I share it here for any who are interested or for any who would like to do something similar for others in their lives:
Preamble
Hi Saba and Savtah!
We’re sad that we can’t
spend the Seder with you this year because of the Corona virus so we cooked up
this handy Seder guide so that you can share in our Seder. We asked Aba to
write some overall thoughts about the Haggada and we made some special pictures
from us to you.
We love you always and
hope that we can all be together for Seder next year in Yerushalayim!
Kadesh
I like to think that
Kadesh is where the Seder seems the most ordinary. We start our meal like any
other Jewish holiday meal with a Kiddush declaration about how we remember that
God saved us from Mitzrayim. We say it every week and every holiday but only tonight
do we really commit to explaining it. In many ways the entire Seder between now
and Shulchan Orech is an elaboration on this Kiddush – and it stands as an
elaboration on the next year’s worth of Kiddushes.
Tonight and only tonight
do we ensure that our whole nation pauses and reflects on precisely what we
mean when we say that God saved us from Mitzrayim. We remember the horrors
which were inflicted upon us and the glorious revelation of God’s mercy.
I love the Kiddush for
the Seder because it is thoroughly ordinary. It is the same Kiddush we say for
every holiday which is itself a version of the same Kiddush we say every week. But
the ordinary Kiddush we say tonight is accompanied by the rest of the Haggadah
and I like to think that every time we say Kiddush throughout the year, we
remember this night and the Sedarim before.
Urchatz
Don’t say the bracha!
This is the first curve
ball of the night. We’re used to getting up after Kiddush and washing our
hands, but on this night we do it without a bracha. It’s also the one people
tend to mess up on the most.
I like to think that the
seder halayla is designed to slowly immerse us into the peculiarities of the
evening so that we can see within ourselves how much we are creatures of habit.
It should be easy for us to wash our hands without a bracha – we do it when we
wash for mundane matters. But here we are using the washing cup, it’s after
Kiddush, we’re all doing it together. The bracha is supposed to go there!
And yet, tonight it
doesn’t. Tonight we think a bit more into our actions. Tonight we are not
creatures of habit. Tonight we do things differently and critically examine our
customs and ourselves.
This first peculiarity is
subtle but it creates a natural confusion to us and inspires us to examine why
we normally use a bracha at all.
Karpas
This has got to be the
strangest thing we do all evening.
Every other element of
the Seder is connected to our Sipur of Yitzias Mitzrayim. But this is basically
a vegetable with no overt ties to our redemption. I have seen various
explanations: spring-time, the salty waters, to ask questions.
All are interesting
answers, but none are fully satisfying. I tend to think that it’s a bit of a
mixture of something to do at a fancy meal that’s a bit out of the ordinary to
incite questions while also contributing to the overall fanciness of the meal.
I also think that it’s a
kind of foreshadowing to the maror later on (according to many we must have the
maror in mind when reciting the ha’adamah). Perhaps there is meant to be a
reflection on maror before we begin since our ancestors were obviously familiar
with the cruelties of slavery before they came to understand the beauty of
God’s Way.
This illustrates the
careful planning of the Seder which will go on for hours but pauses here to
prepare for the end. I think it also creates a kind of natural halachic
connection between the beginning of Maggid and the end. If I must have the
maror in mind when I say the bracha over the Karpas, we probably shouldn’t take
too long with Maggid (a useful reminder for anyone leading the Seder).
I’ve never really found a
satisfying answer to explain the peculiarity of the Karpas and for that reason
it presents me with a question every year. I don’t know if this was the
intention behind adding it to the Seder but I appreciate starting the night
with a question that I don’t feel has ever been properly answered.
Yachatz
Here we have the first
demonstration of the evening. The previous performances are all fairly normal.
Kiddush, washing, dipping a vegetable and eating it. But here we reveal our
bread to be matzah and ritually break it. This immediately directs our
attention to it and serves to prompt the beginning of Maggid.
This year I was thinking
about the matzah and how it seems to be the focus of the holiday. We focus most
of our Pesach efforts on removing our chametz and indeed we call the holiday
Chag HaMatzos.
It’s notable that our
korbanos were also eaten with matzah. I would say that the primary concept
behind matzah is that it is lechem oni. That the bread is of inferior quality
but that it will sustain those hungry despite its inferiority to the many
varieties of bread available to us. It is this factor which makes matzah so
important to the Jewish culture. To hammer home the point we even break it both
in demonstration of how an ani cannot even ensure that his bread is whole as
well as another foreshadow for the Afikoman at the end of our meal.
We do not glory in our
taivos. We know that we could have better bread, but for one week of the year,
we focus on the lowest standard of bread – we live off of it. There are many in
the world who do not have enough to eat and many who can eat whatever they
desire – but our culture accepts upon itself this “poor man’s bread” for one
week when we can all reflect on our needs as human-animals. We reflect on the
fact that we are all truly brothers and that the cornerstone of our culture is
to provide sustenance to the needy.
Tonight, we eat matzah.
Magid
Most have much to say in
Maggid. Ironically, I try to not prepare very much for Maggid. I like the
conversation to grow organically out of whatever questions pop up.
I have a few ideas here
which I will share, but I don’t particularly like to insert divrei Torah where
I feel that this is a night for questions – any question. And I like those
questions to govern the conversation.
Next Year in Yerushalayim
– I think that in the time of Corona, this declaration should have special
meaning to us. We have been dispersed for 2000 years, but not like this. We
have never been so capable of connecting through letters, email, Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter, Cell Phones, Texting, etc. And yet we are all confined to
our homes. We say it every year and hopefully we always mean it – but this
year, let’s all hope a little more.
