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 27 The Passover Haggadah

‘The evil son asks: “What does this serviee mean to you?” By the expression “to you” he implies that this service means nothing to him. Since he excludes himself from the community and denies God, tell him bluntly: “This is on account of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.”* For me, not for him; had he been there, he would not have been liberated.

The simple son merely asks: “What does this mean?” ‘Tell hi “By force the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.”

‘As for the son who is not able to ask a question, you must open up the subject to him, as it is written: “You shall tell your son on that day: This is on account of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.”*

One might suppose that the Haggadah should be recited as early as the first day of the month of Nisan, but the Torah plainly says: “You shall tell your son on that day” (meaning, the first day of Passover]. Again, one might suppose that the phrase on thal day

Rashi on Exodus 18:8 interprets a -waya (“because of this”) to mean that ‘the liberation from Egypt was intended to enable the people of Israc! to fulfill the divine precepts such as the eating of matzah and maror (aypxy maya Pn oma nea nop poo.

‘The feminine pronoun PX (“you”) is here used in place of the masculine ank; compare Numbers 11:15; Deuteronomy 5:24; Ezekiel 28:14. Com- menting on Numbers 11:15, Ibn Ezra states that the pronoun RX is both ‘masculine.and feminine (739 721 fw AN)... AIpN 71 Pw? DW.

‘The quotation from Exodus 18:8 serves as a reply given to the evil son as well as to the one who does not know how to ask questions, exeept that in reference to the evil son the word % (“to me”) is significantly emphasized.

‘The passage beginning with bx» (“one might suppose”) is closely con- nected with the preceding paragraph which contains the biblical quotation spa nvm (“you shall tell your son”), According to Rabban Simeon ben Gamaliel, “questions are asked and lectures are given on the laws of Passover for two weeks” (Pesahim 6a); henee it might be supposed that the exodus should be explained formally as early as the first day of Nisan, that is, two ‘weeks before Passover. The phrase on that day, meaning the day of the exodus.

“4 Erodus 12:26; 13:8, 14. �