The renewed covenant included a reminder of the annual rhythm that would shape Jewish life forever.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, preserves the command with its full resonance. "You shall observe the feast of the unleavened. Seven days you shall eat unleavened cakes, as I have commanded you, in the time of the month Abiba; for in the month of Abiba you came out free from Mizraim" (Exodus 34:18).
The month of Abib, later called Nisan, is the first month of the Jewish calendar as counted from the exodus. It is the month of spring, when the barley ripens in the land of Israel and when the lambs are newly born. The name Abib itself comes from the Hebrew for young ears of grain, the first shoots that break through after winter.
The Targum's Aramaic adds the critical word bnei chorin, free people. "In the month of Abib you came out free from Egypt." Not just "out." Free. The exodus is not defined by geography. It is defined by status. A slave can leave Egypt and still be a slave if his soul never changed. Israel came out as free people, and the month of Abib marks that transformation.
Every year since, for over three thousand years, Jews have eaten matzah in this month and told the story of how they came out free. The Targum, written centuries before the Passover Haggadah was codified, is already singing the same tune.
Takeaway: Freedom in Jewish time is seasonal. It arrives every spring, with the first shoots of grain, and we eat unleavened bread to remember that we are, once again, free.