This Shabbat our Torah reading schedule is altered slightly, with the reading being from Exodus chapter 12. This chapter lays out all the regulations for Passover: getting the lamb or goat ready, painting the blood on the door frame, eating the meal, and cleaning out the chametz. Particularly interesting is the specificity of how the meal is to be eaten. Exodus 12:11 says,
וְכָכָה֮ תֹּאכְל֣וּ אֹתוֹ֒ מָתְנֵיכֶ֣ם חֲגֻרִ֔ים נַֽעֲלֵיכֶם֙ בְּרַגְלֵיכֶ֔ם וּמַקֶּלְכֶ֖ם בְּיֶדְכֶ֑ם וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֤ם אֹתוֹ֙ בְּחִפָּז֔וֹן פֶּ֥סַח ה֖וּא לַיהוָֽה׃
This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly: it is a passover offering to the LORD.
The instruction is for everyone to eat the meal as if they are about to leave at many minute. But they didn’t actually leave until after the meal. Even then it was perhaps some time before Pharoah awoke, realized what had happened, called for Moshe, and told him to take the Israelites out of Egypt. Couldn’t the people have eating normally and then put on their shoes and picked up their staffs when the time came? Why did they have to “hurry up and wait?”
Whenever I am camping, I have a system. I wake up, pull the plug on my inflatable sleeping pad, and as I get out of my sleeping bag, it goes into its stuff sack. By that time, the pad is deflated, and I roll it up and into its bag it goes. I put on my camp shoes and get up. Whatever shelter I’m using comes down at that time and gets put into its bag as well. I get dressed, put on my boots and fetch my food. I daven. Then I make breakfast as I brush my teeth, then I eat. At this point, the only thing left to put away is the cooking supplies and I’m ready to leave.
Why is this important to me? Because if I get up, daven, and eat before packing up everything else, I feel like I have to rush to put everything up and I forget things. Sometimes though, I feel no rush at all and then I don’t start until too late in the morning to take my time on the trail and really enjoy it. Being prepared to leave makes it easier and makes it right on time.
So too, when the children of Israel were getting ready to leave Egypt, G-d commanded them to already be packed up, except for a few cooking things, such that they could focus on the importance of the meal at hand.