The Rambam adds the words בבהילו יצאנו ממצרים before the passage הא לחמא עניא with swiftness did we leave Mitzraim. What does the Rambam accomplish with this addition? Also, why do we include Matzoh in our sandwich of Pesach and Maror? Isn’t it enough that we eat it separately?
The Dubner Magid explains this with a parable.
A very wealthy man from a great city had a daughter. He wanted to marry her off to a successful young man who had outstanding traits. He only found a pauper in a small village who had a son praiseworthy with these traits. He traveled to the village together with his daughter to see the young man. When he saw him, he was so impressed with the young man’s wisdom and his G-d fearing that he decided that he does not want to leave, but make an engagement and get the wedding done right away. So the pauper, father of the groom, s aid, don’t you need time to prepare for the wedding to buy the best food and drinks fitting your rich stature? I am a poor person who lives on stale bread, so how can I satisfy your needs? Answers the rich man by convincing him that he does not care now for all the niceties since making the wedding as soon as possible is his first priority. So, in order to make the wedding, the rich man commands his servant to replace the cheap torn clothing of the groom with fancy ones. After the wedding, the rich man asks his servant to collect all the cheap torn clothing and bundle it together because he wants to take it home with him. As the groom saw what was happening, at night, when they were all busy eating the poor man’s stale hard bread, he took a piece and hid it in the bundle, making sure that his father in law was not aware of it. When the rich man came home, he gave the bundle to his servant for safekeeping. After a while, the groom became arrogant towards his father in law, who decided to reprimand him. He took out the bundle and showed him the cheap and torn clothing. Look what you wore before. You were a nothing before your wedding, he hollered. As he opened up the bundle, the stale bread fell out. The young groom retorted, remember how you hurried to perform the wedding without regard to any niceties. You were willing to consume this stale bread as long as I was willing to get married. Obviously, you saw some qualities in me you couldn’t pass over that is why you hurried so fast to make the wedding before I will change my mind.
This is the meaning of the above passage, the fact that we are currently eating the bread of affliction reminds us that we came out of Mitzraim swiftly because Hashem found us special to be worthy of being his servant. He didn’t want us to sink into abyss the fiftieth level of tumah. This gives us hope for the future. The same way that He felt that we were worthy of redemption once, should make us worthy of redemption again במהרה בימינו , swiftly in our lifetime Amen.