Explanations in the Haggadah - Customs and Sayings for the Seder Night

00:04 Speaker 1 The Seder. Before I begin, I want to say that most of what I’ll discuss is what I’ve heard from others. I did not have the privilege of being at the Rebbe’s Seder. In general, everything we know about the Rebbe’s Seders and his customs comes from the early years up to 5731, when the Rebbe stopped holding the Seder publicly. Until 5731, as is known, the Rebbe held the Seder publicly in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home, as he had before 5710. The Rebbe continued doing so for twenty years after 5710. In 5731, the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Rebbetzin passed away, and the Rebbe stopped holding the Seder upstairs in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home. From then on, it was just the Rebbe, the Rebbetzin, and the attendant in the Rebbe’s home, Reb Sholom Ber Gansburg. So everything we know—or at least everything I know—comes from chassidim who were there, things I heard or read. Today it has all been written down. There is a book by Rabbi Mondshine—I don’t remember its exact title—about customs. It has some title mentioning Nissan, Iyar, and Sivan, and a whole section on the customs of our Rebbeim. Not just the Rebbe, but all the Rebbeim. He collects the practices of all our Rebbeim, as well as those of other chassidim and various other things. You can look there too. There is also a Haggadah published by Heichal Menachem. In addition to the Rebbe’s Haggadah, they included practices passed down by word of mouth. So it has all been printed explicitly by now, but it is good to discuss these things publicly and learn them. Perhaps there is also a vort, a story, or something else that is not so well known. In any

02:41 Speaker 1 case, we’ll follow the order of the Pesach Seder, yes? One more introduction: Of course, many of these things were passed down by word of mouth. Some are from memory, and mistakes are possible. So I ask forgiveness in advance—twice over if I make a mistake or don’t recall things exactly as they happened. In any case, the night of Pesach. As it says in Sefer Haminhagim, for all our Rebbeim, Seder night was a special night for the entire Jewish people and especially for our Rebbeim—a very spiritual time. At the Seder, we also discuss Torah and offer explanations. There was a known difference between the first night and the second. On the first night, as stated in Sefer Haminhagim and the Rebbe’s Haggadah, the Rebbeim were careful to eat the afikoman before midnight—but only the afikoman. That is, not Hallel. They said Hallel after midnight, but made sure to eat the afikoman before then. So immediately after Maariv they would hurry to begin the Seder and prepare everything, so they could start Maggid right away. Even when they gave explanations, they kept them brief. They wanted to reach the afikoman before midnight. On the second night, by contrast, they were not particular about midnight. The Seder would begin late to start with, several hours after Maariv, and would continue until three or four in the morning. They were not particular about the time. That was the practice of all the Rebbeim. With our Rebbe, the Seder was not like that. The Rebbe’s Seder was brief on both nights, even the second. The Rebbe would generally finish the Seder early—not because he was particular about the time. In the Rebbe’s case, it had to do with the fact

05:25 Speaker 1 that it was held in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home. So the Rebbe did not speak much; he generally kept his speech to a minimum. As is known, at the Seder the Frierdiker Rebbe’s chair remained empty, and the Rebbe sat to the side, just as he had during the Frierdiker Rebbe’s lifetime. You could see the Rebbe’s bittul, like a servant standing before his master. The Rebbe sat there and hardly spoke at all. He spoke only if someone asked him a question; if no one asked, he did not speak. Even in the way the Rebbe would glance toward the chair from time to time, you could see it. You could tangibly see that, for the Rebbe, the Frierdiker Rebbe remained alive and present. So it was not the Rebbe’s practice to give explanations during the Haggadah. At the Rebbe’s Seder, the Haggadah was recited, with someone appointed to read it aloud. The Rebbe read quietly, as did all the guests and everyone seated at the table. In general, a group of distinguished people would sit there—elder chassidim or guests, people who had come from Russia, and various others who were invited. Rebbetzin Nechama Dina was in charge of inviting the guests. Everyone recited it quietly, and one person read aloud. His name was Reb Yankel Katz, a"h. He lived in Chicago and would come for Pesach to be at the Rebbe’s Seder, where he read the Haggadah aloud. So the Haggadah itself was recited more or less without explanations. During Shulchan Orech, people would ask questions. Usually the Rashag, the Rebbe’s older brother-in-law, asked most of them. Of course, the bochurim would give him all sorts of questions for him to

