(11) “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat of the tree from which I had forbidden you to eat?” (12) The Human said, “The woman You put at my side—she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” (13) And God ה' said to the woman, “What is this you have done!” The woman replied, “The serpent duped me, and I ate.”...(22) And God ה' said, “Now that humankind has become like any of us, knowing good and bad, what if one should stretch out a hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever!”

When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

people say: Sixty runners run and do not reach the one who ate in the morning

(1) 2. Beginning the devotion of charity is very difficult and demanding, because all beginnings are difficult (Mekhilta: Bachodesh 2). Service of God does not come easily. As mentioned above, it takes much effort and many contortions, before one can do something in an exemplary manner. The reason is that good deeds are the primary progeny of the righteous (Midrash Tanchuma, Noach 2). It follows that mitzvot, good deeds and all devotions to God signify a birth. Before the birth, how many times does a woman cry out, how many labor-pangs and contractions does she have until she bears the progeny!

...Beginning the devotion of charity is the beginning of all beginnings.

Further, the words Motzi matzah allude to the great repair for the repentant person since sin causes separation, God forbid, to the attribute of peace. One increases harmony between people….The name for this is Motzi matzah, matzah comes from matzuta, quarrel and disagreement, as is stated in the Holy Zohar, Parshat Pinchas 3:251b: When one completely removes disagreement, he quiets peace…

as the Rabbis have said: “A maidservant saw at the sea what the prophet Ezekiel never saw.” From that time onward, their souls were elevated to be able to exist by the product [of the Divine Glory], which was the manna.

Rabbi Hiya opened and said, One verse says, "In the first month on the fourteenth day in the evening you shall eat matza", and another verse says "Seven days you shall eat matza, poor man's bread", it says "poor man's bread." This issue was discussed by the colleagues and they said: When Israel was in Egypt, they were under the dominion of another (Pharaoh). When Hashem wanted to bring them close to Him, He gave them poor man's bread. Who is the poor man? King David, who writes of himself, "For I am poor and impoverished."

And this poor man's bread is called matzah, the feminine without the masculine, when they initially encountered the matza it was impoverished, but when they came closer to it, Hashem brought them to a higher level and attached masculine to feminine. When the matzah is attached to the masculine it is called mitzvah with the added "vav", and that is what is meant by "for this mitzvah". Because of this, it is initially called matzah and then mitzvah.

trans. Danny Strassman