Haggadah Companion Navigate Your Way Through the Seder with Insights and Essays from Some of the UK’S Top Jewish Educators

The Cohen-Saban Edition aish uk Haggadah Companion Navigate your way through the Seder with insights and essays from some of the UK’s top Jewish educators Seder night recreates the formative moment of birth of the Jewish people. Each year we cross ages and cultures to rejoin the Israelites at the moment of transition from slavery to freedom. To this day, Seder night remains the most observed practice for Jewish families worldwide. Its story tells us who we are, why we are here and where we are going. It emphasises that which is unique about our Jewishness, and what it is that we must give to the world. How does the Haggadah achieve this? What is it that we are intended to experience? And how is it supposed to relate to us personally in the 21st century? That is what we intend to explore and elaborate upon with this Haggadah companion… קדש The first cup “As we make the THE ROYAL TOAST blessing on the wine, which we are stepping (קדש) same root as Kadosh can be loosely translated as holy. But what does holiness mean and into a journey why do we start our Shabbat and Yom Tov meals with this declaration? of thousands of The term ‘Kadosh’, refers to something that is set aside and years of unbroken special.1 It is to “separate” from the regular monotony of our individual heritage” daily routine and join together as a group on an elevated journey. The journey of the Seder is the march to As we make the blessing on the wine, freedom. we are stepping into a journey of Kiddush sets the tone for the evening thousands of years of an unbroken and provides us with an insight into heritage with rich customs. Now is some of the attitudes that we can the time to start the meal, together hope to gain from Seder night. Many sitting in unity not just physically families chant these familiar words in with our nearest and dearest but As someone born outside the UK, I unison, ‘For we have been chosen conceptually with millions of Jews have a list of my favourite uniquely and separated amongst the nations‘ around the world sharing the same .beautiful journey .(כי בנו בחרת ואותנו קידשת מכל העמים) British moments. Right at the top is the Toast to Her Majesty at formal occasions. I always find it fascinating We were enslaved in Egypt and have So as we raise our glasses, let us drink to watch and join in as everyone been persecuted throughout the the toast to all of us for the journey raises their glasses and chants in ages, but have never lost sight of that we have travelled so far and for the unison “The Queen”. which makes us unique. In Jewish path still to be forged. thought chosenness is not a privilege Whilst quintessentially British, it is to be enjoyed at others’ expense, it is not totally unfamiliar. One of my a responsibility that impacts all that Rabbi Dani Smolowitz highlights of the Pesach Seder is the we do. As Jews, we hold ourselves to first step in the evening’s proceedings, a moral standard that ought not be when we all raise our glasses of wine affected by the way that others treat and make a toast to Hashem and the us. We were freed from persecution to Jewish people around the world. teach the world the value of freedom The word Kiddush comes from the and to make the world a better, more moral and spiritual place. 1 See Tosfot Kiddushin 2b 3 כרפס Karpas FROM EXILE TO REDEMPTION Rabbi Ari Kayser Once we have made Kiddush and washed our hands, we begin a series of activities that violate the normal pattern of Jewish festivals and provoke questions. That process “Pesach represents the start of spring, begins with taking a vegetable and dipping it in salt water. a time where the world begins to renew Whilst the overt purpose is to do something out of character, many see itself and regain its sense of vitality” in the choice of taking a vegetable to open the proceedings as deeply symbolic.2 of the winter it slowly grew, receiving its nourishment from the earth Each of us may have our own ‘dark Pesach represents the start of spring, around it, awaiting its time to sprout. times’; times when we feel that we a time where the world begins to Eventually, as the spring comes, that have been thrown under ground and renew itself and regain its sense of little shoot gently peeks above the buried. Often from those depths of vitality. The same is true for each earth, starting to realise its potential. despair something deep within us and every one of us during this time; can begin to sprout. It happened to having just passed through the dark The Jewish people took this same the Israelites in Egypt. It happens in winter months, we can now emerge journey. From the depths of darkness the natural world every year. And in invigorated. in slavery, they formed and shaped starting with the dipped vegetable, their identity as a nation, finally we proclaim that it can happen, too, Eating the karpas symbolises breaking through the barriers of exile within each of us. mankind’s journey from exile to and sprouting forth as free men and redemption. This vegetable began women. The redemption process is its own growth during the thick of an organic one, evolving over stages, winter as a seed underground, out of finding strength in the darkest of sight to passersby. Over the process places. 4 2 Heard in the name of Rabbi Yerachmiel Yisroel Yitzchok Dancyger of the chassidic dynasty of Aleksander הא לחמא עניא Ha Lachma Anya THE BREAD OF AFFLICTION had no time to rise? or the endless grind of meaningless existence, life is slavery indeed. All Rabbi Yitzchak food, from the humblest of Matzah Berkowitz, based on the to the most lavish material provision, 16th century writings of will taste of ‘the bread of affliction’. the Maharal, explains that Nothing will ever be enough. Matzah is indeed both, but not at the same time. The On the other hand, one who has food can stay the same, but broken free from slavery experiences We’ve made our attitude can change the the world in a different way. They Kiddush and washed way we relate to it. Seder live a life prioritising love, giving, and hands. We digressed slightly night involves a dramatic shift of making a difference over materialism, to dip a vegetable and to put away attitude. That is expressed in the two honour and power. Such a person a piece of Matzah. Now the host different ways that we relate to the sees and tastes the world differently. picks up the Matzah. Usually that’s central food of the night - Matzah. Material goods become a means and the signal that it’s time to eat. After not an ends. We eat to have energy all that is how we usually begin the In the beginning of the night, the to do the great things we truly desire. Shabbat or Holiday feast, with the poor man’s bread represents the way lifting the special Shabbat bread. the Jews viewed the physical world The Israelites left Egypt in a brief But not on Pesach night. Instead it is around them, tasteless. In the depth moment. That moment contained time to tell the tale of what Matzah of slavery they had no desire for life or within it the sense of freedom to represents in our shared history. living. In modern parlance we might truly live for what matters most in call it a national state of depression. this world - to serve as a partner with The host continues “This is the poor God Himself in bringing this world to bread that our ancestors ate while in Chassidic writings often emphasize perfection. In their rush to embrace the land of Egypt”. that the national story of slavery and the new world of possibilities, they were delighted to have the simplest of foods. They were focused on far Which is the correct reason for our eating more important issues. The food that Matzah: is it the poor man’s bread, or was it would sustain them, humble though it may be, tasted of the moment of because the bread had no time to rise? freedom itself. To one who is a slave, nothing is Is that so? Were we not taught in freedom is reflected in the personal enough. To one who is truly free, the school that we eat Matzah because stories of slavery and freedom that simplest food can taste of eternity. the Children of Israel rushed out each of us experience in our lives. Matzah starts the night as ‘bread of of Egypt and they didn’t have Each of us may feel that we wish affliction’ and becomes the bread of time to allow their dough to rise? we could be someone greater than freedom. It is not the Matzah that To compound the question, the we are ‘if only…’ We feel held changes. It is us. Haggadah itself gives this answer back from our true selves by our later on. nature, our upbringing and our life Seder night invites us to take the circumstances. We feel enslaved. journey and to discover the taste of Which is the correct reason for our freedom. eating Matzah: is it the poor man’s For someone trapped in the rat-race bread, or was it because the bread of life, the addiction to gratification, Rabbi Mendy Brukirer 5 מה נשתנה Ma Nishtana THE FOUR QUESTIONS The thematic number of the Seder is undoubtedly the number four.

Load more