A few years ago I put together a guide to the Seder to hand out on the night of Pesach so that all the people could follow all the halachos if they wanted to do, without us having to be overbearing with continual instructions.

I lost the original file on some computer and was down to one remaining copy, appropriately doused in wine. Thanks to the miracles of the scanner, optical character recognition and David’s adept editing, I was able to revive the file and present it here for distribution. Most of the halachos are from the Kol Dodi Haggadah by Rabbi Dovid Feinstein.

Please distribute this freely to whomever you want in its complete format. Here is the PDF version of the Beyond BT Guide to the Seder. We’ve also included it in it’s entirety below.

Read more Beyond BT Guide to the Seder ›

The Fifteen Steps of the Pesach Seder serve as the framework for our fulfillment of the mitzvah to tell the story of our exodus from Egypt. They have been compared to the 15 Steps leading up to the Beis Hamikdash in that both sets of stairs are used to bring us to a greater level of unity with Hashem. The haggadah has been called the most commented upon work of liturgy. Commentary on the haggadah serves many purposes: it broadens our understanding of the mitzvos of the night; it brings greater appreciation for the miracles Hashem performed for us; and it makes the Seder night and all of Pesach more relevant to us. Join us as we climb the fifteen steps together by presenting a short vort/dvar torah by different bloggers/commenters. Commenters are invited to share their own vort on the particular steps being discussed in the comment thread of that post. Let’s Climb.

Step 1 Kadesh
The Making of Kiddush

To be mekadesh something is to sanctify it. More precisely to be mekadesh something is to set it aside for holiness. If someone were to be makdish something to the Beis Hamikdash, that means that they have set it aside solely for that holy purpose and nothing else. When we make Kiddush we sanctify the day and set it aside as something holy. The cup of wine used for Kiddush is the first of the four cups we are obligated to drink at the seder. It is well know that the four cups correspond to the four different expressions of redemption that Hashem uses. The first one, corresponding to the first cup-the cup of Kiddush-, is V’Hotzesee I will take you out. Hashem took us out from amongst the Egyptians “goy mi’kerev goy” a nation from the midst of another nation. Hashem separated the Bnei Yisrael out from the Mitzrim and set us aside as something holy. With this understanding, we can see how the cup of Kiddush is clearly related to the first expression of Read more Climbing the Fifteen Steps of the Seder 1-3 ›

Rabbi Welcher gave his annual Preparing your Kitchen for Pesach shiur last night and within two hours it was available for download for all those who couldn’t attend. You can download it here Part 1 Drasha, Part 2 Halacha A, Part 3 Halacha B.

The Web is a model of efficiency and never has it been faster, easier and cheaper to distribute information to hundreds, thousands or even millions of people. But with all of today’s wonderous technology, there are examples of other marvelous efficiencies in the distant past.

We learned recently in Daf Yomi (Art Scroll Pesachim 64b2), that one year there were 1.2 million Korban Pesachs offered in the Beis Hamikdash in about 3 hours. That comes to about 400,000 an hour or about 6,600 a minute or 110 each second. When queried about this recently, Rabbi Welcher said that we have difficulty conceiving of such an efficient human operation.

If anybody has any ideas or has seen anything on how so many Korbanos were offered in such a short time, please leave a comment.

Pesach is coming and it’s time to delve a little deeper into the Hagaddah and Yetzias Mitzrayim.

Rashi quotes a Medrash that only 20% of Klal Yisrael left Egypt, the remainder having perished during the plague of darkness.

What was the specific transgression that caused them to suffer this fate aside from the obvious one of not listening to HaShem and Moshe Rabbeinu?