Pesach Haggadah, Magid, Rabban Gamliel's Three Things

Rabban Gamliel was accustomed to say: Anyone who has not said these three things on Pesach has not fulfilled his obligation, and these are them: the Pesach sacrifice, matsa and marror.

The Pesach [Passover] sacrifice that our ancestors were accustomed to eating when the Temple existed, for the sake of what [was it]? For the sake [to commemorate] that the Holy One, blessed be He, passed over the homes of our ancestors in Egypt, as it is stated (Exodus 12:27); "And you shall say: 'It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, for that He passed over the homes of the Children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and our homes he saved.’ And the people bowed the head and bowed."

Excerpt from "A Humanistic Haggadah"

Z'ROA - SHANKBONE - [Roasted bone held up for all to see.] Why do have a shankbone on the Seder plate? The shankbone is symbolic of the paschal lamb, sacrifice made for Pesach in the Temple in Jerusalem. In the exodus story, the doorposts of the Jewish homes were marked with animal blood so that the angel of death would pass over their homes and not take their first-born children. The Pesach sacrifices were made each year as a symbol of that act.

Z'roah - Chesed - The Z'roah is the symbol we use on the Seder Plate today to represent the Korban Pesach. The Korban Pesach is the method through which we internalize the Intellectual Emunah of the Three Matzos. It is the Chesed, the generous giving of the spiritual gift of Emunah. Spiritual gifts are the embodiment of chesed, since chesed implies an unlimited, endless giving of good. And since the good that we are receiving is a spiritual gift, it is appropriate that chesed is the mida [trait] through which we receive this gift, since spirituality is an inherently unlimited, boundless gift as well, as opposed to physical gifts which are inherently bounded and limited by the finite-ness of physicality.


haggadah Section: -- Cup #2 & Dayenu