07:29 Speaker 1 ask the Rebbe. They would ask him to put their questions to the Rebbe, and others asked questions too. That was the way it went. During Shulchan Orech they would ask questions, and the Rebbe would answer. It was that way on both the first and second nights. The first night was briefer; on the second there was more time during Shulchan Orech. Then, in the second part of the Haggadah, after Shulchan Orech—Hallel, Nishmas, and all the rest—the Rebbe would recite it aloud. In other words, Reb Yankel Katz read the first part of the Haggadah aloud, while from Shefoch Chamascha to the end, the Rebbe recited it aloud. The Rebbe served as the one leading the reading, and everyone else recited it quietly. On the second night of Pesach, when the Seder ended, the Rebbe would escort his mother, Rebbetzin Chana, home. Then he would return to the shul, the beis midrash, and hold a farbrengen there. The farbrengen on the second night of Pesach was without mashke or wine, of course. We don’t drink mashke on Pesach, and there was no wine, no l’chaim, since it was already after the Seder, when drinking is forbidden. It was a dry farbrengen: no l’chaim and no food. The Rebbe would speak, and niggunim were sung between explanations. At that farbrengen, the Rebbe would explain the Haggadah. Because the Rebbe did not want to speak in the room at the Seder in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home, he gave all his explanations afterward. The farbrengen would usually begin at around twelve-thirty and sometimes continue until three or four. The Rebbe would give explanations on the Pesach Haggadah, and we have them. We were privileged to have them in Toras Menachem. Anyone who wants to look

09:46 Speaker 1 can see them from all the years from 5711 through 5730, when this practice also ended. Throughout those years, the Rebbe would hold a farbrengen on the second night of Pesach and give explanations. Over the years, he also delivered a maamar on the second night of Pesach. That was the pattern. Again, 5730 was the last time. In 5731, the Rebbe no longer did this. Instead, the Rebbe began holding a farbrengen on 11 Nissan, which was interesting: the Rebbe stopped the Pesach-night farbrengen, but from 5731 onward he began holding a farbrengen every year before Pesach. The regular 11 Nissan farbrengen began in 5732, when the Rebbe turned seventy. There had to be a replacement. Yes, just an aside. That is the general picture of how the Rebbe’s Seder was conducted. Now we’ll get into the details, starting with the Seder plate. The Rebbe’s practice was to look in the Haggadah constantly, at every detail. For every practice, every part of the Seder, the Rebbe would look at the text. He used his own Haggadah, the Rebbe’s Haggadah with his explanations—the edition that includes the Rebbe’s explanations—and he looked in it throughout. Sometimes he would look down, but mainly he looked at what was written about the order of the Seder. And he did not just look: the Rebbe would actually read it. He read all the instructions written in the Haggadah, everything the Rebbe himself had written. During Shulchan Orech, [unclear] matzah and maror quietly. But the Rebbe would read the entire text aloud, including “Yisroel and Levi.” The Rebbe would read it and arrange the Seder plate according to what was written. He would look and arrange the plate accordingly. What was the arrangement of the Seder plate?

11:48 Speaker 1 At the Rebbe’s Seder, the ke’arah itself was a towel. The Rebbe didn’t use what everyone uses today, that round thing you buy in stores. The Rebbe would take a large towel and fold it once, then fold it again, and that was his ke’arah. You would fold a white towel like this, and it would form three pockets for the matzos. That was the ke’arah. As is well known, and as it says in the Haggadah, only the Rebbe used a silver plate beneath the matzos. Those reclining at the Seder with him did not have that custom. So the Rebbe did not use a silver plate either; only the Frierdiker Rebbe had one. The question remained for the Rebbe, though, whether not using a plate was a practice to follow. By “plate,” I mean a silver plate beneath the matzos. Was it something only a Rebbe used, so chassidim should not use one? Or did chassidim refrain only when they were in the Rebbe’s presence, but use one in their own homes? I’ve never heard a definitive conclusion. I’ve heard several opinions; there is disagreement about it. Some do it and some don’t. I don’t know—each person should do as he does in his own home. In practice, the Rebbe had this towel, which he folded into three sections to make pockets, and then placed the matzos in them. The Rebbe would look for matzos that were

