The following is dedicted LZecer Nishmas Avivah Rachel bas Malkah Zicronah Livracha whose all too short life was dedicated to Torah, Avodah and Gmilus Chasadim. May her family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

I mentioned in my first post that one of the more frequent issues that arises with respect to Tzafun is that of Chatzos–eating the afikomen before halachic midnight. IOW, your seder is progressing -you have gone through Magid with a lot of Divrei Torah and Shirah and you have started the meal. Depending on the calendar, Chatzos not so suddenly creeps up on you and a halachic issue presents itself-what about the Afikoman?!

The Avnei Nezer, one of the Gdolei Acharonim presented the following ingenious solution.The He suggested that one take a matzah before Chatzos and say-If the Halacha is in accordance with R Eliezer Ben Azaryah , this is the Afikoman. If the halacha is not so, it is just a piece of matzah. Therefore, regardless of who the halacha is like., I can continue to eat because according to R Eliezer Ben Azaryah, since the time for eating the Karban pesach has passed, and according to the Rabbanan, one can eat the Afikoman until Alos HaShachar (sunrise)-all night and before Alos HaShachar I can eat another piece of
matzah to fulfull the view of the Rabbanan. ( See ShuT Avnei Nezer Orach Chaim Siman 251 Sif Katan 5 for the entirety of this fascinating solution).
Read more Tzafun (Step 12) – Halachic Approach to a Common Problem ›

The Mishnah (Pesachim 120a) tells us “ain maftiriin achar Pesach Afikoman. Rav Yehudah in the name of Shmuel states that the Afikoman is the last item eaten at the meal as a remembrance of the matzah that was eaten with the Karban pesach. Although Mar Zutrah quotes Shmuel as permitting one to eat after the Afikoman, the Gemara concludes that one may not do so. The Baalei Tosfos understand that Afikoman is a Greek word that means cessation from eating.

Many Rishonim ( Rambam, Rashbam, ) hold that the eating of the Afikoman is the essential part of the mitzvah of eating matzah. It should be noted that there is a substantial machlokes in the Rishonim and Acharonim as to whether one can drink anything after the afikoman because it would nullify the taste of matzah in one’s mouth .
Read more Tzafun (Step 12) – Eating the Afikoman ›

It is interesting that Shulchan Orech is included as one of the Steps of the Seder. I mean, since when did Jews need to be commanded to eat?! The answer, I think, hearkens back to what we mentioned in the step of Rachtza: one can eat a meal as a pure physical necessity or desire or one can take the physicality in the meal and elevate it to something spiritual.

The Ma’ainah Shel Torah asks the question of how it is possible to split the Hallel that we say at the Seder (half after Maggid and half during the step of Hallel)? Isn’t the eating of an entire meal in between the two halves considered a hefsek (an impermissible interruption)? The answer is that when we properly eat our meal, in a manner that raises it from the physical to the spiritual, the meal itself is really a continuing praise of Hashem and therefore is not an interruption at all.

At this stage of the Seder, we combine the Maror with the Matzah according to the opinion of Hillel. Most haggadahs state at this point: “This is in remembrance of the Temple, as Hillel used to do.” Hillel was of the opinion that in order to fulfill the mitzvos of eating maror and matza (and the passover offering during the time that the Temple stood), they must be eaten together.

The halacha is not like Hillel and we only eat Korech as a rememberance of the Temple. The interesting thing is that while we do find in halacha that we will fulfill a minority opinion if possible but here the minority opinion is incorporated as an actual step of the seder. Why is it that Hillel’s opinion merited to be added as a separate step of the seder and why was it specifically added as a “rememberance of the Temple”?

Hillel was the paradigm of patience and truly embodied the concept of “loving your fellow Jew”. It is Hillel’s example that we must follow in order to merit the construction of the Third Temple. By giving prominence to a minority opinion, we make the ultimate expression of loving your fellow Jew. That is, even if I don’t agree with you, your opinion, when properly formed within a Torah framework, is important. That is why Hillel’s Korech sandwich is incorporated as a step in the seder and that is why it is a rememberance of the Temple. May we all merit to see that Temple rebuilt, speedily, in our days.

The Haggada asks: “For what reason do we eat these bitter herbs?” The answer, known by most, is because the Egyptians made the lives of our fathers bitter by burdening them with back-breaking work.

