Why the Haggadah Ignores Three Crucial Words
(After Pesaḥ my plan is to ideally send something out once a week. And while I have ideas in mind, if there’s a halakhic or philosophical topic you’d love to learn more about, feel free to reply to this email to give me some ideas of what I could address.)
In his commentary to the Haggadah, Rabbi Yeḥiel Mikhel Epstein, the author of the Arukh ha-Shulḥan, makes a fascinating observation about the way we do Maggid. The heart of Maggid is prompted by the Mishnah’s demand (Pes. 10:4) that we expound the verses describing Yetziat Mitzrayim that were read as part of the Bikkurim ceremony (Deut. 26:5–8).
Thus, our Haggadah contains a lengthy, phrase-by-phrase elaboration and exploration of each and every verse.
Yet, as the Arukh ha-Shulḥan notes, this is not completely true. One phrase is skipped: the opening words to the first verse, arami oved avi. The Haggadah only begins its detailed examination of the words with the next phrase, va-yered mitzraymah.
For the Arukh ha-Shulḥan, there is a simple, logistical reason for this: brevity.
Though the phrase arami oved avi is grammatically ambiguous – and, in the Torah’s original context almost certainly means “my father was a wandering Aramean” (a point made with tremendous grammatical force by Ibn Ezra) – the Haggadah interprets it to mean “an Aramean [that is, Lavan] tried to destroy my father.”
But for the Haggadah to do justice to this concept, as the Arukh ha-Shulḥan explains, it would be too long. To truly capture arami oved avi – the tension and animosity Lavan shows to Yaakov, along with Yaakov’s response, would result in a near-full quoting of Parashat Vayetze!
The Haggadah therefore prefaces the entire section with the instruction tze u-lemad, “Go out and learn.” It urges us to take the three words arami oved avi as a prompt. In order to understand these words, it tells us, you must take a Ḥumash off the shelf and begin learning.
The Arukh ha-Shulḥan’s observation and answer thus charges us with a responsibility, not just for Seder night, not just for Pesaḥ, but for the entire year. Though the Haggadah spoon feeds us so much interpretation of the verses that comprise this section, it leaves the opening words exposition-free.
In doing so, it gives us something else to spend our time on during the rest of Pesaḥ: because our learning is not over when the Seder ends – it’s only just begun.