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Haggadah
The Haggadah (Hebrew: הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to recount the Egyptian Exodus story to their children on the first night of Passover.
According to Jewish tradition, the Haggadah developed during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, although the exact timeframe is unknown. It has existed in different forms over history and therefore cannot be attributed to a single author. Its corporate author is traditionally designated as the Baal Haggadah (master of the Haggadah). There is also a tradition that the term Baal Haggadah refers to an anonymous individual from the time of the Gaonim who devised the standard version used today. It is unlikely that it was assembled before the time of Judah bar Ilai (c. 170 CE), the latest tanna quoted therein. It is usually assumed that a set text did not exist prior to a crucial dispute about the Haggadah's arrangement recorded in the Babylonian Talmud. The Vilna edition of the Talmud identifies the participants in that dispute as Abba Arika and Samuel of Nehardea (c. 230 CE), but the later was more likely Rava (c. 280-352 CE). From a statement of Rav Nachman, it appears he was aware of a set Haggadah text, but there is a dispute about which Rav Nachman the Talmud referred to, Rav Nachman bar Yaakov (c. 280 CE), or Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak (c. 360 CE). A minority of commentators, including Naftali Maskil LeAison, author of the Malbim Haggadah, believe that the Haggadah's text was already complete at the time of Abba Arika and Samuel and that they were arguing about the Haggadah's interpretation rather than its arrangement. The Malbim Haggadah theorizes that the Haggadah was written by the compiler of the Mishnah, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (c. 135-217 CE).
One of the most ancient parts is the recital of the Hallel, which, according to the Mishnah (Pesachim 5:7), was sung at the sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, and of which, according to the school of Shammai, only the first chapter shall be recited. After the Psalms a blessing for the Redemption is to be said. This blessing, according to Rabbi Tarfon, runs as follows: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Master of the Universe Who redeemed us and redeemed our fathers from Egypt and brought us to this night.”
Another part of the oldest ritual, as is recorded in the Mishnah, is the conclusion of the "Hallel" (up to Psalms 118), and the closing benediction of the hymn "Birkat ha-Shir", which latter the Amoraim explain differently, but which evidently was similar to the benediction thanking God, "who loves the songs of praise," used in the present ritual.[citation needed]
These blessings, and the narrations of Israel's history in Egypt, based on Deuteronomy 26:5–9 and on Joshua 24:2–4, with some introductory remarks, were added in the time of the early Amoraim in the third century CE.[citation needed]
In post-Talmudic times, during the era of the Geonim, selections from midrashim were added. The siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (c. 850) includes one of the earliest examples of the Haggadah, and it served as a foundational source for later iterations. Of the midrashim included in Amram Gaon's version, one of the most important is that of the four children, representing four different attitudes towards why Jews should observe Passover. This division is taken from the Jerusalem Talmud and from a parallel passage in the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael; it is slightly altered in the present ritual. Other rabbinic quotes from the aggadah literature are added, as the story of Eliezer ben Hurcanus, who discussed the Exodus all night with four other rabbis, which tale is found in an altogether different form in the Tosefta.[citation needed]
While the main portions of the text of the Haggadah have remained mostly the same since their original compilation, there have been some additions after the last part of the text. Some of these additions, such as the cumulative songs "One little goat" (חד גדיא) and "Who Knows One?" (אחד מי יודע), which were added sometime in the fifteenth century, gained such acceptance that they became a standard to print at the back of the Haggadah.
The text of the Haggadah was never fixed in one, final form, as no rabbinic body existed which had authority over such matters. Instead, each local community developed its own text. A variety of traditional texts took on a standardized form by the end of the medieval era on the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities.
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Haggadah
The Haggadah (Hebrew: הַגָּדָה, "telling"; plural: Haggadot) is a foundational Jewish text that sets forth the order of the Passover Seder. According to Jewish practice, reading the Haggadah at the Seder table fulfills the mitzvah incumbent on every Jew to recount the Egyptian Exodus story to their children on the first night of Passover.
According to Jewish tradition, the Haggadah developed during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, although the exact timeframe is unknown. It has existed in different forms over history and therefore cannot be attributed to a single author. Its corporate author is traditionally designated as the Baal Haggadah (master of the Haggadah). There is also a tradition that the term Baal Haggadah refers to an anonymous individual from the time of the Gaonim who devised the standard version used today. It is unlikely that it was assembled before the time of Judah bar Ilai (c. 170 CE), the latest tanna quoted therein. It is usually assumed that a set text did not exist prior to a crucial dispute about the Haggadah's arrangement recorded in the Babylonian Talmud. The Vilna edition of the Talmud identifies the participants in that dispute as Abba Arika and Samuel of Nehardea (c. 230 CE), but the later was more likely Rava (c. 280-352 CE). From a statement of Rav Nachman, it appears he was aware of a set Haggadah text, but there is a dispute about which Rav Nachman the Talmud referred to, Rav Nachman bar Yaakov (c. 280 CE), or Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak (c. 360 CE). A minority of commentators, including Naftali Maskil LeAison, author of the Malbim Haggadah, believe that the Haggadah's text was already complete at the time of Abba Arika and Samuel and that they were arguing about the Haggadah's interpretation rather than its arrangement. The Malbim Haggadah theorizes that the Haggadah was written by the compiler of the Mishnah, Rabbi Judah ha-Nasi (c. 135-217 CE).
One of the most ancient parts is the recital of the Hallel, which, according to the Mishnah (Pesachim 5:7), was sung at the sacrifice in the Temple in Jerusalem, and of which, according to the school of Shammai, only the first chapter shall be recited. After the Psalms a blessing for the Redemption is to be said. This blessing, according to Rabbi Tarfon, runs as follows: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Master of the Universe Who redeemed us and redeemed our fathers from Egypt and brought us to this night.”
Another part of the oldest ritual, as is recorded in the Mishnah, is the conclusion of the "Hallel" (up to Psalms 118), and the closing benediction of the hymn "Birkat ha-Shir", which latter the Amoraim explain differently, but which evidently was similar to the benediction thanking God, "who loves the songs of praise," used in the present ritual.[citation needed]
These blessings, and the narrations of Israel's history in Egypt, based on Deuteronomy 26:5–9 and on Joshua 24:2–4, with some introductory remarks, were added in the time of the early Amoraim in the third century CE.[citation needed]
In post-Talmudic times, during the era of the Geonim, selections from midrashim were added. The siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (c. 850) includes one of the earliest examples of the Haggadah, and it served as a foundational source for later iterations. Of the midrashim included in Amram Gaon's version, one of the most important is that of the four children, representing four different attitudes towards why Jews should observe Passover. This division is taken from the Jerusalem Talmud and from a parallel passage in the Mekhilta of Rabbi Ishmael; it is slightly altered in the present ritual. Other rabbinic quotes from the aggadah literature are added, as the story of Eliezer ben Hurcanus, who discussed the Exodus all night with four other rabbis, which tale is found in an altogether different form in the Tosefta.[citation needed]
While the main portions of the text of the Haggadah have remained mostly the same since their original compilation, there have been some additions after the last part of the text. Some of these additions, such as the cumulative songs "One little goat" (חד גדיא) and "Who Knows One?" (אחד מי יודע), which were added sometime in the fifteenth century, gained such acceptance that they became a standard to print at the back of the Haggadah.
The text of the Haggadah was never fixed in one, final form, as no rabbinic body existed which had authority over such matters. Instead, each local community developed its own text. A variety of traditional texts took on a standardized form by the end of the medieval era on the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities.