Lessons on Order, Disorder, and Reorder Benjy Forester, CJHS 2012

Benjy Forester, CJHS 2012

In my 2nd year Talmud class with Dr. Schorsch, we learned a Mishnah from Massechet Pesachim, the tractate all about Passover, that made absolutely no sense to me. I think that this year, I’m finally starting to understand it. Here is that Mishnah (Mishnah Pesachim 10:3) — count how many questions YOU have after reading these short few lines!

Here is my best translation as a third year rabbinical student, which probably is not much better than what I came up with over 10 years ago:

If you’re willing to join me in suspending our knowledge of how seders work today, and how our haggadot translate some of these funky words for us, we are left with a very confusing outline for what is supposed to happen at our seder. And since seder means order, we are in deep trouble if our rabbinic instruction manual is hardly intelligible!

I want to do something very counter-intuitive, especially given the meaning of ‘seder’, which is to recommend that we read this text backwards in order to decode its mysteries.

Our starting point (4) is that during the time of the Temple, the Passover sacrifice was a core ritual element of the Passover holiday experience. While all biblical holidays had sacrificial components, Passover was unique in that its sacrifice played a narrative role. It commemorates the initial Passover sacrifice made by our ancestors, whose blood was used to demarcate Jewish homes and avert the Angel of Death’s fatal kiss during the Exodus story. The book of Exodus itself imagines the timeless role of this commemoration, offering a script for parents whose children ask about its meaning in future generations (Exodus 12:26-27). In a post-Temple world, how might this core ritual, whose presence hearkens to the actual experience of fleeing Egypt, be replaced or replicated?

That question looms large as we move one step forwards, or in our case backwards. A debate emerges about whether charoset is a mitzvah (3a-b). Read the Exodus story and look for a mention of charoset. Try the whole Bible! You won’t find anything, because this Mishnah is the first appearance of the word in Jewish literature! The rabbis seem to have some understanding that it ought to be served and serve a ritual function, but they are torn about its true significance.

Next, we have a series of items that are to be presented at the seder (2-3). Commentary and scholarship helps teach us that this list combines foods ordained Biblically by God with munchies from a typical Greco-Roman menu. While taking a Jewish history class at WashU with CJLS Co-Chair Pamela Barmash, I remember her remarking that charoset was just the Tannaim’s version of guacamole! With the aforementioned confusion about what happens without a Passover sacrifice (1), and what the status is of the new ritual foods that become integrated in the telling of the story (3a-b), it isn’t so surprising that we’re left with (2-3) the ancient version of holy guacamole — popular food imbued with

,וינפל ואיבה

.תפה תרפרפל דע עיגמש תרזחב לבטמ

, ןילישבת ינשו תסרחו תרזחו הצמ וינפל ואיבה

.הוצמ תסרח ןיאש יפ–לע–ףא

.הוצמ :רמוא קודצ (ןב) רזעלא יבר

.חספ לש ופוג וינפל ןיאיבמ ויה שדקמבו

׳ג:׳י םיחספ הנשמ

1. Something is brought before someone 2. This person dips with the chazeret until they reach the parperet hapat 3. Matzah, chazeret, charoset, and two cooked dishes are brought before that person a. Even though charoset isn’t a mitzvah b. Rabbi Eliezer ben Tzadok says it is a mitzvah 4. And when there was a Temple, they would bring before that person the body of the Paschal lamb

And finally, we reach the opening words of our text — something is brought before someone (1). We are all that someone, inheritors of a tradition; both the capital-T Tradition from the Torah, as well as what we watched morph into tradition before our eyes.

As we sit to tell the story of Passover this year, I have three wishes for us. First, let us think of the history, tradition, and stories that we have received, and the richness they add to our lives. Next, think of the new interpretations that you bring to that ancient inheritance, which allows it to continue to bring meaning and connection to your life today.

Finally, think of what new traditions you might want to create and pass onto future generations. Having read this Mishnah backwards, and having lived through an upside down year, this Pesach especially is an important one to remember that history doesn’t only look backwards, but also forwards.

Each one of us is an author of this continuously and endlessly unfolding story.

Art by Nate Woldenberg, RZJHS 2023