Talmudic manuscripts reveal the existence of a forgotten, fifth cup of wine at the Passover Seder.
Dr. Menachem Katz Continue reading Five Cups of Wine at the Seder?
Category Archives: Passover
The seder scene in a Passover Haggadah, with German translation p. 42. (copied by Eliezer Sussman Mezeritsch, decorated by Charlotte von Rothschild · 1842 ) Zürich, Braginsky Collection, B314, e-codices.ch
How Is the Passover Seder Different from All Other Symposia?
The accumulation of liturgical layers, songs, and discussion that adorn the traditional Seder can obscure its original, primary purpose. By closely analyzing the Seder’s artful oration in light of classical rhetoric, a sharper picture emerges of a Roman symposium-like gathering whose aim is to help its members appreciate and celebrate the freedom God granted through the Exodus.1
Dr. Rabbi Richard Hidary
Continue reading How Is the Passover Seder Different from All Other Symposia?
- This article is a reworked excerpt from Richard Hidary, Rabbis and Classical Rhetoric: Sophistic Education and Oratory in the Talmud and Midrash (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 68-73. ↩
Detail of a decorated initial-word panel at the beginning of Ma nishtanah. The 'Ashkenazi Haggadah', German rite with the commentary of Eleazar of Worms. Date: c. 1460
How Many Questions in the “Four Questions”?
A short history of how the Mah Nishtana changed: From three to four to five questions
Prof. Joseph Tabory Continue reading How Many Questions in the “Four Questions”?
Bakery, Machane Yehuda Market Jerusalem Wikimedia
Hametz Owned by a Non-Jew May be Eaten on Passover?!
A striking talmudic passage asserts that it is biblically permitted to eat the ḥametz of a non-Jew on Passover. How are we to explain this strange claim? What might this development teach us about the dynamics of rabbinic texts? Continue reading Hametz Owned by a Non-Jew May be Eaten on Passover?!
The Lubitows' Haggadah 1960. Matt DeTurck cc 2.0 flickr
The Pesach Seder of the “First Mishna”
Prof. Michael Chernick Continue reading The Pesach Seder of the “First Mishna”