By Yochanan Gordon
The Haggadah Shel Pesach is the most republished religious liturgical work outside of the Chumash. The humorous reason I heard in explaining this phenomenon is due to last year’s rasha being this year’s chacham. The constant evolution of the characters requires a new version with each passing year.
The law regarding Pesach as codified by the Rambam is: “In every generation a person is obligated to see himself as if he left Egypt.” We spend a lot of time on the narrative, as set out in the Haggadah, trying to unearth new ideas and perspectives in the story of our nation’s exodus from Mitzrayim. However, while we begin the night recounting the story of yetzias Mitzrayim, ultimately the story shifts and concludes with prayers for our imminent redemption. Following the tenet of “everything follows the conclusion” (Hakol holeich achar hachitum) that would suggest that the holiday of Pesach is more about our ultimate redemption rather than the story of our people’s exodus thousands of years ago. Ultimately the Seder night is about envisioning our redemption from exile and not just a story of the past, which is why we conclude, “Next year in Jerusalem.”
The question becomes how to view the Haggadah and what its recitation is meant to accomplish. Is the Haggadah a sefer like all others, which is meant to be studied, analyzed, and expounded upon? Or is it a self-help guide towards achieving redemption on both an individual and collective level?
With every passing year new Haggadahs are published, not just a smattering here and there, rather a new arsenal of Haggadahs based on the commentary and interpretation of many a rosh yeshiva, rebbe, poseik, etc. Just the other day, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the Hogwarts Haggadah, which for the life of me I cannot figure out. I digress. I had an observation as a young summer camp attendee that the kids who would show up to leagues with the latest gear were likely not the most proficient athletes. Often, there is an insecurity among children who aren’t as athletic to have the newest gear and to mimic the pros to overcompensate for a lack of being able to compete at a high level on the court or the field. It was usually the kid whose glove was on its last leg, indicative of how much it was used in between games who you wanted the ball to be hit to; or the goalie with a beat up set of pads who you wanted protecting your net.
As I’m recording these reminiscences of my camp days to bring out a pertinent point with regards to our yom tov observance, I recall one Pesach a number of years back when someone at our Seder table had the kos of the Trisker Maggid. One thing I can tell you for certain is that it would not have passed the required measurements for the reviisim of today. That reality gave way to the following thought, which is in line with my camp days observation and that is that in the previous generations when the focus was on the intention behind the mitzvah, a smaller physical measure sufficed; these days when our intentionality leaves a lot to be desired, we tend to need to overcompensate with the most unique lulav, esrog, Megillah, Hagaddah, fill in the blank.
Another memory I have as a young yeshiva student becoming serious about davening was the days when I used the Pathway to Prayer word-to-word guide to davening Shemonah Esrei with the requisite intention. I can recall a time when I couldn’t conceive of davening during the week and let alone during the Yomim Noraim if I didn’t have my Pathway to Prayer. There was certainly nothing else that I wanted to stand before the King of Kings on the holiest of days with! But then I reached a point in time and maturity when I wasn’t content with being told what to think and when. It reminds me of a joke with a guy who goes away on vacation for a couple of weeks. He gets a call from his psychologist, asking him how he is enjoying his vacation. He responds, “I’m having a great time, but I can’t wait until I get back so you can explain to me why I’m having such a good time.”
If Pesach and mitzvah observances in general are about personal growth and developing a uniquely personal relationship with G-d, then it’s not important which Haggadah you have or which self help guide to thinking that we are praying with, but that we learn how to pray altogether. Prayer is the service of the heart and that is certainly not scripted. Furthermore, the Pesach Seder is about giving spoken expression to the things that shackle us in our relationships with our spouses, our children, interpersonally, spiritually, and to seek to extricate ourselves from those exiles and pray from the depths of our heart to be redeemed. Granted a certain commentary or Chassidic story can help bring forth those thoughts but we have to remain focused on what the purpose of it all is and not get lost in the texts at the expense of the heart.
I’ve written this story in the past, but nothing drives home the point that I have made quite like it. It’s a story that was recorded in the Sippurei Chassidim from the great genius Rav Shlomo Yosef Zevin, zt’l, about a drunk ignoramus who had drank a serious amount of mashke on to get rid of his chametz on erev Pesach when he fell into a deep sleep and remained sleeping until he woke up close to midnight on the first Seder night. His wife was yelling at him that it was Pesach and they hadn’t yet had the Seder or even made kiddush whereupon he quickly set the table, filled up the glasses, and made kiddush, washed, had karpas, broke the middle matzah and then he was up to Maggid. The man sat down, and he screamed out, “Our forefathers were enslaved to Pharaoh in Egypt and G-d had mercy upon us and redeemed us from that galus and we sit here tonight praying fervently that G-d once again has mercy on us and redeem us again once and for all.” And then he went back to sleep.
That night, Reb Levi Yitzchak of Berditchiver couldn’t sleep due to the nagging thought that there was someone in town whose Seder was more beloved than his. He sent his chassidim out, late at night, to find this person and to bring him to the Rebbe. They located the Yid who was the infamous town drunkard. They carried him through the town back to their Rebbe. The Rebbe asked him what he had done to make his Seder so beautiful? The puzzled Yid described his whole Seder experience, which seemed more than dysfunctional but the Rebbe could not get over the sincerity of his request to be redeemed once again.
We use the words of Chazal: “Kol hamarbeh lesaper b’yetzias Mitzrayim harei zeh meshubach” as a justification for spending the night in long conversation. However, in addition to meaning to retell, the word “lesaper” connotes sapphire which means to crystalize and to internalize the message of the Haggadah. With the number of Haggadahs printed this year alone we can stay up recounting the events of yetzias Mitzrayim until next Pesach easily but that doesn’t take the place of a momentary altruistic thought over the things that plague us today and the desire to taste personal redemption today.
Yochanan Gordon can be reached at ygordon5t@gmail.com. Read more of Yochanan’s articles at 5TJT.com.
