The year is 70 CE. The Temple in Jerusalem has been destroyed, the Jewish people has been exiled across the Roman Empire, and Passover can no longer be celebrated with a sacrificial lamb as the Torah requires. What could we do?
With Jewish reoccupation of our homeland forbidden, we needed a ceremony and a text to commemorate Passover, but what should be its message? How could it get past the Roman censors?
These questions led to the compiling of a text written as if it were referring to a historical redemption with a message of freedom. Encoded within was the real message of a future redemption, a return to Israel, that could be understood only by “those in the know.” This is how the Haggadah came to be.
The code words “Yetziat Mitzrayim” (leaving Egypt) were selected as the trigger phrase. To Jews sitting around the Seder table in the Diaspora, this meant “future return.” There were clear hints embedded in the text: We only drink four cups of wine, representing the five expressions of redemption used in Exodus 6:6-7 (“I will take out,” “I will save,” “I will redeem,” and “I will take.” The obvious missing one is “heveiti,” meaning “I will bring (you home to Israel).”
Moreover, why does the Haggadah tell a story about Rabbi Tarfon, Rabbi Eliezer, and Rabbi Akiva meeting to discuss Yetziat Mitzrayim all night long and having to be told that it was time to say the morning Shema? Why did they need to be told that it was time? Could they not see the sun rising?
They didn’t know the time because they were hiding in a cave during the time of the Bar-Kochba Revolt; they were clearly not discussing history but planning the reconquest of the Jewish state from their Roman oppressors!
This becomes obvious given the fact that Rabbi Eliezer ruled that one should spend the festivals with one’s family, so he must have had a good reason to spend the Seder night with his colleagues in a dark cave in Bnei Brak.
“Arami Oved Avi” : The theme of the Passover Seder
What was chosen as the main text of the Haggadah? Not verses from the book of Exodus that describe the Jews leaving Egypt, but rather the declaration made by pilgrim farmers when bringing their first fruits to Jerusalem.
“Arami Oved Avi” was the text said by the first Israelites living in their homeland. In case the true theme of the Seder became less obvious to generations born after the fall of the Roman Empire, the rabbis made it crystal clear by adding the final wish, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”
As with most Jewish festivals, creating a coded text to engage the intellect was not enough. The emotions have to be ignited as well, and what better is there than through food?! Just as Purim, Sukkot, and Shavuot combine the reading of a megillah with customs of feasting, Passover channels the emotions of leaving exile and heading back home through the food customs described in the Torah.
Imagine being told you can catch a plane home after weeks or years of living in a temporary accommodation as you are evacuated for your safety to your homeland.
In the minutes before the taxi arrives, there are three prominent emotions in your household: stress (will we be ready?), excitement (we’re going home!), and tension (change is always a challenge.) The Torah replicates these feelings with the three symbols that must appear on every Seder table: the Paschal lamb, matzah, and maror.
Matzah represents that feeling of time pressure; it must be made in just 18 minutes. The shankbone, representing the sacrificial lamb, is our symbol of hope and excitement for the rebuilding of the Third Temple. The maror represents the bittersweet feelings associated with change, with the fear of past oppressions and concerns about what fate awaits us.
Eaten together, as Hillel suggests, they arouse the perfect combination of emotions to get us into Geulah (redemption) mode – for the return home.
May this year be the year that we heed the coded redemption message of the Haggadah. May we soon enact the slogan of the past 18 months, “Bring Them Home NOW!” – from Gaza, New York, London, and all over the world. Amen!
The writer, a rabbi, is an educator living in Israel whose wife, Lucy, and two daughters, Maia and Rina, were murdered in a Hamas terror attack in April 2023.