Shabbat HaGadol in Times of B'didut

...because of the miracle: In the year when we left Egypt, the tenth of Nisan was a Saturday, and (on that day) every Israelite took a lamb as his Pascal sacrifice and tied it to the posts of his bed, as it is written, "In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household." (Exodus 12:3) And the Egyptians saw this, and asked them, "Why are you doing this?" They responded, "To slaughter our Passover sacrifice as G!d commanded us!" And (the Egyptians) ground their teeth when they learned that their gods would be slaughtered, yet they were not able to say a thing to them.

Because that took place on the tenth of Nissan, which happened to be a Shabbat, it was established that from then on the Shabbat before Passover would be called "Shabbat HaGadol."

Ha lachma anya: There are a number of difficulties in this passage. First, the passage should have begun with the words, “All who are hungry come and eat.” Second, it would have been more appropriate to say, “This is the bread of affliction” when everyone is sitting around the table paying attention. There are other issues which Don Isaac Abarbanel and the Ma’aseh Adonai spell out.²⁸Isaac Abarbanel was one of the leading scholars in Spain at the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492. His commentary on the Haggadah is called Zevach Pesach. It begins with a hundred questions which Abarbanel then answers. Ma’aseh Adonai is yet another well known commentary on the Haggadah, this one by Rabbi Eliezer Ashkenazi (1512-1585).
In Yoreh Deah²⁹Yoreh Deah is one of the four sections of the Shulchan Arukh, the great compendium of Jewish law by Joseph Karo. 249:3 we learn that when giving tzedakah, one should do so with a cheerful countenance, joyfully and with a full heart. One should empathize with the needy person in his misery and speak to him with consolation. If one greets him with an angry countenance then he loses all merit for the mitzvah of giving tzedakah even if he gives him money or food. This is what the prophet Isaiah wrote: “and you offer your compassion to the hungry and satisfy the famished creature.”³⁰Isaiah 58:10 This means that one should first speak to the needy person and ask him about his troubles. One should not humiliate him since the world is a turning wheel – the needy person who sits on the dung heap may eventually sit with princes. He should placate the poor person and encourage him to come to his house. But once the meal begins, he should not speak about the other’s poverty; rather he should treat him as if he were the host’s best friend and happy to be with him. They should eat and drink happily together. When the poor guest prepares to leave, once again his host should console him with soft words and tell him that God will help him and that he will see better times just as we all wait for the final redemption.
These are the things that the host should do who invites the needy to join him at the Seder. First, he should say, “This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.” By saying “In Egypt,” instead of saying, “When we went forth from Egypt.” David Abudraham³¹Fourteenth Century Scholar from Spain best known for his compendium of prayers and synagogue rituals. relates that when his contemporary was imprisoned in India they fed him unleavened bread that did not get moldy or stale. One can go on to explain that the Egyptians did not allow the Israelites to bake regular bread in Egypt – but eventually the unleavened bread became a symbol of freedom. In this way, one can remove the mask of humiliation from the poor person’s face. He does not have to feel he has come to a rich person’s house this night – we all eat the bread of poverty and affliction. Rather we should make the person feel at home and accepted by saying: “All who are in need come and celebrate the Pesach.” He does not have to feel that he is eating the bread of humiliation. And when he prepares to leave, speaking consolingly to him and say, “This year we are here – next year in the land of Israel!” That is, he can anticipate God’s redemption land of Israel just as we do.