whole Israelite community came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.(2) In the wilderness, the whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.(3) The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of ה' in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate our fill of bread! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to starve this whole congregation to death.”

(4) And ה' said to Moses, “I will rain down bread for you from the heavens, and the people shall go out and gather each day that day’s portion—that I may thus test them, to see whether they will follow My instructions or not.(5) But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they have brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day.”

(11) ה' spoke to Moses and said:(12) “I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Speak to them and say: By evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I ה' am your God.”(13) In the evening quail appeared and covered the camp; in the morning there was a fall of dew about the camp.(14) When the fall of dew lifted, there, over the surface of the wilderness, lay a fine and flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.(15) When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” —for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, “That is the bread which ה' has given you to eat.(16) This is what ה' has commanded: Each household shall gather as much as it requires to eat—an omer to a person for as many of you as there are; each household shall fetch according to those in its tent.”(17) The Israelites did so, some gathering much, some little.(18) But when they measured it by the omer, anyone who had gathered much had no excess, and anyone who had gathered little had no deficiency: each household had gathered as much as it needed to eat.

(4) The riffraff in their midst felt a gluttonous craving; and then the Israelites wept and said, “If only we had meat to eat!(5) We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.(6) Now our gullets are shriveled. There is nothing at all! Nothing but this manna to look to!”

(18) And say to the people: Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow and you shall eat meat, for you have kept whining before ה' and saying, ‘If only we had meat to eat! Indeed, we were better off in Egypt!’ ה' will give you meat and you shall eat.(19) You shall eat not one day, not two, not even five days or ten or twenty,(20) but a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you. For you have rejected ה' who is among you, by whining before [God] and saying, ‘Oh, why did we ever leave Egypt!...’”

(31) A wind from ה' started up, swept quail from the sea and strewed them over the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and about a day’s journey on that side, all around the camp, and some two cubits deep on the ground.(32) The people set to gathering quail all that day and night and all the next day—even the one who gathered least had ten ḥomers—and they spread them out all around the camp.(33) The meat was still between their teeth, not yet chewed, when the anger of ה' blazed forth against the people and ה' struck the people with a very severe plague.(34) That place was named Kivrot-hataavah,I.e., “the graves of craving.” because the people who had the craving were buried there.