Page:Birnbaum Haggadah.pdf/25

 21 The Passover Haggadah

The following reply is recited in unison:

We were once the slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord our God brought us out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Had not God brought our fathers out of Egypt, our children and grandchildren would still be enslaved to a Pharaoh in Egypt. Even if we all were wise and intelligent, learned and versed in the Torah, it would nevertheless be our duty to tell about, the exodus from Egypt. The more anyone discusses the exodus from Egypt, the more praise he deserves.

It once happened that Rabbis Eliezer, Joshua, Elazar hen Azaryah, Akiba and Tarfon were celebrating the Seder together in Bné Brak. They spent the whole night discussing the exodus

your son: We were once the slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord our God brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.” Here the Septuagint suis the words “and an outstretched arm,” though they are lacking in our m text. The word pva (‘from there”) significantly replaces the word om¥>9 (out of Egypt”). According to Finkelstein (Pre-Maceabean Documents in the Passover Haggadah), “the omission of the last four verses of the biblical passage and the change introduced in the verse which was kept are. .. prompted by desire to avoid giving offense to the people of Egypt {when Palestine was by the Ptolemics} ... The substitution of the word ov for o»vynd is appar intended to clarify a possible ambiguity, which might have been particu disturbing when Palestine was under Egyptian domination, The word orwaa might mean not only out of Egypt but also from the Egyptians. . . Hence the substitution of av (“from there”) to indicate that. the redemption of Israel from the land of Egypt is what is meant.” According to Abudarham, supported by Mahzor Vitry, the last word in the phrase nynod wn arayen should be omitted, since Egypt was no longer ruled by a Pharaoh at the time the Haggadah was composed cy pA "ann °o2 OAPIa OVA mM dean) a>, However, the term “Pharaoh” is here used figuratively in the sense of tyrant and oppressor.

‘The words wmaan and Dypt are used synonymously in the sense of wisdom and scholarship. The Sifra on Leviticus 19:32 defines elder as interchangeable with scholar Gwoon rape m1 XDX yp PR... BIN NX TP PR.

The story about the all-night Seder in Bné Brak is like the account of Rabban Gamaliel and the elders who once observed the Seder in Lydda: nbvbn ame 3 nop mobaa ppwy ym nba... Puen yaw Opn bwbm pana AvyA (Tosefta Pesahim 10:12).

Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyreanus, disciple of Rabbi Yohanan ben Zal famous for his retentive memory and compared to “a cemented

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