by Avi Feldblum

In the spring of 1985, the net.religion.jewish community on early Usenet gathered its scattered scholars and students for Passover. Avi Feldblum — whose weekly Dvar Torah had already become a fixture on the network — contributed this pre-Pesach essay, relayed through RI Block at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Piscataway. It moves from practical halacha (the search and destruction of chametz, the five Seder obligations, the measures of matzah and wine) to a deeper theological question: how can one holiday hold two contradictory themes — affliction and liberation — simultaneously? The Dubna Maggid's parable of the peddler who became a merchant and then became poor again captures the shift from commemoration to living reality. The Abravanel's resolution of the "four questions" anchors the night: Pesach is not a night of contradiction, but of paradox held whole.

With Pesach (Passover) rapidly approaching, I want to first quickly review some of the laws regarding the destruction of chametz (leaven) and the Seder, and give some comments on a few parts of the Haggadah.

The preparation for Pesach begins with the search for chometz this Thursday evening, about 45 minutes after sunset. It is customary to place pieces of chometz around where one will find it, but this custom is not mandatory. If performed, one should be careful to use some type of chometz that will not crumble and make life difficult. Whatever is found is placed aside to be destroyed on Friday. On Friday morning, chametz may be eaten until the end of the fourth hour (9:26 in New York — check local calendar and/or local rabbi; the hour is defined as 1/12 of the time from dawn to when the stars come out), and destroyed at the end of the fifth hour.

The Five Seder Obligations

There are five basic obligations performed during the course of the Seder:

1. Drinking four cups of wine (Arbah Kosos)
2. Eating Matzoh
3. Eating bitter herbs (marror)
4. Relating the story of the Exodus (the Haggadah)
5. Reciting Psalms of praise (Hallel)

The Four Cups: The requirement of drinking the four cups of wine is emphasized strongly in the Talmud; the Mishnah says that even the poorest of the poor should be provided with all four cups. The first cup is used for Kiddush, the second for the reciting of the Haggadah, the third for reciting the Grace after the meal, and the last for reciting the final part of the Hallel. Each cup is required to be a revi'is, a certain liquid measure — it is required that at least a majority of the revi'is is drunk for each cup. The measure of the revi'is is recommended to be at least 3.3 fl. oz., with the first cup recommended to be at least 4.2 fl. oz. (according to R. Moshe Feinstein).

Matzah: Matzah must be eaten three times during the Seder: once when the blessing on the matzah is made, when the "sandwich" of matzah and morror is eaten, and after the meal for the Afikomen. The matzah for the Seder should be Shemura Matzah — matzah whose flour was watched from the time of the harvesting of the wheat through completion of the baking, to make certain that it did not come in contact with water. Each time one is required to eat matzah, the amount required is a k'zayis, equal to a piece about six inches by four inches in size.

The Bread of Affliction

One of the first things we recite is "this is the bread of affliction..." Some versions read "this is like the bread of affliction..." The Dubna Maggid explains the difference using the following example.

There was once a poor peddler who went from town to town peddling his wares out of a pack that he wore on his back. One day he arrived in a new town and was successful in selling his wares. Slowly he prospered in this town until he became a wealthy man. He made a holiday for himself to commemorate the day he arrived in town. On that day he put back on his old peddler clothes, and put his pack of wares on his back, to remember how he arrived. He would then distribute gifts to his children. One year, his luck changed and he found himself once again a poor man, with nothing. His wife told him: we came to this town with nothing but your wares — go now again out to peddle so we will have something to eat. He puts on his old clothes and his sack on his back and goes out. His children see this and run up to him for the gifts they are used to receiving when they see him dressed this way — but he explains to them: in the past this was but a commemoration being celebrated; now it is for real.

So too with us, the Maggid explains. When we still had the Temple and lived in Israel, we said "this is to remember the times of affliction." But now we must truly say "this time again is a time of affliction."

The Four Questions and the Dual Theme of Pesach

The four questions are probably the most well-known part of the Haggadah. There is one basic problem with them, though: why do we say that Pesach is different from any other holiday? We do unusual things on each holiday. Let us have four questions for, say, Succos: why do we leave the house and go eat (and sleep) in this strange booth with leaves for a roof? Surely as strange as anything we do on Pesach.

The Abravanel (among others) explains that the name "four questions" is a misnomer — we are only asking one question. True, we are used to doing some strange things on the holidays, but they are understandable in terms of the theme of the holiday. Pesach is different, though, because there appear to be two conflicting themes: matzah and marror fit in with a theme of slavery and affliction, while reclining and dipping fit in with a theme of freedom and wealth. The question being asked is: what is the theme of Pesach? To which we answer, both — we were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt (theme one) and God removed us from there to freedom (theme two).

And matzah itself may symbolize this dichotomy: we call it lechem oni — "poor bread" or "bread of affliction" — while at the same time we say we eat it because when we left Egypt we left quickly and the bread did not have time to rise. The bread of slavery becomes the bread of flight becomes the bread of freedom.

Colophon

Written by Avi Feldblum (pruxa!ayf), originally posted to Usenet via the relays at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Piscataway, NJ (RI Block, [email protected]), and received April 3, 1985. Feldblum's weekly Dvar Torah was a regular feature of the early net.religion.jewish community; this pre-Pesach essay is the fourth in the series preserved in the Good Work Library (see also: Parshat Zachor; Parashat Vayak'hel-Pekudei).

Sources cited: Tractate Pesachim (Talmud Bavli); the Dubna Maggid (Rabbi Yaakov Kranz, 1741–1804); Don Yitzhak Abravanel (1437–1508), commentary on the Haggadah.

Preserved from the Usenet archive (UTZOO batch b42, news024f1) for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

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