"And thus shall you eat it" (Exodus 12:11) — the Torah prescribes not just what to eat on Passover night, but how to eat it. Loins girded. Sandals on your feet. Staff in hand. Eat it in haste. The Mekhilta comments: eat it as those going on a journey.
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili saw something deeper in this instruction. Scripture, he said, is not merely describing the historical circumstances of the Exodus — it is teaching proper deportment for travelers. When you are about to embark on a journey, you do things with despatch. You do not linger over your meal. You do not settle into comfort. You eat standing, alert, ready to move at a moment's notice.
The instruction transforms the Passover meal from an ordinary dinner into a dramatic reenactment. Every participant becomes a traveler poised for departure. The food is consumed quickly, urgently, with the restless energy of someone who knows that freedom is imminent and the road is waiting. There is no leisurely reclining, no drawn-out conversation — that would come later, in the Seder traditions of future generations. On this first night in Egypt, the meal was fuel for a march.
Rabbi Yossi HaGlili's insight also elevates a practical instruction into a universal principle. The Torah, he implies, cares about small details of behavior — how you eat, how you prepare, how you carry yourself when action is required. Despatch is not rudeness. It is readiness. And on the night when God Himself moved through Egypt with devastating speed, the people of Israel were commanded to match His pace.