The Torah commands the Israelites to eat the Passover lamb "in haste" (Exodus 12:11). But whose haste? The Mekhilta identifies a surprising ambiguity in this seemingly simple word and stages a debate that reshapes how we understand the night of the Exodus.
The anonymous first opinion in the Mekhilta argues that "haste" refers to the Egyptians — not the Israelites. It was the Egyptians who were frantic, desperate to expel the people who had brought plague after plague upon their country. After the death of the firstborn, Pharaoh and his people could not push the Israelites out fast enough. "Arise, go out from among my people!" Pharaoh screamed in the middle of the night (Exodus 12:31). That panic, that Egyptian urgency, is the "haste" the Torah describes.
The proof comes from Deuteronomy: "for in haste you left Egypt" (Deuteronomy 16:3). This verse already accounts for the haste of the Israelites themselves — their own hurried departure. Since one verse covers the Israelites' haste, the word "haste" in (Exodus 12:11) must refer to something different: the haste of the Egyptians.
The distinction matters. If the haste belongs to the Israelites, the Passover meal is a scene of anxious refugees grabbing food before fleeing. If the haste belongs to the Egyptians, the picture changes dramatically. The Israelites are eating calmly, deliberately, fulfilling God's command with the confidence of people who know they are protected — while outside their doors, Egypt is falling apart. The haste is not theirs. The fear is not theirs. They eat while a superpower collapses around them.