14:10 Speaker 1 round—as is well known, and as it also says in the Haggadah, the matzos should be slightly curved, right? You place them with the curved side facing up, so they look like a vessel. You look for matzos that curve up a little and place them that way. As the Rebbe Rashab writes, the spiritual meaning of the matzos and the Seder-plate items is that the matzos are vessels and the items are in the category of lights—lights and vessels. So the matzos should have the shape of a vessel. That is why they were careful to find matzos that curved upward a little. You put the Yisroel down first, the Levi on top of it, and the Kohen on top of that. As I said, the Rebbe would say this too while arranging the ke’arah. Now, there is a story that the Rebbe once saw bochurim putting paper napkins under the Seder-plate items so the matzos wouldn’t absorb moisture. The charoses is a little wet, or the karpas can sometimes be a little wet, or the egg, and so on. They wanted to keep the matzos dry. But the Rebbe objected. He said no napkins should be used; the items go directly on the ke’arah. There should be nothing separating the items from the ke’arah. So now let’s go through the items. First is the zeroa. As the Rebbe writes in the Haggadah, and as he was careful to do himself, the Rebbe would remove the meat from the— We’ll get to the charoses in a moment. Yes, we’ll get to the charoses; it’s very important. Let’s start with the zeroa.

17:18 Speaker 2 It’s no problem if—

17:21 Speaker 1 That’s what I’m saying. In a moment. No, actually, they weren’t particular about that. So first, the zeroa: the Rebbe was careful to take what’s called the gogl-kogut and remove almost all the meat, leaving essentially the bones, perhaps with a tiny bit of meat. Not absolutely all of it, as it says that something should remain. But he was careful to remove most of the meat so that mainly the bone remained. This was all to avoid any resemblance to the Pesach offering, as is well known. The Rebbe himself would remove the meat, take a small piece, and place it in the position of the zeroa. The egg goes on the left, in remembrance of the Chagigah offering. The Rebbe was careful that the egg should still be in its shell, right? And that the shell should be whole, not cracked. He was particular that it be an intact egg with no cracks at all. We’re also careful that the egg have no stamp on it. Sometimes eggs bought in stores have stamps. Before Pesach, people were careful to wash the stamps off those eggs that had them. The Rebbe was particular that the egg be completely whole, with nothing on it. It’s difficult to place an egg like that on the ke’arah, because it’s round and rolls around. The Rebbe would work at it for quite a while. People said it sometimes took several minutes to position the egg so it wouldn’t fall—to put it in just the right place so it wouldn’t roll. It isn’t always easy. The easiest thing would be to break the shell a little, and then it would stay put. But the Rebbe was particular not to break it, and to leave it round. So much for the egg.

19:31 Speaker 1 All right, now the maror. The Rebbe would prepare the maror in the kitchen. As is well known, Reb Shmuel Gerlik once hid in the kitchen and thus had the opportunity to see how the Rebbe prepared the maror. He describes every detail. I may forget something—I’m afraid I can’t recount it as precisely as Reb Shmuel can. But as I generally remember it, the maror contains white horseradish and the green vegetable, lettuce. First the Rebbe would take a large handful of the white horseradish and squeeze it so that no juice remained. He would squeeze the juice onto the floor; since it went to waste, there was no issue with squeezing it. The Rebbe would squeeze it all, then add more until he had a large amount. The Rebbe was particular to fulfill the mitzvah of maror in the best possible way. First he would shape it into something round, like an egg. Then he would take some of the green lettuce, the maror—

21:11 Speaker 3 Lulav.

21:11 Speaker 1 Lulav. He would take only the leaf, without the stalk—not the middle part. He would take the green leaf and wrap the horseradish with it on all sides, like a ball. After wrapping it, he would take a piece of ungrated horseradish, a firm piece of the white horseradish root. He would push that piece into the ball and then close it up again. That was the whole video of preparing the maror; it took several minutes. The entire video showed the Rebbe arranging the maror. That was the maror the Rebbe placed on the ke’arah. Next comes the charoses. When it came to the charoses, they were careful not to put wine into it. The charoses should be as thick as possible. It’s made from apples, pears, and nuts. Nuts, pears, and apples. Apples, pears, and nuts. Now, in the Rebbe’s home, first of all, to make it as thick as possible, they didn’t grind it too finely. You can grind an apple until it becomes liquid; they ground it in a way that left it somewhat dry. They tried not to let it turn into something watery. I heard from Reb Shmuel—though I haven’t managed to verify whether it’s true—that they even avoided using pears when they were too soft. Even though the Gemara says to use pears, if they were too soft, they didn’t use them, so the charoses wouldn’t be so soft. They tried to make it as thick as possible, not too liquid. Besides that, they didn’t add wine. It says in the Shulchan

