Rabbi Roodyn

The idea behind the shechita is relinquishing one’s former existence, however this itself never means annihilation, rather this is an essential requirement for a higher level of existence. The blood that is shed is immediately taken up and received for a new and higher existence through the process of kabalas hadam.

Whilst this is true for all korbanos this is most certainly true for the korban pesach, which is slaughtered only in order to be eaten by those who are registered for it and who have symbolically nullified their existence and surrendered themselves to Hashem.

Rav Hirsch continues to say that the whole point of freedom is to have the free use and enjoyment of one’s own personality. The free person is able to use all of their physical energies and mental abilities for their own purposes. This alone gives the ego its personal worth and confers upon the individual his physical and spiritual self as his own domain over which he alone may rule.

It is because of this, that it is so important that the korban pesach be eaten by those who are registered on it. The animal symbolises their personalities before the act of offering and the offering itself represents the nullification of their own existence and total commitment to Hashem. Eating the Korban Pesach symbolises the freedom and independence that the  People of Israel attain by devoting themselves totally to Hashem.

Through eating the Pesach they regain  their own selves after having been slaves, absorbed and lost in the personality of the master. Slaughtering it for an unregistered group would imply outright enslavement and slaughtering it for people who were not going to eat it would imply self-sacrifice without regained independence.