Structure of the Haggadah | Rabbi Joel Kenigsberg

are on their way. Sheets are on all right. I apologize. It was all a little bit last minute. Um I'm not Rabbi Freriedman. I'm sorry to disappoint, but Rabbi Freeman called me about 15 minutes ago saying that he's been on the road for about 2 hours and kishak is blocked. There are protests and uh that's I guess that's something that we have to take into account these days living in. Um so therefore, he's not going to be able to make it and I'm going to be giving the share in his place. Yes. Correct. Correct. So this year, so we're not going to be covering that today, but I'll tell you in just a moment. This year, as somebody just pointed out, we have Erav Pesak, which falls on Shabbat, and that does cause a lot of questions and complications. If you're interested in that, I'm going to be giving Sher on that here, actually upstairs on Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. If anybody's able to make it, if not, there is that show will be recorded. That will go up on YouTube. So that um that I refer you to that if you're interested. But today we're going to talk about something else. Today we're going to talk about the hagada and the structure of the hagada. I know this year was originally advertised as kame on pesak and after pes again we've changed topics we've changed speaker so I apologize but uh you know coming up to pesak so there's a lot of preparation as you are all aware I'm sure um we are all very very busy cleaning out our kt and curing out our kitchens and getting ready and sometimes unfortunately with all the physical preparation that takes place you know you get to the seda and we you know we forget to prepare what about the seda what about the what about it's important to invest all the time making sure that our food is kosher but it's also important to invest the time making sure that we have the right idea and we know what we're doing at the say night and that's why I want to talk about that now um the truth is this is one of the great advantages when bes falls out on Shabbat said I wouldn't talk about it but I'll say just a word which is you know gen usually we get to leaf pes is a very very busy day it's very very stressful the whole week's been stressful But P and everybody's running around and doing this and doing that and then you get to the say you know when do you have time to open up the to open up the to learn a little bit to think a little bit. So this year we have a matana as difficult as it is and we'll talk about we'll figure out when we're going to eat. We have to get up earlier to den and we have to finish eating the and we have to have and how do we do that and how do we do that but we have the whole day all the preparations all the b is done the day before you have an entire day 24 hours you have Shabbat to come into the seda from Shabbat it's a time to rest to relax to learn to think and it's a different it's a different experience of let us set it all together so that is a matana that we have this year and we should take we should take advantage now on the sa night how many mitzvot do we have how many mitzvot do we fulfill on in the night. So, of course, the answer is it depends how you count mitzvot and there are different ways to count. I saw I heard this week that there's one that lists as 13 mitzvot on the night. We can get through if we count each we count and we count etc. I saw another safer that says there are 64 mitzvot on the sedite. I'm not quite sure how you get to 64, but we have to figure out how to count that. But according to everybody, most of the if anybody doesn't have a sheet, by the way, they're here in the front. Um most of the mitzvot that we fulf are there are only two mitzvot that we have which are d which are right matzah andorat telling the story of going out of Egypt right everybody's focused on the matzah how much matzah do you have to eat I saw even today in the U magazine the pesak guide that's just come out there's a chart and there's a graphic shows you exactly the size of the matzah everybody's thinking how much is a kazite how do we eat how do get the matzah right? How do we get the maro right? How do we get the four cups right? Everything right. One of the main one of the two primary mitzvot of the night is is telling the story of going out of Egypt. And that's one that we should uh we should dedicate some time to thinking how to get that one right as well. And and what I want to do with you this morning, this afternoon is go through the structure of the hagada. Because if I was to say to people here, if I was to go out onto the street and say to somebody, there's no one on the street cuz it's blocked, but if I was to go out and say, right, can you tell me the hagada from start to finish off by heart balance, we remember there's four questions somewhere, there's a bit of halal, there's that part with theukim where everybody falls asleep, right? that but to say the order of the hag and sometimes we're going through we're telling the story and we don't quite understand where this page why this page follows the previous page in the hag what's this got to do with the story and what I want to try and do with you today and all of this is based on this is not my original mahalak this is based on a sh of sirim actually if you have his hagada um you see he he has this in charts and in colors and does very very nicely this is going along with his with his outline But he has an outline of the hagada which by the end of the show will be very very easy for us all to remember off by heart right the basic structure of the hagada which part comes after which why this fits in how why we're telling the story of and I think it can really shed new light on the entire sedar experience we'll start off by this essentially the the central thesis is this there is not one hagada but there are actually four hagadot there are four stories Right? When we remember it like this, it will be very very easy to remember. Of course, it has to be four. Four is the number of pes. There are four sons, there are four cups, there are four questions. So there are four. We