Redemption Enables True Speech

בעבור זה עשה ה' לי.

“Because of this the Lord did for me.”

The Sefat Emet opens by interpreting the phrase as pointing to a specific cause that awakens divine action on behalf of Israel.

פרש"י בעבור שאקיים מצותיו פסח ומצה.

Rashi explains: ‘Because I will fulfill His commandments of Passover and matzah.’

According to Rashi, the verse refers to the merit of performing the central mitzvot of the festival.

ויתכן עוד לומר בעבור זה הסיפור כי בנ"י נבראו להעיד על הבורא.

It is also possible to say: because of this telling, for the Children of Israel were created to testify to the Creator.

The Sefat Emet interprets “this” as the act of recounting the Exodus, which fulfills Israel’s purpose of bearing witness to God.

לכן פסח פה סח שע"י הגאולה נפתח פיהן של בנ"י.

Therefore “Pesach” is “peh sakh,” a speaking mouth, for through the redemption the mouths of Israel were opened.

He reads the name of the festival as hinting that redemption restores the capacity for holy speech.

הללו עבדי ה' ולא עבדי פרעה שכל זמן שמשועבדים לסט"א אינם יכולין להלל לה' עד שנעשו בני חורין.

“Praise, servants of the Lord, and not servants of Pharaoh,” for as long as they are enslaved to the Other Side they cannot praise God until they become free people.

True praise can arise only from spiritual freedom; bondage obstructs the voice of holiness.

ויצאו מן הטבע להיות עבדי ה' ביצ"מ פה סח.

And they went out from nature to become servants of the Lord; in the Exodus the mouth spoke.

The redemption lifts Israel beyond natural limitation, enabling speech aligned with divine service.

ובקי"ס השירה.

And at the splitting of the Sea — the song.

The culmination of liberated speech is the Song at the Sea, a full expression of redeemed testimony.

והם בחי' תורה שבע"פ ותורה שבכתב הקול קול יעקב בב' תורות.

And these are aspects of the Oral Torah and the Written Torah — “the voice is the voice of Jacob” in two Torahs.

The two forms of speech — telling and singing — correspond to the dual structure of Torah, both rooted in Jacob’s sacred voice.

Summary: The Sefat Emet links the command to tell the Exodus story with Israel’s identity as witnesses to God. Redemption opens the capacity for holy speech, which finds expression in Pesach, in the Song at the Sea, and in the dual voices of Written and Oral Torah.