Must the Seder Take So Long?

This, writes Chaim Saiman, is the fifth question on everyone’s mind on Passover. Ancient rabbinic sources—cited in the haggadah itself—state that it is praiseworthy to elaborate at length on the story of the exodus, and Moses Maimonides in the 12th century mandated the practice as preceding the Passover meal. But the Shulḥan Arukh, a major 16th-century law code, cites another ancient tradition: that the seder should move quickly so that the children can fulfill the ritual commandment of eating matzah before their bedtime, with further discussion reserved for afterward. Saiman detects an underlying philosophical difference between the two approaches:

The view of . . . Maimonides and the haggadah itself is that what the seder is about is the retelling and discussion of the story of the exodus from Egypt to the point where one sees oneself as having been personally redeemed. Here, the entire family uses story, study, and song to relive the birth of Jewish nationhood. When successful, this is surely close to the seder’s ideal. There is, however, also a cost to setting ambitions so high: the kids might fall asleep and the adults may tune out.

The conception of the seder in . . . the Shulḥan Arukh is more modest. The seder starts promptly and is (relatively) short so that no one misses out on the essential, legally mandated, ritual elements. Then, once the seder is over, those with the ability to [do so] can stay awake all night discussing the laws of Passover. . . .

The difference between these two views of the seder also relates to what is being taught. According to the haggadah and Maimonides, the centerpiece of the seder is the retelling of the Passover story, a form of narrative. . . . By contrast, the Shulḥan Arukh emphasizes studying the laws of the Passover sacrifice. . . . The disagreement is really a debate over how to preserve and convey the essence of the Jewish experience. Through law or narrative, legal reasoning or theology? This tension is present in the earliest rabbinic texts, carried forward in the positions of the later great halakhic authorities, and is still present at our own seder tables.

Read more at Jewish Review of Books

More about: Haggadah, Maimonides, Passover, Religion & Holidays, Shulhan Arukh

It’s Time for Haredi Jews to Become Part of Israel’s Story

Unless the Supreme Court grants an extension from a recent ruling, on Monday the Israeli government will be required to withhold state funds from all yeshivas whose students don’t enlist in the IDF. The issue of draft exemptions for Haredim was already becoming more contentious than ever last year; it grew even more urgent after the beginning of the war, as the army for the first time in decades found itself suffering from a manpower crunch. Yehoshua Pfeffer, a haredi rabbi and writer, argues that haredi opposition to army service has become entirely disconnected from its original rationale:

The old imperative of “those outside of full-time Torah study must go to the army” was all but forgotten. . . . The fact that we do not enlist, all of us, regardless of how deeply we might be immersed in the sea of Torah, brings the wrath of Israeli society upon us, gives a bad name to all of haredi society, and desecrates the Name of Heaven. It might still bring harsh decrees upon the yeshiva world. It is time for us to engage in damage limitation.

In Pfeffer’s analysis, today’s haredi leaders, by declaring that they will fight the draft tooth and nail, are violating the explicit teachings of the very rabbis who created and supported the exemptions. He finds the current attempts by haredi publications to justify the status quo not only unconvincing but insincere. At the heart of the matter, according to Pfeffer, is a lack of haredi identification with Israel as a whole, a lack of feeling that the Israeli story is also the haredi story:

Today, it is high time we changed our tune. The new response to the demand for enlistment needs to state, first and foremost to ourselves, that this is our story. On the one hand, it is crucial to maintain and even strengthen our isolation from secular values and culture. . . . On the other hand, this cultural isolationism must not create alienation from our shared story with our fellow brethren living in the Holy Land. Participation in the army is one crucial element of this belonging.

Read more at Tzarich Iyun

More about: Haredim, IDF, Israeli society