[Avodah] running a seder

[Daniel Israel]

On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:51:23 -0600 rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com wrote:
>Micha:
>"m attaching the seider of the seder, as seen IMHO. I think the 
only
>controversial point is that it requires moving Ha Lachma Anya from 
the
>beginning of Magid to being the explanation of Yachatz. That 
allows (1)
>a grouping of the 15 steps of the seder based on when we refill 
the kosos,
>and (2) opening Maggid with questions, not a declaration.
>
>The ikkar of arousing curiosity comes before mah nishtanah.  As 
>AhS and doniel goldschmidt note mah nistanah are not questions 
>about what has happened but an intro to what will happen
>
>Rishonim had the leader saying mah nishtaneh.  The acharonim 
>changed it to the kids probably because they mis-construesd the 
>meaning of the printed Talmud 

I am very uncomfortable with any teretz that involves the achronim 
all misreading a Gemara.  A simpler pshat, I think, is that by the 
time the child is old enough to ask, he has a basic memory of last 
years seder.  This is why ha lachma anya is enough to prompt the 
questions; the child says, "I remember doing something with matzah 
last year, and then we did all this other strange stuff."  Which 
would respond to Micha's objection.

In any case, we can't take the four questions as real questions of 
the child because there is a set text.  So they are, in a sense, 
symbolic.

--
Daniel M. Israel
dmi1 at cornell.edu