The Meal & Maggid

Along side Qontroversial Questions on the Parashah I’m also going to be sending out eight Haggadah ideas in the run up to Pesaḥ

One of the things I love about learning the mishnayot describing the Seder is the opportunity to see how much our Sedarim in the 21st century still mirror the Sedarim of Ḥazal. But I find it even more fascinating to learn the clear indications where our practices differ.

And my favorite example of this comes from the Haggadah of the Sages by Shmuel and Ze’ev Safrai in noting the structure of the mishnayot that describe the Seder. Because what’s clear is that these mishnayot go in the order they expect the Seder to develop: discussions about the first cup of wine precede the second cup of wine, and the afikoman is mentioned right at the end – to give just a couple of examples.

And the mishnayot perfectly line up with the flow of our Seder – save for one mishnah. Because the Mishnah tells us that before the second cup of wine is poured and Maggid begins, the various foods of the Seder are brought, including shnei tavshilin, “two cooked dishes” (mPes. 10:3). And while nowadays we think of this as the Seder plate, the Safrai’s suggest that in the times of the Beit ha-Mikdash this was the moment when the meal was eaten.¹

In other words, Maggid was recited throughout (or after the meal) – contrary to our current practice of deferring the meal until much later in the Seder. And when you think about it, some of the Seder’s other quirks click into place. Take Mah Nishtanah, for example, which is found in the Mishnah (Pes. 10:4). Rather than being a song about things that are yet to happen – making us wonder how the child is curious about future activities they’ve ostensibly yet to see – it becomes a song noting observations about the food that has been eaten.²

And while I don’t endorse a return to this practice – because the later placement of the meal goes as far back as at least the Geonic era – it offers a different way for us to consider the way we run the Seder.

R. Soloveitchik stressed that, above all else, the recitation of Maggid is a time of Torah learning. It is why Maggid is chock-full of quotes, not just from the Torah itself, but also Torah She-Be-Al Peh: we learn mishnayot, midrashim, and parts of the Tosefta.

And this means that there are two approaches to learning. The first is formal – we sit around the table and learn with no distractions around us. And while that may work for some, it can either lead to the frustration that Maggid is taking forever or for Maggid to be cut short because everyone is hungry.

Hence the second approach: read Maggid and discuss some things – but leave the longer discussions for the meal. Otherwise, the meal can all too quickly become a lengthy non-Seder part of the Seder, where all the themes and messages of Pesaḥ are left behind while other conversations take place.

This is something we do: anytime a more involved discussion is required we leave it until the meal where we have far more time to chat.

So while you shouldn’t literally read Maggid while eating, the meal should be a time for an extension of Maggid – for the major discussions and burning questions to be addressed – so that it’s no longer a pause in the Seder for a meal but a continuation of the Seder as we eat.

1. Indeed, Mordekhai suggests the same thing in his Seder ha-Pesaḥ.

2. Even though it’s also clear from the Mishnah that Mah Nishtanah is actually sung by the Seder leader, not the child. It also answers why the four cups aren’t mentioned – because at this point in the Seder all that’s happened is normal kiddush on one cup of wine.