Ha Lachma Anya
Apr. 5th, 2009 08:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhuI was reviewing the hagaddah and some of the commentaries over Shabbat, and was taken with what the Perush Kadmon has to say about Ha Lachma Anya. HLA is the paragraph right before the Four Questions, and it is the only part of the Hagaddah that is in Aramaic rather than Hebrew. (Chad Gadya doesn't count.) The Perush Kadmon asks why this is.
The common explanation is that Aramaic was the lingua franca (so to speak), and it's important for everyone to understand the message: "Let all who are hungry come and eat; let all who need join our Passover meal."
The Perush Kadmon, however, posits a technical halachic (legal) reason and expands it homiletically. He writes that the second cup of wine is known as kos yeshuot, the cup of salvations (a quote from Psalm 115, which we read at the end of this section of the seder), and the proper time to pour that cup is between Ha Lachma Anya and Mah Nishtana.
Why do we not pour the wine until the Four Questions? Because, writes the Perush Kadmon, Ha Lachma Anya is not about the Exodus from Egypt, it is about the slavery of Egypt. "This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.... Now we are slaves, next year may we be free." It is not until the child exclaims with awe and delight, "How different this night is!" that we begin the process of exodus and salvation. Slaves cannot pour the cup of salvations; only those who have experienced salvation can do so.
By reciting HLA in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew, we are reminded that its not yet time to pour the wine.
So that's the halachic reasoning.
The homiletics come in when we consider that HLA was written in Babylonia. It is itself an exile text. The message can be found in the interior words of HLA: "Let all who are hungry [and there are still people who hunger] come and eat. Let those in need [and there are still people in need] join our Pesach. Now we are here [in exile, in a place where the lingua franca is not Hebrew] --- next year may we be in the land of Israel [and the time of the ultimate redemption]."
We cannot pour the cup of salvations while we are slaves. On one level, this refers to where we are in the seder-driven process of collective memory --- at 7:59, we're remembering servitude, and at 8:00, we're remembering redemption. But on a deeper level, reciting HLA in Aramaic is a kick in the teeth, reminding us that our habitual comfort makes us think of slavery and poverty as things that happened to "them" --- to "them" and not to "us".
As long as there are people who hunger, people in need, then we are all of us slaves, and we are not yet worthy to fill the cup of salvations.
Next year, may we be free.
The common explanation is that Aramaic was the lingua franca (so to speak), and it's important for everyone to understand the message: "Let all who are hungry come and eat; let all who need join our Passover meal."
The Perush Kadmon, however, posits a technical halachic (legal) reason and expands it homiletically. He writes that the second cup of wine is known as kos yeshuot, the cup of salvations (a quote from Psalm 115, which we read at the end of this section of the seder), and the proper time to pour that cup is between Ha Lachma Anya and Mah Nishtana.
Why do we not pour the wine until the Four Questions? Because, writes the Perush Kadmon, Ha Lachma Anya is not about the Exodus from Egypt, it is about the slavery of Egypt. "This is the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.... Now we are slaves, next year may we be free." It is not until the child exclaims with awe and delight, "How different this night is!" that we begin the process of exodus and salvation. Slaves cannot pour the cup of salvations; only those who have experienced salvation can do so.
By reciting HLA in Aramaic, rather than Hebrew, we are reminded that its not yet time to pour the wine.
So that's the halachic reasoning.
The homiletics come in when we consider that HLA was written in Babylonia. It is itself an exile text. The message can be found in the interior words of HLA: "Let all who are hungry [and there are still people who hunger] come and eat. Let those in need [and there are still people in need] join our Pesach. Now we are here [in exile, in a place where the lingua franca is not Hebrew] --- next year may we be in the land of Israel [and the time of the ultimate redemption]."
We cannot pour the cup of salvations while we are slaves. On one level, this refers to where we are in the seder-driven process of collective memory --- at 7:59, we're remembering servitude, and at 8:00, we're remembering redemption. But on a deeper level, reciting HLA in Aramaic is a kick in the teeth, reminding us that our habitual comfort makes us think of slavery and poverty as things that happened to "them" --- to "them" and not to "us".
As long as there are people who hunger, people in need, then we are all of us slaves, and we are not yet worthy to fill the cup of salvations.
Next year, may we be free.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-05 02:36 pm (UTC)I really like this. Is this your phrasing, or a quote?
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-05 02:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-05 10:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-06 03:54 am (UTC)Of course not. If it counted, it would be Echad Mi Yodea.
Ucaoimhu
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-06 01:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-04-25 10:48 am (UTC)(I also found the amazingly cute explanation that the paragraph is in Aramaic because it's an invitation for all who are hungry to come and enter, and that invitation shouldn't be extended to evil angelic influences, and as everyone knows, angels don't speak Aramaic. I added that explanation to the footnote with the translation and with the explanation here, but no one will believe I didn't make it up.)