are telling the story of telling the story of going out of Egypt essentially in four phases, four acts, however you want to call it. And when we figure out what the structure is of each of those, we figure out why it is that we need four, then we'll understand. And by the end of this year, as I said, we'll be able to think in our heads, off by heart, go through the structure of the Hagada from start to finish. Again, all of this is the Magid. Okay. So, let let's have a look. So, you've got two pages in front of you. We'll come back to this this page, the landscape. This is a photocopy from Raimon's Hagada, which essentially shows us the structure. We'll come back to it and we'll reference it throughout the year. You know, when Raon gives this year, he was actually he was here a couple of years ago. We did a uh a yumun and everybody had different colored pens and different colored highlighters. and you're going through and you're marking off in the hag. We're not going to do that today, but if you want when you get home, you can take out your highlighters and you can mark off the different sections and it will help to uh to remember the whole concept. Okay, so let let's go through the source sheet, right? The A4 page source number one just to put us into the mood for this writes the following here in source number one. He says, "Let me share a personal story. Forget about the lumas for a second. Forget about the learning. Let's talk about the experience. Talk about the memory. He says, "In my mind's eye, I see there are two nights in the year which are exalted above all others." Two nights which are something special. Okay. this beautiful poetic language which I'm not going to try and translate all of it but he says what are the two exalted nights of the year he says night and night these are two nights which are just qualitatively different he says as a child I was hypnotized [Music] almost with these two nights I'm not translating everything but he said It's very difficult to translate but he says these are nights which just simply are full of inspiration right and and I bring this again to get us into the mood sometimes we get to the seda nights as I say it's after all the cleaning and it's after and it's after all the cing it's after all the cooking can we just get it over and get to the food no and like I say this year we have that matana that it's not after all of that we have the gift of Shabbat in between to get us into the sedan night the main mitzvah as we've said of the sedan night and The mitzvah which we are fulfilling through the part of the is the mitzvah of source number two the says as follows. He says why is this night different from all other nights. What do we mean by that? The question here which we'll see in a few of the sources is that on sale night we have a mitzvah of telling the story of going out of Egypt. But we all know that every single night, every single day and every single night, we have a mitzvah of remembering. This is why by the way we say when we say so there are three paragraphs in the third paragraph deals primarily with it's not necessary to say that at night because at night we don't wear sit for the day. So why do we have that paragraph there? because it also mentions and we have an obligation to remember every day and every night. We say it in the sed as well. We say it in the and so the question which all the ask is what is the difference between the mitzvah which we have every night of remembering going out of Egypt and the mitzvah that we have on the night of of telling the story of going out of Egypt. Okay. And uh we'll see a number of different suggestions are brought in the and based on maybe based on that difference between telling the story and remembering the story we can understand exactly what it is why we are telling how we are telling and what the structure of our will be. So it says he says every day and every night we have this of mentioning Okay, without getting into the technicalities, but this is actually a passage which we say which we say at near the beginning of the hagada brisk source number four says he asks this question and he suggests that there are three main differences and these are the three unique characteristics of the hagada of the story of source Number four says, "Every night we have the mitzvah of remembering going out of Egypt. What is different? What is added in telling the story on night?" Okay, there are three differences. It should have been four, but there are three. So he says like this, Okay, maybe people are already thinking this themselves. If you think about the words telling remembering or mentioning which is the same word in Hebrew is the root z can be to remember can be to mention that's why because a memory is just it's a mention it's there it happened once you remember it you've mentioned it done but when you tell a story you tell a story the story has a beginning it has a middle it has got to build up the tension you right it's a completely different uh it's a completely different para so he says but more than that he says [Applause] with I have to remind myself. I have to remember really you tell a story. You don't tell yourself a story. You tell somebody else a story. But how do you tell a story? You start off with a question. You give an answer. Now this is a real we look at the which described the four sons describe the way we have to tell the story of coming out of Egypt. So it says your children will ask you and you'll tell them there's a question there's an answer that's the way you're telling the story to somebody else. Right. The Rambam writes and again we remember a few years ago this became tragically very very relevant. Right? We growing up for many many years and hopefully this is not the case for anybody here but the Rambam writes that if somebody is uh right who tells the story who asks the questions and he says even if a person is sitting by themsel person sitting by themsel at the say night so then they tell themselves the story they have to ask the question and answer themselves. Um but but but the point is the way that we tell a story is the