Questions – If the Seder
has not prompted any inquiry yet, we highlight some questions for anyone to
reflect upon. And each are solid questions: Why the matzah? Why the maror? Why
the dipping? Why the reclining? We don’t want to DO any of these things. I’d
prefer chametz. Nobody likes maror. Let me eat my vegetables how I want to eat
them. I’ll recline when I want.
We were slaves – And we
cut right to the chase with an answer. We do these things because an impossible
thing happened – we were slaves to the most powerful nation in the world – and
we were saved by God. Today we can even say that we outlasted that nation (as
well as numerous others). We have survived and continue to survive. We don’t do
these things out of preference – we do them as an eternal remembrance of the
miracle that saved us from the horrors of slavery.
The Rabbis – At a few
points the Seder takes a pause to reflect on the different teachings our wise
sages have had about the event and our obligations to reflect upon it. I like
that our culture which has some degree of reverence for its rabbis takes the
time to illustrate how much these great men reflected on our miraculous
history. Too often, nations are led by men who have no respect or understanding
for the origins of their nations. Too often do leaders abandon the principles
which founded their nation. Not so with the Jews. Our greatest minds returned
to the study of our origins again and again and gladly studied it until the sun
rose.
The Sons – I always find
it fascinating that we don’t leave the 4th son alone. He doesn’t
have any questions – just leave him be. Our culture does not say this. We say
that all have questions – even those who do not ask. And we know that it is our
responsibility to inspire the children – to help them ask the questions they
would otherwise keep to themselves.
Our Origins – We began in
disgrace but we ended with praise. It’s interesting that this notion doesn’t
really negate the disgrace. We should think that the saying should be: “we
began in disgrace but ended up praiseworthy.” Yet this is not the way our
rabbis put it. Technically, there is no sense that the initial disgrace was
gone. I think that this is particularly relevant this year with Corona. We are
currently in disgrace as we have been kept locked up, away from our families.
The end result, according to the Jewish approach, is not to become praiseworthy
but rather to realize that even when we were at our lowest most disgraceful
moment – God is there. Today we may be disgraceful, but the end is always
praise.
The Avos – It’d be easy
to ignore the avos tonight. They were long dead when the events of the yetziah
took place. But we know better. We know that these events were bargained for by
our father Avraham and that our origins were part of the plan of the world. We
know that our story always begins with Avraham.
… and all the rest –
Magid continues with all of the verses and limuddim from our rabbis explaining
and elaborating upon the miracle of our salvation. I’d prefer that these parts
are left for each Jew to focus on and pick apart with questions at their own
pace. There are many questions which can be asked and many questions which can
be answered and I like those to come and go as we feel from year to year.
Pesach – This is the end
of magid and we finish with a bang. According to Rabban Gamliel, these are the
three main points that we should be focusing on during the Seder. The Pesach
offering was a tremendously bold statement of the enslaved Jews to perform in
the land of their masters. I like to compare it to the entirety of the 1800’s American
slave population burning the U.S. flag, constitution, and declaration of
independence after notifying their masters that they were going to do so 14
days previous and then smearing the ashes on their doorposts. I cannot
understate the boldness of such an action. Today we see it as even more – it
was a rejection of the false systems which the nations of the world have
invented. We reject the foolishness of Christianity and Islam. We reject the
barbarism of human sacrifice and superstitious notions of how the universe
works. We are Jews. We study and obey the Will of God. Today this remembrance
is bittersweet because it has been millennia since we have actually brought the
Korban and tasted this mitzvah. But we never forget.
Matzah – There is a
problem with the chronology of matzah. Historically speaking, first comes maror,
then comes Pesach, then comes matzah. First we tasted the bitterness of
slavery, then we rebelled with the taste of Pesach, then we tasted the bread of
affliction as we rushed out of mitzrayim. Yet in the edible portion of the
Seder soon to follow we first eat matzah, then maror, then Pesach (which is
meant to be the last thing that we eat). Why this change? It seems to me that
Matzah is plucked out of the chronology and placed at the front because
philosophically it is the core of our culture. We remember the bread of
affliction, we remember running from our masters. And we don’t choose the best
bread for one week of the year. Philosophically this is an eternal statement
about the values of our culture – we never forget the downtrodden, we never forget
the slave, we never forget their bread.
Maror – An obvious
question arises regarding maror. It is not a biblical commandment to have maror
on this night. Yet the Rabban gives it standing equal to Pesach and matzah to
some degree. To me, the maror is a necessary prerequisite to understanding the
Pesach. It’s not enough to remember the bold rebellion of the Pesach night. We
must remember the years of torment that led up to it. In the slightest of ways,
we must recall that bitterness. A bitterness we hope to never taste again.
Hallel – I like that the
beginnings of Hallel are part of Magid. I think that singing songs of praise is
only natural after such a thorough reflection on our origins and the miraculous
history which becomes all the more miraculous every year we survive.
Rachtzah
Motzi Matzah
Maror
Korech
One aside about Korech.
My friend David likes to point out that Korech, as Hillel made it, is not very
different from a modern Shwarma with charif. I’d like to think that a proper
Korech would be familiar to us whenever we taste it again.
Shulchan Orech
Tzafon
Barech
Hallel
This is the end of the
Haggadah and we all hope that next year we will be free from the shackles of
our galus. We hope that next year we will be in Yerushalayim with our Bet HaMikdash
and our korbanos. Every year we remember that there is a future for our culture
where Yerushalayim is our capital and the Land is our home.
I can think of no better
reason to sing out songs in praise of God.
And any who wish to
continue in our tradition and study every minute detail of our history whether
it be counting the hundreds of miracles which have protected and sustained us
or debating the meanings and lessons we have learned over the millennia –
tonight is the night.
We are Jews.
And this night is what we
are about.
Nirtzah
No comments:
Post a Comment