23:58 Speaker 1 The Shulchan Aruch says to add wine, but they would not add the wine before the Seder. When they reached maror, the Rebbe would take a little of the charoses from the Seder plate and put it in the cup of—the saucer with the wine. The Rebbe had the wine and saucer for Kiddush, for the four cups. He would take a little charoses, dip it slightly in the Kiddush wine, and use that to dip the maror. But no wine was added to the charoses itself. All this was so the charoses would be as thick as possible. Even though, according to halachah, if it is pure wine with no water, there is no problem of gebrokts—all that concern does not apply. Nevertheless, they were careful, or at least tried to be careful, about this too. So that was the charoses. Then, for karpas, the Rebbe would put down a whole onion. He would take an onion and place the whole onion in the karpas position. Then, when it came to the chazeres, the second portion of maror, that too was like the first maror: the same kind of ball was placed there. That was the chazeres for maror. All this was the arrangement of the Seder plate. Afterward, the Rebbe would read the entire text. Once the Rebbe had prepared the Seder plate, he would read the whole sequence from Kadesh through Nirtzah. He would read all fifteen stages together, because that is how they are written in the Haggadah: Kadesh, Urchatz, Karpas, Yachatz—all fifteen stages of the Haggadah. Then he would begin Kiddush. Kiddush is recited standing, and the Rebbe would also read

26:20 Speaker 1 what is written here: “Kadesh. The first cup is poured for him.” Although it says “poured for him,” as is well known, and as the Haggadah also notes, the Rebbes were particular that someone else should not pour it for them. They poured their own cups and were careful about this. Generally, people have one person pour for another, but in Chabad we are particular that each person pour for himself. There is a story about the Rebbe Maharash, recorded in the Reshimos. Once, an elder chossid, an important chossid who was sitting at the Seder, began to pour for the Rebbe Maharash, and the Rebbe Maharash stopped him. He said, “Do you know what ‘poured for him’ means?” He explained that the Hebrew word for “him,” lo, has the numerical value of thirty-six. This refers to the middos: six attributes, each comprising six. “Poured for him” means that the middos must be blended—that a person must refine his character, so that his attributes are balanced, attributes with [laughter]. In other words, the Rebbe Maharash said this vort to hint to him that “poured for him” represents a high level, not something everyone has attained. The chossid had indicated that, for him, it was—as though it were a small matter, as though he had reached that level. So the Rebbe Maharash told him that a person might think he has already refined his middos, but at the age of sixty-eight he can face a test and stumble like a young man of twenty-three. Those were the Rebbe Maharash’s words to him, and it happened just as he said. That is how it is related in the Reshimos. He was sixty-two at the time, I think. Six years later, at sixty-eight, he faced a test in a certain matter, and then he understood what the Rebbe Maharash had meant. He had thought he had already refined his middos, but he still had the traits of a young man. So, in practice, we do not pour wine for one another; each person pours his own.

28:39 Speaker 1 That is how it was at the Seder too. The Rebbe would pour the cup, take it in his right hand, transfer it to his left, and then transfer it back to his right, holding it on his palm with his fingers pointing upward and his thumb at the side. The Haggadah says to hold the cup three tefachim above the table, but from what people say, the Rebbe was not necessarily particular about three tefachim. He was particular about one tefach, yes, but they did not see him keep it three tefachim above the table. It sounds as though one should, but with the Rebbe, from what people saw and from what I have heard, he was not particular that it remain at that height the whole time. Perhaps during the meal—I do not know—but I have not heard that he was particular about three tefachim at all times. After Kiddush, one drinks the cup. The Rebbes were particular, and the Rebbe was particular too, to drink the entire cup in one go, without a pause. He would drink the whole cup at once, without stopping, until it was finished, and that was how he drank all four cups. The Rebbe would drink the entire cup at once, and of course while reclining. Those who sat with the Rebbe did not recline. Until 5710, the Rebbe did not recline. After 5710, the Rebbe did recline. At the time, the Rebbe said that despite everything—on the one hand, people could see that the Rebbe felt as though the Frierdiker Rebbe was physically present there—when it came to reclining, the Rebbe nevertheless reclined. The Rebbe said that the ruling of the Shulchan Aruch must be followed, and since one could not physically see the Rebbe, after 5710 the Rebbe did recline in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home. So that is Kadesh.

30:55 Speaker 1 After that comes Urchatz, when we wash our hands as we do before eating. All the careful practices concerning the towel, yes? Making sure there is no interposition—all the laws of washing the hands apply in the same way, except that we do not say a blessing. One must be very careful to remember that and not say a blessing. Once, in the Rebbe’s presence, someone forgot and said the blessing. Everyone was confused and did not know what to do, and the Rebbe instructed him to eat a kezayis of matzah—two kezaysim—and to eat the maror as well. He had to proceed as though he were doing the whole sequence of Hamotzi, matzah, maror and korech, immediately at the beginning of the Seder, because he had said the blessing over washing his hands. So it is best not to create that kind of confusion, and to remember—what?

