“The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the statute of the paschal offering; no foreigner shall eat of it” (Exodus 12:43). “The Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the statute of the paschal offering” – that is what Scripture said: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul; and in its joy no stranger can meddle” (Proverbs 14:10). Why is it so? It is only that just as the heart senses the trouble that it experiences, so, too, when a person rejoices, the heart rejoices first, as it is stated: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul.”
Likewise, David said: “My heart flutters, my strength fails me” (Psalms 38:11). In my joy, my heart rejoices first, as it is stated: “Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices” (Psalms 16:9), and so it says: “For my sighs are many and my heart is faint” (Lamentations 1:22). In the future, the Holy One blessed be He brings [relates to] all the limbs but first consoles only the heart, as it is stated: “I will speak to her heart” (Hosea 2:16).
Another interpretation: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul” – that is Hannah, who suffered greatly, as it is stated: “She was bitter of soul” (I Samuel 1:10); she, by herself.1Hannah was barren but her husband had children by his other wife. When she was remembered,2When she bore a son. God remembered her by herself, as it is stated: “And in its joy no stranger can meddle” (Proverbs 14:10); and it is written: “My heart exults in the Lord…because I rejoice in Your salvation” (I Samuel 2:1); I exulted by myself but no other will exult with me.
Another interpretation: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul” – that is the Shunamite woman. When? It was when her son died and she went to complain to Elisha. What is written?
“Geḥazi came to push her away, but the man of God said: Release her, for her soul is bitter within her…” (II Kings 4:27). When he sent Geḥazi to revive her son and said to him: “Take my staff in your hand” (II Kings 4:29), the Shunamite said to him: ‘“By the life of the Lord and by your life” (II Kings 4:30), you abided in God’s mysteries. At first, you gave me a son; now, again abide in God’s mysteries, and revive him’ – that is: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul.”
Another interpretation: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul” – that is David. When he went down to Akhish3The Philistine king of Gath. to assist him, he was there for three days, and the Amalekites came and took his [David’s] wives and his children captive and burned Tziklag, David began crying, as it is stated: “David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him” (I Samuel 30:6).
They did not do so, but rather they rescued their wives, their sons, and their daughters and came to the Land of Israel and took up the Ark of the Lord and set it in its place. What is written there? “Also David the king rejoiced with great joy” (I Chronicles 29:9). Another interpretation: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul” – that is Israel, who were subject to enslavement in Egypt.
When they came to leave, and the Holy One blessed be He decreed for them to perform the paschal offering, the Egyptians came to eat with them. God said to them: Heaven forbid! “No foreigner shall eat of it;” that is: “The heart knows the bitterness of its soul; and in its joy no stranger can meddle.”