Thoughts by Rabbi Benjamin Blech (originally published on Aish.com)

The Passover Seder is known by this name not so much because the meal follows a pre-ordained order but because it is meant to affirm the major teaching about God that appears in the first of the 10 Commandments. Long after God created the world he demonstrated his continuing love by intervening in history, to punish evildoers and to bring freedom to those who suffered from the cruelty of their oppressors.

The Talmud (Berachot 12a) teaches us that every blessing requires two elements. “Kol brachah she’ein boh shem u’malchut eino brachah - any blessing that does not include in it God's name as well as reference to his rulership as king is not a blessing.” To speak of Him simply by way of his four letter name Hashem without clarifying that He is also Elokenu Melech Ha’olam – our God who continues to rule over the world as a king, involved, concerned and personally connected – is to be blind to the true significance of our monotheistic faith and the meaning of “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

It was on the first Passover that the Jews clearly witnessed God's intervention in human affairs. To celebrate Passover is to acknowledge the idea of Seder – the concept of history that embraces God as the ultimate director of events that proceed according to a divinely ordained order.


haggadah Section: Introduction