The Me’am Lo’ez haggada advances a different reason. He explains that there are three words for romaine lettuce in Hebrew: maror, chasa, and chazeres. We have already explained why it is called maror, because of the bitterness we experienced in Mitzraim.

It is also called chasa because Hashem took notice of the Jews suffering in Mitzraim and had mercy (chas, in Hebrew) on them and brought them out of servitude.
Read more Maror (Step 9) – The Eating of the Bitter Herbs ›

On the night of the Seder, we have an obligation to view ourselves as if we left Mitzrayim. This is no small task and many commentators have questioned how it is possible. We have to seriously arouse our emotions for this, and the Seder provides a night filled with emotional stimuli to help.

At the center of these stimuli is the Matzah, a simple food of just flour and water. But it is around this food that we need to do emotional gymnastics. We have to think of Matzah as the staple we ate when we were slaves in Egypt. And at the same time, this is the food that we baked in haste as we left Mitzrayim.

Matzah is to be transformed in our minds and our hearts from slave rations to the food of freedom. Perhaps Hashem is showing us that we can control our thoughts, and through our mind we can control our emotions. The whole night we are being trained to go from thoughts of slavery to thoughts of freedom so that we can actually come to feel that we ourselves, each one of us, actually left Mitzrayim and thank Hashem with all our hearts.

By Rav Lazer Brody

Motzi uplifts a Jew to near perfection. A Jew possess the body of a mammal, yet the soul of an angel. No one but the Jew can take coarse materiality and convert it to spirituality. On Seder night, when the Jew grasps the matzos with his ten fingers, and then says the blessing “HaMotzi” that consists of ten words, he and his family are able to ascend the spiritual ladder of the ten spheres and attain perfect unity with Hashem, as the number ten indicates perfection. Since Hashem is perfection, all who cling to Him and subjugate themselves to Him interfuse with perfection.

On Seder night we make “HaMotzi” on the simplest of pas, the matza shmura that consists of water and wheat with nothing else. Symbolically, this shows that we attain spiritual perfection by minimizing material needs, since interestingly enough there are ten mitzvas in the Torah involving wheat. A happy and kosher Passover.

Our physical bodies are comprised of 2\3 water and the earth upon which we live is made up of more than 2\3 water. That being the case, it is easy to conceive of water as simply a physical, coarse life necessity devoid of spirituality. Of course, we know that not to be true.

Water plays a prominent part in the spiritual life of a Jew. Mikvah, Netilas Yadayim, the water drawing ceremnony in the Temple, etc. Indeed, the torah itself is compared to water. The primary function of water is to remove impurity or lift the spiritual state of an object or person. For example, after we immerse our dishes in a mikvah they become usable, one who is in a spiritually impure state arises from the mikvah in a pure state. There are many such examples.
Read more Rachtza (Step 6) – The Washing of the Hands Preceding the Eating of the Matzah ›

The Maggid step has got to be the most commented upon section of the haggadah. Our vort on Maggid is presented by A Simple Jew. What better section of Maggid for A Simple Jew to discuss than The Simple Son.

The Lesson of the Simple Son
By A Simple Jew

The Simple Son is one of the most overlooked sons in the Haggadah. He does not have a dominant part as do the Wise Son and the Wicked Sons. Who is wise? He who learns from every person. (Pirkei Avos 4:1). Thus, there are lessons one can learn from the Simple Son. Today the term “simple” has a negative connotation. When we say that a person is “simple”, it usually means that we regard the person as naive, unsophisticated, or unintelligent.There are many chassidic stories that honor the simple person and his pure intentions.
Read more Maggid (Step 5) — The Lesson of the Simple Son ›

Rabbi Goldson is a well-known author of numerous pieces appearing on the web and in print media. He has quickly become one of the most popular contributors and commenters here on BeyondBT.

The fourth step of the seder, yachatz, is so brief that it can easily slip past us with little notice, depriving us of one of the most profound symbolic messages of the Pesach evening.

The simple, superficial imagery of breaking the matzah reminds us of the poor man rationing his meager fare and protectively hiding away the larger portion (the afikomen) to guard against an uncertain future. This echoes the symbolism of matzah as lechem oni — poor-man¹s bread, the coarse meal accorded the Jewish slaves by their Egyptian overlords.
Read more Yachatz (Step 4) — A Taste of Things to Come ›

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.