[Avodah] A New Mitzvah at the Seder

[Prof. L. Levine]

I have maintained for a long time that the yeshivas and Bais Yaakovs wreck the Seder each year. To me it is clear from the Gemara in Pesachim that in the time of the Gemara young children came to the Seder not knowing what to expect.  They were not primed with booklets filled with divrei Torah.  Today the children know "everything" since they are taught all sorts of things about the seder.

I believe that Rav Shimon Schwab also felt to some extent the way I do.  The following is from his Introduction to his Shiurim on the Haggadah:

>From my earliest youth, 1 remember that children would ask each
other on the first morning of Pesach, "How long did your Seder take?"
This was true in my youth, and it is still the case today.

If the children were to ask me this now, 1 would answer them, "I
made sure to eat the afikoman before chatzos (midnight)." According
to some poskim, even the recitation of Halle[ should be completed
before chatzos. I must point out that the present-day practice in which
all the children read from the prepared sheets they received in school
is not exactly in accordance with the mitzvah of and you
shall tell to your children, etc. (ibid.). The children have initiated a
new mitzvah of and you shall tell to your father and
mother, which makes it very challenging to perform the mitzvah of
achilas matzah and certainly the achilas a{zkoman - before chatzos.

YL

YL
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