31:59 Speaker 4 He said Ha’adamah over the maror.

32:00 Speaker 1 He said Ha’adamah over the maror, you understand, yes. He had to do everything before that. That was an incident that once happened in the Rebbe’s presence. Now, before washing his hands for Urchatz, the Rebbe had a practice. As we said earlier, the Rebbe would read everything that was written. So before washing his hands, the Rebbe would read “Urchatz.” He would also read “Karpas” and what is written there: “Take less than a kezayis of karpas.” The Rebbe would read all that before washing his hands. Then he would wash his hands, take the karpas—the onion—and cut a small piece from it, less than a kezayis. He would dip that piece three times in salt water and eat it without reclining. One says Borei Pri Ha’adamah. After the Rebbe took the karpas, after he took the onion, he did not put it back. Even though some onion remained, he did not return it to the Seder plate. It had been taken off and stayed off, leaving only five items on the plate. The Rebbe says this requires examination, because according to Kabbalah there must be ten things on the Seder plate: six items corresponding to the six middos, the three matzos corresponding to the three intellectual faculties, and the plate corresponding to malchus. That makes ten sefiros, and now there is one missing; there are no longer nine items. But this is how our Rebbeim practiced, one Rebbe after another, and that is why it is done this way. There is no explanation for it. That is how they practiced: they removed the karpas, and it was no longer there. Yachatz. At Yachatz, the Rebbe would take the middle matzah through the cloth. Everything remained inside, within the Seder plate; he would put his hand in and break the matzah

34:29 Speaker 1 Into two parts, and he would look to see which piece of matzah was bigger and which was smaller. The smaller one stayed there; the larger one went inside the kaarah, the Seder plate. Everything stayed inside the kaarah—he did not take it out. It was all inside, in the pocket of the kaarah. He would take the larger piece and break it into five pieces. If it broke into six pieces, he would leave the extra one there and take out only five—yes, five pieces. The Rebbe would wrap those five pieces in some paper or something, and place them between two cushions beside him. That was where the afikoman rested. Two cushions or mattresses. The custom is to put the afikoman between two cushions, two pillows or mattresses. The Rebbe Maharash gives an explanation for this. The Rebbe Maharash writes that a pillow in Hebrew is called a kar, spelled kaf-reish. Twice kar has the numerical value of 440, the letters tav-mem. Those are the letters of meis, “dead.” You put the matzah in the middle—that is the alef, the Alef of the world. Matzah represents the alef; matzah is bittul before the Alef of the world. So putting the matzah between the two cushions represents bringing the alef, the Alef of the world, into the world. That is the explanation of why the matzah is placed between two cushions. It does not necessarily mean everyone has to do it; that is how the Rebbes conducted themselves. If you have them, do it. If not, do it however you can... The Rebbes also had a custom—I don’t think this was at the Rebbe’s Seder, but other Rebbes did it—of taking all the afikoman pieces, including those of their sons and sons-in-law, and keeping them all together in the same place. There is the well-known vort

36:48 Speaker 1 about someone who was looking and checking which piece was larger and which was smaller. The Rebbe Rashab told him that if you have to measure something to establish that it is big, then it isn’t big. There was some allusion to this, an allusion in Vilna. Doubles. That was Yachatz. After Yachatz comes Maggid. In Maggid, it says to lift the kaarah. At the Rebbe’s Seder, though, they did not lift the kaarah. Instead, they would uncover the matzos, opening the top covering. The Rebbe was particular to uncover all the matzos so that all three could be seen. He would move the towel and the covering of the kaarah in such a way that the three matzos were visible. The Rebbe was also particular that, with the broken middle matzah, only the intact edge should be visible. He would turn the matzah so that its rounded edge faced outward, not the broken edge. After Ha Lachma Anya, before Mah Nishtanah, it says to move the kaarah to another place and pour the second cup of wine. What they did at the Rebbe’s Seder was not remove it, but move the kaarah a little farther away. Then he would cover the matzos again, and only after covering them would he pour the second cup of wine. Mah Nishtanah? First, the young children would say Mah Nishtanah, if there were young children. If there were not, everyone would say it together quietly from the outset, including the Rebbe. They would all say it together, specifically in Yiddish and with the full text.

39:16 Speaker 5 Tate, ich freg fir kashes. Father, I ask four questions.

