#1 "Like One Who Left Egypt" - Yehudi Amichai (Translated by Rabbi Steve Sager)

What is the continuity of my life. I am like one who left Egypt

With the Red Sea split in two and I passing through on dry ground

With two walls of water on my right and on my left.

Behind me Pharaoh’s force and his chariots and before me the wilderness

and perhaps the promised land. This is the continuity of my life.

#2Mishnah- section: Pesachim, 10:1 (approx. 200ce)

On the eve of Passover at a time close to that of the mincha service, a person should not eat any food from that time onward until it gets dark. Additionally, even the poor people of Israel should not eat until they are able to recline at the seder. And they shall not give the poor person less than four cups of wine, even if it is from the communal food collection plate.

#3 Babylonian Talmud- section: Pesachim, page: 108a (approx. 600ce)

It was stated that eating matzah requires that one recline while eating it, but marror, does not require that one recline while eating it. Rav Nachman stated that, in regard to wine, one is required to recline while drinking it. However other sources suggest that Rav Nahman also stated that one is not required to recline while drinking wine; and there is no dispute between these two statements.

With regard to drinking wine, the first statement in the name of Rav Nachman was in reference to the first two cups of wine, and the second statement in the name of Rav Nachman was in reference to the last two cups of wine.

Some explain this difference one way, and some explain this difference another way. The first explanation: The first two cups require reclining because it is now during the beginning of the seder when our freedom begins. And the last two cups do not require reclining because what has happened has already happened.

On the contrary, the last two cups require reclining because that is when we are free. And the first two cups do not require reclining because at that time one is still singing Avadim Ha-enu (we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt)”. Now that it was stated thus, and stated thus, the first two cups and the last two cups, both require reclining.


haggadah Section: Introduction