The seder and the Haggadah were developed by a group of ancient rabbis who lived in the Land of Israel under Greco-Roman cultural influence. They did some cultural borrowing in crafting the Haggadah, using the Greco-Roman concept of a symposium as a blueprint and filling in that structure with Jewish content. A symposium was a meal with guests during which an important subject would be discussed and explored, and a specific number of cups of wine would be served. The hosts would issue invitations, which would state the topic for the evening’s discussion and the number of cups of wine that would be served. (The more potent the wine that a particular host served, the more he or she would be admired in community gossip). At the beginning of the evening, guests would arrive and be invited to get comfortable – reclining on pillows and cushions and preparing to eat and drink, talk and argue deep into the night. 

What the ancient rabbis did in crafting the seder was to create a very Jewish version of the symposium. The topic for the evening’s discussion: the Exodus from Egypt and the meaning of liberation for our times. The number of cups of wine to be served: four. The meal: sumptuous, with symbolic foods representing different parts of the Exodus story. The rabbis who originated the seder envisioned the food, drink, and discussion continuing on as late as people would like – even until dawn. Passover is the ultimate dinner-party-Jewish-holiday.


haggadah Section: Introduction