Four Components to the Pesach Seder

We are familiar with the seder, we do it every year. We even have the order which we sing every year to start it off. Kadesh, urchatz karpas yachatz... I present here a way to categorize the Seder into four essential motifs. Each one contributes to the overall impact of what Seder night is trying to achieve:

1. Wonder

2. Recollection

3. Application

4. Gratitude

Each one is a building block. The first, wonder, is not only about keeping the children awake, much more. Once wonder is engendered, the story must be told. The Mishnah is very clear that a story must be told and even directs us how to tell that story. It is not enough, though, to recall an ancient event and thus the third element of the Seder night must be applying that story to our daily lives. Finally, once we have engendered wonder, told our story and applied it to our lives, we should be filled with awe, joy, and most of all gratitude to God for that great event then and its resonance throughout history.

1. Wonder--Almost every aspect of the 'seder' (including having a seder) is made to engender wonder

1. 1. Wearing white at the seder
   2. Giving out nuts to kids at beginning of seder
   3. Singing the order of the seder
   4. A Seder plate
   5. ורחץ
   6. כרפס
   7. יחץ
   8. Having three matzot instead of two
   9. הא לחמא עניא—the whole paragraph forces us to ask
   10. Four cups of wine
   11. Bracha of geula
   12. מרור
   13. כורך
   14. אפיקומן
   15. נרצה

* To whom is directed this command to elicit wonder? Children only?

Plato. "Wonder is the beginning of philosophy"

Aristotle "For men were first led to study philosophy, as indeed they are today, by wonder"

Wordsworth:

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Samuel Coleridge

Wordsworth approach succeeds "by awakening the mind's attention from the lethargy of custom"

If the directive is only about teaching your child why does the Rambam go out of his way to include all members of your household? even yourself? Clearly he is influenced by the Talmud and the Haggadah itself!

It is incumbent on all of us, not only children, to experience the wonder that is engendered by this holiday. The enormity of the events: the unlikely leader; the near-extinction; yet the uncanny capacity to hold on to their names, their identities, their connection to God; the battle against Pharaoh and against Egypt--all these factors form the foundation for our engaging in this mitzvah. Our Sages, in making the Pesach Seder wholly unique, different from any other holiday, heightened our awareness of these differences and prepared us for the next stage--to tell the story!

2. Recollection

How to tell a story? Start with shame and end with praise. Problem is while the Gemara offers two options for who's shame (Rav--originally we were idol worshipers; Shmuel--we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt), we are not told of the moment of praise or the subject! Whose praise?

In reality, there are two subjects (Israel or God) and two variables (shame and praise). All variables give us the following graph:

Shame of Israel, end with praise of Israel מתחיל בגנות ישראל ומסיים בשבח ישראל

Shame of God, end with praise of God מתחיל בגנות ה' ומסיים בגנות ה

Shame of Israel, end with praise of God מתחיל בגנות ישראל, מסיים בשבח ה

Shame of God, end with praise of Israel מתחיל בגנות ה' , ומסיים בשבח ישראל

The open nature of the Gemara's question leaves it to us and our own interpretation as we explore the 'story' that we are so clearly commanded to retell.

Rav and Shmuel each had a different perspective on when the story began.

Rav--a spiritual story

Shmuel--a physical one

In the end, the Haggadah paskens like both!!

When do you think the שבח took place?

Finally, what does it mean עד שיגמור כל הפרשה כולה?

Some commentators express that for the Tannaim who lived during the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, it was too hard for them to involve themselves in the final verse—the promise of the return to Eretz Yisrael, they therefore omitted it.

Rav David Tzvi Hoffman actually says that in the time of the Beit Hamikdash, when the children of Israel were in Eretz Yisrael, they DID recite this in the Haggadah!

In this light seeing as how we today are celebrating in Eretz Yisrael perhaps we should insert some drash on this final verse.

רש"י (ט) אל המקום הזה - זה בית המקדש

ספרי: ויביאנו אל המקום הזה בשכר ביאתנו אל המקום הזה נתן לנו את הארץ הזאת

א. קורמן, ספר הפרשה ותולדותיה: נשאלת השאלה, הרי אי אפשר להגיע לבית המקדש אם לא נכנסים תחלה ארצה? בית המקדש לא נבנה על הגבול אלא באמצע הארץ? יש מדרש המובא בתרגום יונתן ובעץ החיים שבזמן פסח מצרים ה' העלה את ישראל על עננים ממצרים למקום המקדש להקריב קרבנם. אחר כך החזירום דרך העננים למצרים. לכך נאמר 'המקום הזה'—בית המקדש ואח"כ ארץ הזאת.

3. Application

The Haggadah's agenda is to make sure we apply the lessons of the past to the challenges of today

The final component is a result of the previous three. Once the story is told and applied, we should be overcome with an overwhelming sense of

4. Gratitude

In Judaism gratitude is essential in recognising God's hand in the world. But we don't simply end with praising God, that in turn engenders a request, a yearning for more divine intervention, for God to save us today from our crises and for Him to help us build our ideal future--returning to Jerusalem and rebuilding of the Bet Hamikdash.