F8: Pesach

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The Hagadah - Telling Stories

Surprisingly, though the Pesach story is a monumental moment in Jewish history, the Hagadah does not directly tell us about it, it actually tells us about it through numerous other stories...

Near the opening of the Hagadah we have the story of five ancient Rabbis, sitting round the table discussing the Pesach story. Next comes the 'Four sons' which is a story about a father telling his four different sons about the Pesach story.

Then we tell the story of how Joshua, after he and the Jewish people had conquered the Land of Israel, tells them the pre-quel to the Pesach story i.e. how Abraham's descendants got to Egypt in the first place.

Then we have the story of what Jews used to announce to the priests when they brought their newly ripened fruits to the Temple in Jerusalem. You guessed it, they have to recite a mini-version of the Pesach story! The Hagadah proceeds to spend page after page explaining each phrase of this mini-version by quoting from the original Pesach story. That's crazy! And it's completely backwards. It's like learning up all about the life of a famous person (e.g. Nixon, Gandhi or Chaplin) so that you can understand the film Hollywood made about them. The film is supposed to save you the hassle in the first place! What's going on?

All this only makes sense if telling the story at Pesach and not knowing the facts about the actual events is what's really important. We learn a lot from stories. We hear and read them all our lives. Fact or fiction, for pleasure or far work, stories present us with information and ideas in an inviting and friendly way. A man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his life as if he were narrating it. (Jean-Paul Satre) That's why the Hagadah itself, near the beginning, says: Even if we were all wise, all clever, all experienced and all familiar with the Torah, we would nevertheless still have to tell the story of the departure from Egypt.

The Hagadah Movie

So the Hagadah is a story and not a textbook. In a way, it is a film as opposed to a historical record. Like a film, it involves us in the story, it makes us care about the characters. We cheer for the Jews and are relieved when the Egyptians are beaten. The more we 'get into' the Hagadah, the more we are concerned about what happens. The beauty of seder night is that it is not just one film that we play again every year. That can get rather boring. Every year is a new version of the story. It's you and your family's version, depending on how you tell the story. Like a director you can stress different parts.

Will it be an action film? total carnage in Egypt as the dreaded ten plagues are unleashed; or a courtroom drama? Moses outwits Pharaoh and his advisors by proving the truth of God's word; a tear-jerker? the downtrodden enslaved Jewish people cry out in pain and are miraculously saved at the last moment; or even a sci-fi flick? the Jews marvel as they are rescued by inexplicable supernatural powers. "Use the force, Moses!"

The more dramatic the seder, the more that the Pesach story becomes carved into our memories. Roll the camera. And... ACTION!

The Four Generations

One version fo the Hagadah has it that there are not 'four sons', but there are four generationsof Jews. The first is wise. He knows about Judaism and feels part of the Jewish people and their history. His child, the second generation, rejects Judaism in an attempt to fit in with the surroundings and doesn't keep anything. His child, the third generation, does the basics to keep his grandparents happy, but he doesn't know the point of the traditions. His child, the fourth generation, is completely ignorant of Judaism. He asks no questions and is Jewish in name only. Having no connection with his past, he assimilates. He leaves his people. Inevitably, as far as Judaism is concerned, there is no fifth generation.

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