This Friday night marks the beginning of the holiday of Passover, or Pesach in Hebrew. The holiday is most noted for the seders held on the first two nights of Pesach — this year the seders will be held on this coming Friday and Saturday nights. More American Jews attend a seder than participate in any other religious practice, per the link, 70% of American Jews attended a seder in 2013. Pesach recalls the days of slavery in Egypt and our deliverance out slavery into freedom. This diary will first review the admittedly scanty archaeological evidence that ancient proto-Isarelites were slaves in Egypt who went on to escape slavery and conquer the land the Israel. We will then discuss the seder rituals that will be observed early in the seder.
I. Evidence Supporting the Biblical Narrative:
There is no reference in Egyptian sources indicating that Israelite or proto-Israelite slaves lived in Egypt. Of course, we are dealing with limited writings made 3500 years ago — the likely period of any Exodus being the 13th to 12th centuries BCE — and those writings largely made at the behest of a Pharaoh who might not have wanted to brag about a successful revolt among his slaves. Rabbi Joseph Hertz wrote in his Chumash Torah commentary, first published in 1937 and used in most synagogues in the English speaking world to the end of the 20th century, about what he called the “inconvenience” of the Biblical story. If these stories were totally mythical, why would any people invent a history where their ancestors were slaves and pretty docile slaves at that, and then they constantly and repeatedly whined and rebelled when they were freed?
Archaeologist Manfred Bietak has written — Exodus Evidence: An Egyptologist Looks at Biblical History: Biblical Archaeology Review May/June 2016 — that some evidence exists of an Israelite or proto-Israelite presence in Egypt in the 13th and 12th centuries BCE. Dr. Bietak sees such evidence in the Egyptian place names Pithom and Ramses mentioned in Exodus 1:11 (“So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built the garrison cities of Pithom and Ramses”), and in the repeated Biblical references to Yom Suf , translated as either the Red Sea or the Sea of Reeds. The city of Ramses disappears from Egyptian sources in the 11th century BCE and does not reappear until the 3rd century BCE. Dr. Bietak states that during the intervening 800 years Ramses ceased being a town and became a quarry. No oral or written tradition would have begun during this 800 year period when Ramses did not exist. Moreover, all three place names: Pithom, Ramses and Yom Suf, appear together in Egyptian sources only in the 13th to 12th Century BCE.
Dr. Bietak also discusses the simple houses from the 12th century BCE made of wattle and daub that archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered and which may have been the residences of slaves or, at least, poorly paid workers. These four room homes are identical to homes found in Canaan that were being built at this time. Dr. Bietak states that these four room homes are “considered an ethnic marker for the presence of Israelites.”
The Papyrus Anastasi VI records a group called the Shosu from Edom being granted permission to enter Egypt at the end of the 13th century BCE. Dr. Bietak speculates these people may have been the Israelites entering Egypt (recorded in the final chapters of Genesis as Jacob’s family joining Joseph). The article concludes with a discussion of large border lakes that existed during the 13th and 12th centuries BCE, one of which was large enough to have waves and may have been the Yom Suf which, per the Biblical account, was split to allow the Israelites to cross, and oases that may correspond to the stopping points in the desert recounted in Exodus.
II. Selected Parts of the Seder Explained:
The various parts of the seder are set forth in chapter 10 of the Mishnah Pesachim, which was completed around the year 200 C.E. After the Romans destroyed the Temple in 70 CE and it became clear the Temple wasn’t going to be rebuilt anytime soon, the rabbis in the Gemara to chapter 10 of the Talmud Pesachim modified parts of the seder described in the Mishnah to account for the fact that Jews would no longer be eating at their seders the sacrificial meat that they had slaughtered in the Temple earlier that day. It is fair to assume that Jesus and His disciples, at the Last Supper, which in all probability was a Passover Seder, followed the same procedure set forth in the Mishnah which, aside from the post-Temple modifications, we largely follow today.
A. The Kiddush — the First Part of the Seder:
The seder begins with the kiddush. In Mishnah Pesachim 10:2 we read:
They pour him the first cup. The school of Shammai says: "He recites the benediction over the day, and then he recites the benediction over the wine." But the school of Hillel says, "He recites the benediction over the wine, and then recites the benediction over the day."
The kiddush is the sanctification over wine or grape juice. It is chanted in observant homes every Friday night, and on the evening of every Jewish holiday except the fast of Yom Kippur. Every Friday night, the family gathers around the table, everyone's cup is filled with wine or grape juice, and one of the adults (someone 13 years old or over) chants the kiddush, at the conclusion of which each person drinks his or her cup of wine. Then everyone washes their hands and recites the blessing for washing hands, the blessing is recited over the bread, and the meal begins. Passover night is different, because there is a lot of reading in the Haggadah before the meal can begin. The kiddush for Passover (as will be modified on Friday night for Shabbat) is:
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who chose us from all peoples and exalted us among nations, by making us holy with Your commandments. With love You gave us [Shabbats for rest and] festivals for joy, holidays and seasons for rejoicing, and this day [of Shabbat and] the Festival of Matzoh, the season of our freedom, which is a holy assembly, in remembrance of the deliverance from Egypt. For You have chosen us from all peoples to make us holy with [Shabbat] and Your holy festivals in joy and in happiness. Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who makes holy Israel, [Shabbat] and the festival seasons.
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, Who has given us life and sustenance and has brought us to this happy season.
