Everyone’s Invited (Well, Almost Everyone…)

Everyone’s Invited (Well, Almost Everyone…)

by Eliezer Segal

By reciting the Passover Haggadah we are fulfilling the Torah’s command to tell about our liberation from Egyptian oppression. The pivotal section of the service, in which the ancient rabbis expound relevant passages from the Bible, is designated “Maggid,” from the word meaning “to tell.” The Haggadah presents this narration of the exodus story as the answer to the “Four Questions” that the children ask about various peculiarities of the festival meal.

Immediately preceding the Four Questions is a short passage whose precise function is not clear and has generated diverse interpretations. It does not appear in Haggadah manuscripts that follow the old Israeli rite, and only its last line is found in the tenth-century liturgy of Rav Saadia Gaon. Some medieval commentators treat it as a Babylonian creation.

This text consists of three parts: (1) we point to the matzah as the “bread of affliction”; (2) we extend an invitation to the needy to join in the Passover offering; and (3) we contrast our current state of subjugation and exile with the anticipated celebration of next year’s holiday in true freedom in our homeland.

This section is usually designated by its opening words “ha laḥma ‘aniyah,” Aramaic for “this is the bread of affliction.” Maimonides’ text, in use among Yemenite Jews, precedes it with a declaration in mixed Aramaic and Hebrew, “in haste we departed from Egypt.” 

The insertion of an Aramaic text is surprising in a service that is otherwise all Hebrew.

This incongruity elicited numerous explanations. Some commentators linked it to the seder’s thematic structure which weaves between evocations of enslavement and of liberation; the shift in language between the Four Questions and the “Ha Laḥma” somehow suggests that we have not quite arrived at the “freedom” stage of the seder. 

Rabbi Eliezer ben Joel Halevi (“Raviah”) explained that the use of Aramaic was for the benefit of women and children who did not understand Hebrew. Some authorities seem to suggest that in ancient Jerusalem Aramaic held particularly joyous associations.

Rabbi Simeon Duran explained how the Ha Laḥma is an appropriate lead-up to the Four Questions: At this point in a normal banquet, the children would expect to proceed directly to the meal and would be wondering why this night is different. In anticipation of that situation, the Babylonian rabbis introduced this passage in Aramaic, their local Jewish vernacular, in order to make it clear that this was not just a fancy meal but a special religious feast commemorating the exodus.

Although the invitation to the hungry appears in the Talmud, it is not connected there to the Passover seder. It is mentioned as an act of exemplary piety by the Babylonian sage Rav Huna. Before commencing his meal he would always open wide the doors of his house and announce “Let anyone who is in need come and eat!” Rava commented that he himself was unable to emulate this practice on account of the military garrison stationed in his town of Maḥoza who would devour all his provisions if they heard such an invitation.

The Jews of medieval France and the Rhineland inhabited a world teeming with supernatural spirits. They worried that if they extended their invitation in Hebrew, mischievous party-crashing demons would ruin it. Hence it is advisable to filter them out by issuing the declaration in Aramaic—a language that, according to the Talmud, demons do not understand. 

Some commentators objected that this was unnecessary since the Passover night is deemed a “night of guarding”— in the sense of “a night on which they are protected from demons”; though perhaps this could be interpreted as “a night on which they should protect themselves from demons,” which would fit the situation quite nicely.

Rabbis Yom-Tov Ishbili and David Abudraham suggested that the concern was not for demons but for angels who also have a long record of rivalry with the people of Israel. However, angels are also unable to understand the Aramaic invitation; otherwise they might show up inopportunely while we are proudly celebrating our ancient moment of triumph, and remind the Almighty of some sinful shortcomings that make us undeserving of redemption.

Some authors objected that the line “next year we shall be free,” is worded in Hebrew (though some rites recite it in Aramaic as well). Raviah ascribed this to the fact that the passage originated in Babylonia where their non-Jewish neighbours understood Aramaic and might take offense at the Jews’ unpatriotic dissatisfaction with their place of residence. (The ninth-century Babylonian Ga’on Rav Mattityahu reported that as Jews came to have more non-Jewish than Jewish neighbours, they would offer the gentiles food in advance so as to forestall them from showing up at the seder.)

Rabbi Simeon Duran explained that the desires for freedom and the ingathering to Jerusalem are so prominent in Jewish thought that children would understand them even when they are expressed in Hebrew. At any rate, those constitute heartfelt prayers that we do want the angels to understand and fulfill.

Referring to the matzah as “leḥem ‘oni” equates it with the expression in the Torah whose simplest translation is “bread of affliction.” As such it recalls not only the hasty departure from the land of our enslavement—but also the oppression from which we were fleeing. Some authorities inferred that the slaves themselves were fed a diet of this crudest and cheapest of foods. We give this aspect of the matzah tangible representation in the practice of breaking one of the matzahs, thereby distinguishing it from normal holiday breads that are eaten from whole loafs.

However, the talmudic sage Samuel offered a more homiletical play on the word ‘oni, expounding it from a similar root meaning “to answer”: it is the bread over which we provide answers. 

  • First Publication:
    • The Alberta Jewish News, Edmonton and Calgary, March 30, 2020, p.17.
  • For further reading:
    • Bar-Ilan, Meir, and Shelomoh Yosef Zevin, eds. Hagadah shel Pesaḥ: ʻim beʼurim mi-tokh ha-Entsiḳlopedyah ha-Talmudit. Jerusalem: Yad ha-Rav Herzog Talmudic Encyclopedia Publishing, 765.
    • Glatzer, Nahum N. The Passover Haggadah. 3d rev. ed. New York: Schocken, 1979.
    • Goldschmidt, E. D. The Passover Haggadah: Its Sources and History. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1969. [Hebrew]
    • Kasher, Menahem. Hagadah Shelemah. Jerusalem: Torah Shelema Institute, 1960. [Hebrew]
    • Katznellenbogen, Mordecai. Haggadah Shel Pesah Torat Hayim. Jerusalem: Mosad ha-Rav Kook, 1998.
    • Raphael, Chaim. A Feast of History; the Drama of Passover Through the Ages. London]: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1972.
    • Rovner, Jay. “An Early Passover Haggadah According to the Palestinian Rite.” Jewish Quarterly Review 90, no. 3/4 (2000): 337–96.
    • Safrai, Shemuel, and Zeev Safrai, eds. Hagadat Ḥazal. Jerusalem: Karṭa, 1998.
    • Zunz, Leopold. ha-Derashot be-Yisrael. Edited by Chanoch Albeck. Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1954. [Hebrew].

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