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Answering the questions
Contributed by Ron Judenberg

  • TOP HAGGADAHS FOR 2023

We eat matzoh because when our ancestors were told by Pharaoh that they could leave Egypt, they had no time to allow their bread to rise, so they baked hurriedly, without leavening.

At the Seder, we eat bitter herbs to remind us of the bitterness our ances- tors experienced when they were oppressed as slaves.

At the Seder table, we dip food twice; once in salt water to remind us of the tears shed in slavery and again in haroset, to remind us that there is sweetness even in bitter times.

In ancient times, slaves ate hurriedly, standing or squatting on the ground. Symbolically, as a sign of freedom, we lean and relax as we partake of wine and symbolic food.

The Haggadah tells the story of Rabbi Akiba and other Talmudic scholars sitting at the Seder table in B’nai B’rak all night long discussing the events of the liberation from Egypt. They talked all night until their students came in to announce it was time for the morning prayers. If great scholars can find the theme of freedom so fascinating that it keeps them up all night, our Seder too will be made more interesting with questions, comments, and discussion on this theme.

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ּעֲבָדִים הָיִינוּ הָיִינו. עַתָּה בְּנֵי חוֹרִין  

Avadim hayinu hayinu. Ata b’nei chorin.

We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt. Now we are free.

We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt, and God took us from there with a strong hand and outstretched arm. Had God not brought our ancestors out of Egypt, then even today we and our children and our grandchildren would still be slaves. Even if we were all wise, knowledgeable scholars and Torah experts, we would still be obligated to tell the story of the exodus from Egypt; and everyone who discusses the exodus from Egypt at length is praiseworthy.

It happened that Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Yehoshua, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah, Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarphon were reclining [at a seder] in B'nei Berak. They were discussing the exodus from Egypt all that night, until their students came and told them: "Our Masters! The time has come for reciting the morning Shema!"

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azaryah said: "I am like a man of seventy years old, yet I did not succeed in understanding that the exodus from Egypt must be mentioned at night, until Ben Zoma explained it by quoting 'In order that you may remember the day you left Egypt all the days of your life.' The Torah adds the word 'all' to the phrase 'the days of your life' to indicate that the nights are meant as well."

The sages, however, said: "`The days of your life' refers to the present-day world, and 'all' indicates the inclusion of the era of the Messiah."
haggadah Section: -- Four Questions

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