The first blessing is the blessing over wine, which pious Jews will even recite on weekdays, before drinking wine in a bar or with dinner. Rabbis Hillel and Shammai argued about whether on Shabbat or a holiday this blessing should come first or second, Rabbi Hillel won this argument, and all others he had with Shammai. The final blessing is recited at every Jewish festival, and at other joyful events - such as by parents at their child's bar or bat mitzvah - we thank God for allowing us to live to enjoy this day.
When the kiddush is concluded, we drink our first of four cups of wine, and proceed to:
B. OrHatz, The washing of the hands: The second part of the Seder:
The Talmud, Pesachim 115a, teaches us that we must wash our hands before we touch anything that has been dipped in liquid. Pious Jews recite a blessing for washing hands every day, before they eat bread to begin a meal, but the Talmud, also at Pesachim 115a, teaches us that, as there is no meal at this point, we wash our hands without a blessing. The rabbis in this part of the Talmud observed that this washing brings to mind the washings that the priests in the Temple undertook before participating in the animal sacrifices. Once we have washed our hands, we come to:
C. Karpas, Eating a Green Vegetable: The Third Part of the Seder:
From Mishnah Pesachim 10:3:
Then they bring it before him, he dips the lettuce and eats it before he reaches the course that is secondary to the matzoh. . . . Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Zadok says: " The commandment is in the dipping."
Eveyone at the seder table is given a piece of parsley or celery, which is dipped into salt water or vinegar. The common blessing for vegetables, said by pious Jews anytime they are about to eat a vegetable, is recited:
Blessed are You, Eternal our God, Ruler of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the earth.
And everyone eats his or her own piece of parsley (or other vegetable).
The eating of the parsley dipped into salt water or vinegar follows the customary culinary habits of Roman-Talmudic times. Meals began with an hors d'oeuvre, dipped into some liquid. Throughout the Talmud, the rabbis discuss dipping their food - in most passages the discussion has nothing to do with Passover. Dipping was a Roman custom that the Jews acquired. (Think dipping chips into salsa today.) When everyone finishes chewing their sprigs of dipped parsley, they proceed to:
D. Yachatz, Breaking the middle matzoh and hiding the afikomen: The Fourth Part of the Seder:
And in the Temple they then would bring before him the body of the Passover offering.
Mishnah Pesachim 10:3. This is one of the post-Temple modifications of the seder.
Three matzohs are in a single pile on the seder table. The leader takes the middle matzoh breaks it in half. He or she returns one half of the broken matzoh to its original place between the two whole matzohs. The leader wraps a napkin around the other half and puts it aside. The Talmud, Pesachim 115b - 116a, explains that, when we break the matzoh, we remember the poor who are forced to eat crumbs rather than whole loaves.
The half that has been put aside is called the Afikomen. Post-Talmudic commentators compare it to the line from the Mishnah quoted above - it is the representation of the lamb that was sacrificed in the Temple. Thereafter, the seder leader hides the afikomen so that the children can hunt for it after they have finished eating. The winning child gets a prize. This contest was designed to keep the children active and interested and to sober them up from the wine. After dinner is complete, the afikomen is eaten - it is our official dessert - we are not permitted to eat any more food until dawn, lest we become gluttons. That is assuming that one of the children has found the afikomen.
E. Magid, The Story of the Exodus: The Fifth Part of the Seder:
This is by far the longest part of the seder. I’m only going to discuss the opening invitation and then conclude because this diary is already too long. The seder leader begins the section by reading:
This is the bread of affliction which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. All who are hungry let them enter and eat. All who are in need let them come and celebrate Pesach. Now we are here. Next year may we be in the land of Israel. Now we are enslaved. Next year we will be free.
The untranslated text is in Aramaic, not Hebrew, because in Talmudic times Aramaic was the language of the poor, who would not have understood an invitation in Hebrew to come in and eat. In Talmudic and post-Talmudic times, Jews attending their seders, for these one or two nights of the year, emulated what Rabbi Huna did before every meal, every day of the year:
When Rabbi Huna . . . was about to sit down to a meal, he would open the doors and call out “Anyone who desires to eat, let him come in and eat.”
Babylonian Talmud Ta’anit 20b. Jews would open the door minutes after beginning the seder to invite all who are in need to come in and join the seder. Unfortunately, during the Middle Ages, the bigots would gather outside Jewish homes and when the Jews would open the door, the bigots would rush in, overturn the seder table, and beat up the Jews. Accordingly, Jews stopped opening the door early in the seder and delayed the door opening until near the end of the seder, late at night after the bigots had gone to bed. And instead of words of welcome, they pronounced curses:
Pour out Your wrath upon those who do not know You and upon the nations which do not call upon your name. For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his dwelling place. [Psalms 79: 6-7].
Pour out Your fury upon them, let the fierceness of Your anger overtake them. [Psalms 69: 25].
Pursue them in indignation and destroy them from under Your heavens. [Lamentations 3: 66].
Despite the passage of a thousand years, the late at night door opening and curses remain in traditional Haggadahs, although many Jews now omit the curses.
But in this age of *rump, maybe we should resume cursing the hate mongers? Maybe we Jews are not in fear of the haters bursting into our seders and leading people away, but what about undocumented immigrants sitting down for their evening meals, fearful of ICE agents barging in and leading one or both of the parents away? And at our seders, let us remember the teaching of the Talmud’s rabbis that the crumbs of the matzoh should remind us of the poor who must eat crumbs instead of whole loaves, and resolve to fight those who, in seeking to cut SNAP and other programs, would force more of the poor to eat fewer crumbs.
Happy Pesach and Shabbat Shalom