Why the Lamb Was Set Aside Four Days Before Slaughter

"And it shall be for you to keep until the fourteenth" (Exodus 12:6). For what reason did Scripture have the taking of the Passover lamb precede its slaughter by four days? Rabbi Matya ben Charash used to say: it says, "And I passed by you and saw you" (Ezekiel 16:8) and so on -- the time had come for the oath the Holy One, blessed be He, had sworn to our father Abraham, that He would redeem his children. But they had no commandments in their hands to occupy themselves with so as to be redeemed, as it is said, "your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, yet you were naked and bare" (Ezekiel 16:7), "bare" of commandments. So the Holy One, blessed be He, gave them two commandments, the commandment of the Passover offering and the commandment of circumcision, that they occupy themselves with them and be redeemed, and so on. And it says, "so too you, by the blood of your covenant I have sent forth your prisoners" (Zechariah 9:11). Therefore He had the taking of the Passover precede its slaughter by four days, for one is rewarded only for the deed. Rabbi Eliezer says: four [things] were in their hands (this is written at the verse "and a woman shall ask of her neighbor"). And for what reason did He have the taking of the Passover precede its slaughter by four days? Because Israel was steeped in idolatry in Egypt, and idolatry is weighed against all the commandments of the Torah, as it is said, "and if it be hidden from the eyes of the congregation" and so on (Numbers 15:24) -- here Scripture singled out this commandment and stated it as a matter by itself; this is the worship of idols. Or is it merely one of all the commandments stated in the Torah? When it says, "and when you err and do not perform" and so on (Numbers 15:22), all the commandments came to teach you about one commandment: just as one who transgresses all the commandments casts off the yoke, breaks the covenant, and shows brazenness toward the Torah, so too one who transgresses this one commandment, and so on, as it is said, "to pass into the covenant" -- and "covenant" means nothing other than the Torah, as it is said, "these are the words of the covenant" (Deuteronomy 28:69). He said to them: withdraw your hands from idolatry and cleave to the commandments. Rabbi Yehudah ben Beteira says: it says, "and they did not listen to Moses" (Exodus 6:9) (written at remez 177). "And it shall be for you to keep": why is this stated? Since it says, "draw out and take," Israel said to Moses our teacher, "shall we slaughter what is an abomination to the Egyptians" and so on (Exodus 8:22). He said: from the miracle He performs for you in the drawing out, you will know what happens in the slaughtering. "And it shall be for you to keep": guard it until the fourteenth, slaughter it on the fourteenth. Or perhaps: guard it until the fourteenth, then draw it out and slaughter it? Scripture teaches, "in the first month, on the fourteenth" (Numbers 9:5) -- Scripture fixed it as an obligation.