39:19 Speaker 1 That was the custom of the Rebbes. The Rebbe once spoke about the words “Tate, ich freg fir kashes.” It was a very spiritual moment. “Tate”—the Father in Heaven. “Tate” also refers to the Rebbe. The Rebbe spoke about this once at a farbrengen and cried over it. Doubles. They say Mah Nishtanah. After Mah Nishtanah, they bring the kaarah back and uncover the matzos again as before, so that all three matzos can be seen—as we said, with the rounded edge visible, not the broken edge. Then they begin reciting the Haggadah. As we said, at the Rebbe’s Seder someone would read it aloud, with a melody. The Rebbe would say in the name of the Arizal that the Haggadah should be recited with joy. At Vehi She’amdah, the Haggadah says to lift the cup and cover the matzah. That is what the Arizal writes. In practice, we do it the other way around: first we cover the matzah, at least the top part, and then we lift the cup. After finishing Vehi She’amdah, we put the cup on the table, dry our hands, uncover the matzah again, and continue with the Haggadah. When we reach “blood and fire,” there are sixteen words here, with all the kabbalistic intentions. As we said, the Rebbe would also read the intentions quietly. They were particular to have a broken, old vessel, and they would use that vessel to pour out the wine. The Rebbe would do the whole thing in one sequence: from “blood and fire” onward, he would hold the cup and pour out the drops. If I’m not mistaken—I think I need to check again—it seems to me the vessel was not on the table; it was on the floor. If I’m not mistaken. I don’t want to say for certain; I want to check again before I... That is what I recall.

42:11 Speaker 1 The intentions. They would pour out all those drops for the sixteen words here. Then, after finishing all of them, after Detzach, Adash, Be’achav, the Rebbe would add fresh wine to the bottle. Before “Hallelujah, hallelu avdei Hashem,” the Rebbe would cover the matzah again, even though it does not say so in the Haggadah; that is the custom. Before Hallelujah, they cover the matzah. Not before Hallelujah—what nonsense am I saying? It does say to do it before Lefichach. I got confused. Before Lefichach, they cover the matzah and then lift the cup. Whenever the Rebbe lifted the cup, he did it as at Kiddush: with the right hand, then the left, then the right, resting it on the palm, just as at Kiddush. They say Lefichach. And to correct what I said before: the Rebbe’s practice was not to hold the cup from Lefichach all the way through the blessing of Ga’al Yisroel, as the Haggadah seems to indicate. He held the cup only from Lefichach until Hallelujah, then put it down and said Hallelujah through “lema’yeno mayim” without the cup in his hand. He did not uncover the matzos; he simply said it. Then he picked up the cup again to say the blessing of Ga’al Yisroel, followed by Borei Pri Hagafen, and drank the entire cup while reclining, as before. Now this is a halachah class. Huh?

44:19 Speaker 6 …

44:21 Speaker 1 Huh?

44:23 Speaker 6 …

44:25 Speaker 1 The required amount, the size, and the halachah. So we can uncover it—what don’t you understand there? Huh? Is there something? You understand that all of this is malchus? Huh? Well, the wine has a... and you understand that? Huh? In a little while, if there’s time—there probably won’t be. I’ll give it to you afterward. In any case, Rachtzah, Motzi, Matzah, Maror, Korech—all four of these, these five things. Before washing his hands, the Rebbe would read everything from Rachtzah through Korech, inclusive. The Rebbe would read the entire text written there and then go to wash his hands. Washing the hands, the blessing, and the procedure for Motzi Matzah are as written: taking all three matzos in hand. Oh, I forgot: earlier, when saying “This matzah that we eat—why do we eat it?” the Rebbe would hold all three matzos with both hands and say, “This matzah that we eat—why do we eat it?” Then he would stop holding them and lower his hands. The Rebbe held the matzos only for the first words; by the time he got to “why,” he had already let go. It was the same with Maror: he would hold both portions of maror only for the first words, “This maror that we eat—why do we eat it?” and then lower his hands. But for Motzi Matzah, one takes all three matzos and says the blessing, “Hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz.” All the matzos are still inside the kaarah; you do not take them out. The matzah remains inside the kaarah, and you just hold it with your fingers. Then, after “Hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz,” the Rebbe would release the bottom matzah and hold only the upper two. He would say “Al achilas matzah” and then take out the piece of matzah

