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Why was it necessary for the Passover offering to be roasted?

by Rabbi Simcha Bart

  

Library » Holidays » Passover » Seder » Laws and Rituals | Subscribe | What is RSS?

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Question:

In Exodus 12:9, why is it imperative that the lamb be roasted in fire and not boiled or sodden with water?

Answer:

Sefer Hachinuch gives two reasons for this. Just as Matzah is prepared in a way that commemorates the rush the Jewish people were in when they left Egypt - no time to rise, so too roasting is a rushed means of preparing meat.

Another reason Sefer Hachinuch gives, since on Passover we celebrate in a royal manner to indicate our freedom, roasting is a more regal way of preparing foods than cooking in a pot, from which one may prepare more sparing portions.


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RELATED CATEGORIES

Holidays » Passover
Matzah
(pl. Matzot). Unleavened bread which is eaten on Passover, especially at the Passover Seder (feast), commemorating the Matzah which the Jews ate upon leaving Egypt. It consists of only flour and water and resembles a wheat cracker.
Passover
A Biblically mandated early-spring festival celebrating the Jewish exodus from Egypt in the year 1312 BCE.
Exodus
1. The miraculous departure of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage in 1312 BCE. 2. The second of the Five Books of Moses. This book describes the aforementioned Exodus, the giving of the Torah, and the erection of the Tabernacle.