difference to the way that we just mention remember something. We're dealing with questions. We're dealing with answers. We're dealing with telling a story. That's number one. Number two, he says, okay, we'll see this in the maybe in the in the but he said we have a characteristic of the way that we tell the story. We begin with the beginning and we end with the end. We have to start off with that which is disparaging and we have to end off with that which is with that which is praise. How do we do that in the story of what is the and what is the wasn't a rhetorical question right? What what what is the what is the disparaging part of the story that we begin with and what is the praise that we end with okay we were slaves that's the and we end off with the we were released oh It was a miracle. They removed the car blocking the road. Okay. So, I tell you what. So, so we'll finish the thought. We'll finish the thought and then and then uh we'll and then we'll hand over to Rabbi Freriedman. Okay. You are very generous. Okay. I'll tell you this. You know, the the the truth is you've all got you've got the sheets. you've got to pay and I'll I'll I'll finish the thought and I'll give you enough that you can go home and you can and you can finish it by yourselves as well. But what we're saying is we start off with that. So you've all just said the gnut is the fact that we were that we were slaves and the is the fact that we're free people. That's only one opinion between what's the gnut and what's the one says you're right. It's a physical story story going from physical slavery to physical liberation. But the other opinion is no the is not but it's the fact that we were our ancestors were worshiping idols the fact that brought us out brought us closer to him that is the okay so that's the second uh that's the second uh characteristic that's second story and finally he says the last thing something unique to is that we have the reasons for the we have that we have to mention tells us these three things three characteristics we have to say and without that we've not fulfilled the story of so I'll just say it like this okay the way the structure of the hag the structure of the story has to be is that we have questions and answers we begin with questions and then we give the answers and then we end off with and then we have some sort of praise that is the structure not just of one hagada but that is the structure of all four hagad that we're going to see and this is the way to remember it there's always a question there's an answer and then it ends up with praise okay So why do we need to do that four times? The reason we need to do that four times like this very simple if you have a look at this this uh sheet it'll show you the first we just said we start off we start off with the that which is disparaging right and then we end off with the uh with the praise. So those are two different stories. There are two different versions of that. One is the story of physical slavery and liberation. One is the story of spiritual slavery and and and revelation. Right? We need to mention we need to mention both. So if you have a look on the right hand side, the first is the story of right and the second is a story of if you have a look at the middle paragraph you'll see that's the main po part of one story and that's the part of the second story. Both of those so to speak end off afterwards. There's a section of praise. Both of those begin before that with questions. What are the questions? either the manishana or if you look at the four sons you'll see they all ask questions okay so that's the structure that's the double structure that's the opening part of the hagada so seemingly it would be enough we have a story we have two hagadots which tell us the story that's enough but no and the reason that's not enough is for the following reason the raam writes that we have to tell the story in such a way that it's engaging we have to tell in such a way everybody around the table has to be able to connect to this everybody has to has to hear the story the way that they would appreciate So there are people who connect more to stories. There are people who connect more to lambda going through the going through the going understanding that way. There are people who understand more based on actual demonstration of what we have. So look at what we do. Okay. And I'll just say and afterwards you can look at and fill in the gaps. But we have the first we begin by telling a story by talking it in that way. Then we get to the part of lambda. There's a benz who's sitting at the table. He says I've just come home from your shiva. Just come home from benim. I don't have time for your stories. I want I want to hear the I want to hear the midashim. I want to go through. So we do the same thing. We start again. Say look at the the second par the second column from the left. Say that's a question. We begin with questions again and we answer that question through the through the right and then we end off with praise again. We get to that's the third. Okay. Finally then we say okay we've done stories. We've done lambda but there's a younger kids sitting around the table who don't want stories that's not enough for them and they don't want lambda they want to see the action they want the audio visual presentation so that's what we do that's mat we take we lift the things we pick them up we point to the seda plates and again this is four we start off with questions it's all questions and again we have that demonstration and then we end off with uh we end off there with praise once again and that's the braha we serve gal is okay there's a lot more to talk about there was mash mash mash regular but I'm going to uh I'm going to leave that with you if you want to see this in in greater detail again he goes through this entire he goes through and he explains it it's available in Hebrew it's available in English I don't get any commission if you buy it but I'm just mentioning that and uh that is the support but you all came here to hear about so I'm going to hand over to uh to uh to to have our freeman over there. Yes.