 psychologically.
It seems that this was God's purpose on that awesome night. Once the Jews felt liberated, they needed to eat from the bitter herbs in order to remind them of the oppression. They were even able to eat the matza, which would serve as the symbol of their rapid exodus that would actually take place only the next morning. They knew that they would be leaving so quickly that they would not have time for the bread to rise.
They trusted in God completely, and literally tasted the future.
How ironic, then the commandment that every year we are to envision ourselves as if we left Egypt. The Jews in Egypt did just that: They envisioned themselves as if they left Egypt, the only difference being that they accomplished this by looking into the future, while we must look into the past.
In every generation a person is obligated to envision himself as if he left Egypt.[Mishna Pesachim 116b]
THE NATURE OF REDEMPTION
The issue at hand is in reality the very nature of redemption. Redemption is not merely political, or geographical. True redemption will bring with it complete liberation, physical, and psychological.
One can imagine if the Messiah were to come today, and bring all the Jews to Israel, and cause all the nations "to beat their swords into plowshares ..." it would not suffice if we were still psychologically enslaved.
For example, if we were still tormented by the horrors of the Holocaust, not understanding the ways of God, we would in effect still be enslaved.
The Talmud teaches:
Rav Acha, the son of Chanina taught, "The future world is not like this world. In this world on good tidings, we say 'Blessed is the one who is good and brings good.' When bad news arrives we say, 'Blessed is the true Judge.' In the future the only blessing will be: 'Blessed is the one who is good and brings good.' [Pesachim 50a]
We see that redemption has a psychological aspect to it as well.
True liberation means to be freed from the things that haunt our minds, aside from our physical tormentors.
This is what God wanted to teach us in Egypt; how to become truly free.
There is an old saying that " it is easier to take a Jew out of exile than take the exile out of a Jew." We will see this in future Torah portions as the Jews suffer setbacks during the sojourn in the desert, many due to their inability to free themselves from their past.
God gave them one glorious lesson in Egypt, on the " art of liberation. "
ANOINTING THE SEASONS
We can now understand why the Torah begins this section with the commandment concerning time.
We are commanded to anoint the seasons, to decide when the new moon has arrived.
We are entrusted with the ability to determine the nature of time. Will it be sacred or mundane?
We are at the same time taught a powerful lesson: The Jew has the ability to transcend time, to trust in God so completely that the problems of the present are resolved when considered in the larger context of eternity.
Will the night be a time of fear, or the final moment before dawn?
The ability of the Jews to trust in God was the final act that ushered in the redemption from Egypt. For when a Jew truly trusts in God, he becomes part of the world to come, tasting redemption.