46:39 Speaker 1 The top matzah and part of the middle matzah—about two kezaysim. How much is two kezaysim? Rabbi Gushtok[?] always says here that it depends on whether it’s a New York matzah or a matzah from Israel, a hard matzah or a soft matzah. But generally, it’s between a quarter and a third of a matzah, and you take two kezaysim. The Rebbe’s practice was to put all the kezaysim into his mouth together and swallow them together. I don’t know how one does that—I really don’t—but the Rebbe managed. The Rebbe would put all the matzah into his mouth and swallow all the kezaysim together. Of course, without water. They say it was quite an avodah to watch the Rebbe eat the matzah. In any case, especially since the Rebbe had no teeth, it was not simple. In fact, the Rebbe ate matzah throughout the year—whenever he washed for bread, not every day. He was particular to eat matzah all year, except as Purim approached, of course. People thought it was for a Kabbalistic reason. Later it became known that it was simply because he had no teeth: he wanted to get used to eating hard matzah so his mouth would not bleed when he ate matzah on Pesach, to toughen his mouth—the, what do you call it, that part. Now, maror. The Rebbe would take that large piece of maror we spoke about earlier and dip it in the charoses. As we said, the Rebbe would pour a little of the wine into a bottle, dip just a little, and then dip the maror into the charoses. Just a tiny bit touched it, and he would immediately shake it off. There was no sign of charoses left on the maror.

49:10 Speaker 1 No trace of charoses remained on the maror. It was as though he did it only to fulfill the obligation. Then the Rebbe would eat the maror. They say that once the Rebbe’s face turned red. Then, korech. Of course, for korech you don’t dip it in wine. They would take the dry charoses, without the wine, dip the maror into it and immediately shake it off, with matzah above and matzah below, as Hillel did, and eat them together. Then comes Shulchan Orech. First of all, the Rebbe would wipe his mouth with a napkin each time—before maror and after maror, before korech and after korech. There was a large stack of napkins there, and the Rebbe used them generously. I heard there was a small table or something behind him where the Rebbe would throw all the napkins. The Rebbe wiped his mouth a great deal, so that no trace of matzah would remain before or after the maror, and so that no moisture would remain. Being careful about this was a whole undertaking. Once, someone wanted to take a napkin the Rebbe had used to wipe his mouth, and the Rebbe cried out, “That is actual chametz!” He did not want anyone touching it. So after korech the Rebbe would spend some time cleaning his mouth very thoroughly. Then they would clear the table and so on. The remaining matzos were covered with the ke’arah and stayed covered throughout the meal. The Rebbe would take the egg from the ke’arah, peel it, and take

51:38 Speaker 1 the egg whole. The Rebbe would not check it. Some people cut open even a hard-boiled egg to make sure there is no blood, but the Rebbe specifically did not do that. He took the egg whole, dipped it in salt three times, and ate the entire egg. That was the beginning of Shulchan Orech, and then the meal proceeded. As for the food they served there, it is well known that the Rebbe would put salt on the fish, then more salt, then more salt—plenty of salt. The Rebbe would pour a great deal of salt onto the fish. They tell a story that once Rabbi Avraham Fried, I think, wanted to get some shirayim from the fish, and they had to take him to the hospital. It was too strong for him. There is another story about the young men grabbing some of the chicken. The Rebbe did not use a fork on Pesach—or a knife. The Rebbe never used a knife, even during the rest of the year, but on Pesach they were careful not to use even a fork. So eating the chicken was very difficult. The Rebbe would take a small piece, whatever fit on a spoon, and leave the rest. The young men would grab the shirayim. Once they grabbed some of the chicken, and the Rebbe said, “Why didn’t anyone grab any of the fish?” Just a joke. In any case, there is the well-known story about the soup. The attendant was foolish and said “kneidlach.” He meant something made with eggs that they put in the soup, but he called it kneidlach. The Rebbe heard the word “kneidlach” and did not eat the soup. Even though there were none in it, just because of the word the attendant had used, the Rebbe did not eat it. The Rebbe moved the utensil around, kept moving it around, as though he were eating, but he did not eat. In general, whenever food was brought to the Rebbe, he would wait. After all, he was served first. The Rebbe waited until everyone had been served, and only then would he begin to eat. They did not sing during the seder in the Rebbe’s presence. That does not mean people should not sing at home; it was simply the practice there.

