Haggada Notes

The Midwives

VaTichayena Et HaYeladim - Pharaoh didn't mean "why didn't you kill the babies?" He knew that no midwife would kill a baby. He wanted to know why they put their own lives in danger by not listening to him. (Hemet Davar)

LaMiyaldot HaIvriot - One way to translate this is "those who assist Jewish mothers in giving birth," and not necessarily "Jewish midwives." According to this translation, Pharaoh commanded them only because he thought they would have no problem killing Jewish babies. (Michael Schmidman, Dean of Jewish Studies, Isaac Breuer College, Yeshiva University)

Orange on the Seder Plate: (from RitualWell.org)

In the early 1980s, while speaking at Oberlin College Hillel, Susannah Heschel was introduced to an early feminist chametz violates Passover. So, at her next seder, she chose an orange as a symbol of inclusion of gays and lesbians and others who are marginalized within the Jewish community. She offered the orange as a symbol of the fruitfulness for all Jews when lesbians and gay men are contributing and active members of Jewish life. In addition, each orange segment had a few seeds that had to be spit out – a gesture of spitting out, repudiating the homophobia of Judaism.

Miriam on Seder Plate

Rabbi Sherira Gaon of 10th-century Babylon noted a custom of putting three foods on the plate.
"Those three cooked foods are fish, meat, and an egg corresponding to the foods that Israel will eat in the Time to Come; fish corresponding to Leviathan, egg to Ziz (an enormous mythic and fabulous bird), meat corresponding to wild bull." The foods symbolizes the mythic creatures from the realms of sea, air and land that will be eaten in the Meal of the Righteous in the Messianic times.

A second reason is offered by R. Sherira: "There are those who put an additional cooked food in memory ofMiriam, as it says, "And I sent before you Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam" (Micah 6, 4). According to this, Miriam and the role she fulfilled in the redemption from Egypt is represented by the third cooked food on the seder table. (Edah)

Karpas

The idea of having the marror in mind when saying the bracha on karpas is wrong. The bracha won’t help because the whole magid is a big hesach ha’daat between eating the karpas and marror. The only reason you don’t need a new bracha is that the marror is included in the MATZA. Because god commanded us to eat the marror with MATZA, the marror is therefore included. (Tosafot in Brachot)

Ha Lachma Anya

Why is the matza referred to as the bread our forefathers ate in Egypt? The matza was baked while the Jews were leaving.

• Rav Yaakov Emden, says that while the Jews left the heart of Egypt on the 15^th on Nissan, they didn’t exit the actual border until many days later. Further, they had already eaten matza with the Korban Pesach.

Why don’t we invite people with a similar declaration for other yomim tovim?

• The Shibolei HaLeket says that since it’s a Torah obligation to eat matza, we want to make sure everyone is included.
• Avudraham says that because the expenses of making pesach are higher than for any other holiday, we want to ensure the poor can celebrate.

Why do we switch from Aramaic to Hebrew for the words “l’shana haba”?

• The Rokeach says that we don’t want to arouse the fear and hatred of local non-Jews upon hearing talk of return to Israel.
• The Shibolei HaLeket says that since we are offering prayers for redemption we want the angels to understand

Amar Rav Elazar

What was the minhag before Ben Zoma established this halacha? Did people recount the exodus at night, or not?

• Raavad says that people did say the 3^rd paragraph of shema, and the discussion is if it was a Rabbinic decree or a Torah decree.
• The Rashba says that people didn’t say 3^rd paragraph at all and the debate was if the obligation exists.

The Wise Son

Why does the answer to the wise sons question begin with the word “ve-af”? And also is a poor way to start a sentence. The answer is that in the pesukim, Avadim Hayinu comes immediately followed the question of the wise son. Since it was already said, we don’t use it in the answer. The word “ve-af” is adding on to Avadim Hayinu. (Rabbi Kenny Hirschorn, Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, Jerusalem)

The Child Unable To Ask

Why does the haggada switch to the feminine form when discussing the child who doesn’t know how to ask?

A child too young to ask is probably still very attached to his mother. Therefore, the term “at” feminine for you is a cue to the mother to speak to the child as hearing it from the father would not be as effective. (Rabbi Kenny Hirschorn, Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, Jerusalem)

VaYareiu Otanu

Why does the posuk say “they made us evil” as opposed to “they did evil to us”?

Rav Yaakov Emden says that the Egyptians plotted to oppress and demoralize Jews so they would rebel against god.

Dayeinu

Why are the actions of god referred to as levels?

The Abarbanel says that they went above and beyond what was necessary simply to redeem the Jews.

The Maharal says that there is a progression among the 15 things, each being greater than the last.

Ilu Sipaik Tzarcheinu

How could we have survived in the desert unless god took care of us?

• Rashbam says that they had a lot of money to buy supplies and a lot of livestock to eat.
• Abarbanel said they could have gone direct route thru land of Pelishtim which was developed and populated.

VaYa'avidu Mitzrayim

The cantillation on these words is drag t'vir which literally means to "break in steps." The Egyptians broke down the Jews step-by-step rather than all at once. (Michael Schmidman, Dean of Jewish Studies, Isaac Breuer College, Yeshiva University)