THE RITE OF THE PASSOVER
ACCORDING TO “THE HAGGADAH” FROM 1927 YEAR [1],
divided into four coloured sections by the author of the presentation
| 1. Kaddesh | The blessing | קַדֵּשׁ |
| 2. Urechatz | The washing of hands | וּרְהַץ |
| 3. Karpas | The eating of the parsley (having dipped it in the salty water) | כַּרְפַּס |
| 4. Yachatz | The breaking of the middle matzah to have afikoman | יַחַץ |
| 5. Maggid | Telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt | מַגִּיד |
| 6. Rachtzah | The second washing of the hands | רַחַץ |
| 7. Motzi and Matzah | The two blessings over the matzah | מוֹצִיא מַצָה |
| 8. Maror | The eating of the bitter herb (having dipped it in the salty water) | מָרוֹר |
| 9. Korekh | Eating of sandwich made with matzah bitter herb and charoset | כּוֹרֵךְ |
| 10. Shulchan Orech | The eating of the festive meal | שֻׁלְחָן עוֹרֵךְ |
| 11. Tzafun | The eating of the afikoman. | צָפוּן |
| 12. Barekh | The thanksgiving for the food; prayers for Elijah and Messiah | בָּרֵךְ |
| 13. Hallel | The recitation of the second part of Hallel | הַלֵּל |
| 14. Nirtzah | The final singing | נִרְצָה |
Remark: the following changes are introduced to the original text of the edition of 1927 year to show the logic of this division:
- „3. The eating of the parsley” – to this was added: “having dipped in the salty water”,
„8. The eating of the bitter herb” – to this was added: “having dipped it in the salty water”.
It is evident that section I (red colour) and II (green colour) have the same layout – in each section there are parts: the blessing; the washing of hands; the eating of the herb after having dipped it in the salty water.
Similarly in both sections the fourth part is connected with matzah, so
“4. The breaking of the middle matzah” was changed to equivalent:
“4. The breaking of the middle matzah to have afikoman”,
what harmonizes with:
“11. The eating of the afikoman”. - “12. The thanksgiving prayers after the eating” was corrected to:
“12. The thanksgiving for the food” (in this especially for the unleavened bread of Exodus from Egypt!); and it was added: “prayers for Elijah and Messiah” (for their arrival and renewal of the original Exodus; for all Israel to be introduced to the new reality, to the expected time of Messiah – Messiah is expected each year during the Passover). - The white highlighted text is for double occurrence of the afikoman (in the point 4. and 11.). It is worth noting that afikoman is very important, since it divides the set of 14 parts of the rite of the Passover into 4 sections; each section consists of three parts:
1+2+3 4 5+6+7 8+9+10 11 12+13+14. - It should be noted, however, that the division in respect to the afikoman is not the most typical for the rite of the Passover. The fundamental division is visualised by four colours in the table rows, showing the belongingness of each of the fourteen parts to one of the four particular consecutive main sections of the rite, connected with the four consecutive cups of wine constituting the basic structure of the rite.
- The first section is concentrated on telling the Israel’s history beginning from the history of Patriarches; the special place occupies here the description of the Israel’s miserable situation in Egypt (hence the eating of the parsley after having dipped it in the salty water: participants have to existentially “enter” into the situation of bitter tears of slavery, of being the lowest social layer, close to the ground – as a parsley which is a miserable plant that grows close to the ground; presentation of the wonderful intervention of God in the interest of Israel in Egypt crowns this history, and a narrative of the leader turns into a prayerful enumeration of the fifteen from among many benefits which God has shown them during the exodus from Egypt; at the end the singing of the first part of Hallel (i.e. Psa 113-114) expresses the gratitude of Israel for the God’s intervention.
However the singing is preceded still by an explanation of the liturgical signs which will take place right in the second section of the Passover rite: the leader explains the meaning of the eating of the unleavened bread, the bitter herbs and the paschal lamb (currently the lamb is not eaten because there is not the temple in Jerusalem – and only in the temple in Jerusalem one can sacrifice the lamb for the Passover).
Therefore it should be emphasized that the first section of the Passover is devoted to the teaching, the telling, the demonstrating of the magnitude of God as a faithful partner of the covenant, and to the showing of His requirements – thence in the first section is still the explanation of what in the second section will be made as ordered by the Lord. - The second section of the Passover rite in its official fragment is the most modest, what does not mean it is unimportant. Quite the reverse, the four consecutive parts (in the above table they have numbers: 6, 7, 8 and 9) are the fulfilment of the Passover law: every participant has to eat matzah, bitter herbs dipped in salty water, and matzah with bitter herbs, fulfilling in this way the God’s command concerning the Passover lamb: Exo 12,8 “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it”. Only after the fulfillment of this acts comes the time for an abundant holiday meal, for the supper not being governed by the Passover law.
- The third and the fourth section of the rite will be presented on the next screens. However it should already be noted that in all comments the eating of the afikoman is erroneously interpreted as the eating of the dessert after the supper being just finished; and the prayers associated with the eating of the afikoman are simply interpreted as the thanksgiving for the finished supper. Therefore in the third section in the above table, the very significant correction of the text issued in 1927 was made.
Originally the above 14-part schema of the Passover seder has not been divided into the four sections corresponding to the four cups constituting this structure. Although it is not an easy task, but it is a feasible and necessary one to understand the primary rite of the Passover.