53:55 Speaker 1 At the end of the seder comes Tzafun. As stated in the Haggadah, the practice is to eat two kezaysim. Then comes Barech, bentching. Before bentching, they pour the third cup. Then there is the cup of Eliyahu. The Haggadah says to pour Eliyahu’s cup after bentching, before “Shefoch Chamascha.” The Rebbeim also did that most of the time, but often they would prepare Eliyahu’s cup before bentching. They say that the Rebbe sometimes did it one way and sometimes the other, but that over the years he increasingly began to prepare Eliyahu’s cup before bentching. The Rebbe once said, “If it’s possible to bring forward the matter of Eliyahu Hanavi—the matter of the Geulah—why not bring it forward?” For mayim acharonim throughout Pesach, one must be careful not to bring the water to the mouth, only to the fingers. For bentching, too, the Rebbe would lead the zimun. He would hold the cup and lead the zimun, holding the cup through Boneh Yerushalayim and onward. After bentching, they drink the cup, and then comes “Shefoch Chamascha.” Among the Rebbeim, sometimes the Rebbeim themselves would go to open the door for “Shefoch Chamascha,” and sometimes they would send others. The Rebbe himself never went; he always sent others. People would go out, and the whole procedure would take place. The Rebbe remained at the table and said “Shefoch Chamascha.”

56:21 Speaker 1 As I heard from people who were there, the tune in which the Rebbe said “Shefoch Chamascha” was like the weeping melodies of Rosh Hashanah. The Rebbe had a special tune. In general, the Rebbe was very solemn during the second part of the seder. People said the Rebbe’s expression was awe-inspiring. It felt very much like Rosh Hashanah, and the Rebbe said the entire text, from “Shefoch Chamascha” to the end of the Haggadah, in a special tune. I cannot reproduce it exactly. I can only tell you what I remember hearing, [unclear]. I can give just the first words as he sang them: “Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not know You.” And the rest of “Shefoch Chamascha,” and everything after it, followed that kind of tune. As is well known, the Pesach seder is a time to ask, an auspicious time when one can accomplish great and wondrous things. As it says in the Haggadah, in the words the Rebbe Rashab said to a student: [unclear] material things and spiritual things—do not spend it on material things; spend it on spiritual things. All the more so, [unclear]: if the doors are already open, use that auspicious time to ask for the revelation of Moshiach, to ask for the Rebbe’s revelation. Here they are—it is a great time when one can accomplish great and wondrous things. All the gates of heaven are open then. The Rebbe would say Hallel in the same manner as in shul, with “Hodu LaHashem” and the verses, the whole responsive recitation. The Rebbe would say Nishmas word by word, and the entire text of Hallel and Nishmas through to the end. At the end of the Haggadah, they say the blessing over wine and drink the fourth cup, then say Al Hagefen. Then everyone says together, “Next year in Jerusalem.” Then the Rebbe would pour the wine back into

58:55 Speaker 1 The cup—and that was an entire avodah. It took several minutes to pour the wine from Eliyahu’s Cup back into the bottle. The order was that first the Rebbe poured from the bottle into Eliyahu’s Cup, because Eliyahu Hanavi had drunk from it, so the wine in the cup was considered used. First the Rebbe would add fresh wine, and then he would pour from the cup into the bottle in three small pours. Then he would pour back into the cup three times, three small pours, and then do it again. Sometimes he did this six times, sometimes seven, sometimes ten. There was an order to it. Back and forth, back and forth—an entire order of avodah. Pouring out, pouring from the cup into the bottle and then back into the cup. Meanwhile, they would sing the niggun Keili Atah. As is known, for our Rebbeim this was a time when Eliyahu was revealed. The time when they sang Keili Atah and poured the wine from the cup back into the bottle was a time when Eliyahu was revealed. That is what it says in the sichos. We do not say “Chasal Siddur Pesach,” because Pesach continues throughout the year. That was the practice on Seder night. In general, the same practice was followed on the second night too, with all the details and everything else I told you earlier. Ah, in later years the Rebbe asked the bochurim to come to the Seder. That came from the Rebbe. At first, only those whom the Rebbe invited came. But on the second day of Pesach—the first day of Pesach—the Rebbe said, “This is an auspicious time, and all the gates are open. Why not take advantage of it?” From then on, the bochurim began coming. The Rebbe instructed them to bring afikoman, and they would come eat their afikoman together with the Rebbe while the Rebbe conducted the Seder. The year the shluchim from Australia arrived, the Rebbe asked them to come and sit there too. The Rebbe invited

1:01:09 Speaker 1 them to be there. The Rebbe gave each of the shluchim afikoman. The Rebbe said that they were members of the household. And because there was no set place, one shliach sat somewhere, and Reb Chosai[?] sat with him on the same chair. There was no room, but the Rebbe told him that one does not sit on the same chair as a shliach. He was an older man, and the shliach was a bochur, twenty or twenty-one years old. One does not sit on the same chair as a shliach. It is good for the bochurim to know that. All right, may the whole day be Pesach through and through, and at eight o’clock, with Hashem’s help, there will be a second Seder.