Laws and Customs of the Seder Night - Rabbi Shmuel Mekamel shlita

00:02 Speaker 1 You’re listening to “Lema’an Yishme’u,” a podcast of the Chabad Halacha Institute.

00:09 Speaker 2 There are two central mitzvos on Seder night. One is telling the story of the Exodus from Egypt, and the other is “You shall tell your child.” We see that all the mitzvos of Seder night are done in a way that continually emphasizes the story of the Exodus and “You shall tell your child.” We perform all the mitzvos we’re obligated to fulfill in a way that makes the children part of the story, part of what’s happening. Our Sages say of the mitzvah to tell the story of the Exodus, “It is because of this”—and the Haggadah explains, “‘Because of this’ applies only when matzah and maror are placed before you.” It is vitally important to convey these things in a way the children can take in. That is how they pass from generation to generation. The freedom and the departure from Egypt, the drinking of the four cups, and every detail of Seder night should reach the children in a way that stays with them forever, so that they, in turn, pass it on to their children, to the end of all generations. Generally, women are exempt from positive mitzvos that are time-bound. But we know that the mitzvos of Seder night, the mitzvos of Pesach, apply to women as well, because women, too, were part of it and shared in the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt. As soon as boys and girls reach the age of chinuch, their parents are obligated to educate them in the mitzvos of Seder night, just as they are obligated in every aspect of chinuch. We educate children in all the mitzvos from the age of chinuch, and since women are obligated in these mitzvos, we begin educating girls in the mitzvos of Seder night from that age too. We will learn the customs of Seder night today, with Hashem’s help. In our generation, we merited an extraordinary form of “You shall tell your child.” The Rebbe asked for, and wanted, people to come and see what the Seder of the Rebbe, the Nasi of the generation, looked like. In the first years after—in the year—

02:30 Speaker 2 Immediately after the passing of the Frierdiker Rebbe, in 5710, the Rebbe said that in the past the doors had been closed. People would try all sorts of ways to get inside, but they weren’t allowed in; they weren’t given the opportunity or permission. Today, though, the doors are open. The Rebbe wants people to come in and see. The Rebbe expressed several times his wish that people come and see what Seder night looked like. That night in 5710, the Rebbe gave his afikoman to those who merited to come to his Seder. The Rebbe said it was astonishing that the chassidic feeling had not stirred people to come and eat at least the afikoman in the home where the Frierdiker Rebbe had held the Seder during the last ten years of his life in this world, at 770. So the Rebbe wanted people to come and see what his Seder looked like. This continued until 5734. In fact, there were already restrictions in 5729. But in 5731, when the Frierdiker Rebbe’s Rebbetzin passed away, the Rebbe stopped eating the meals upstairs in the Frierdiker Rebbe’s home. From then on, the Rebbe also stopped eating the Seder-night meals there, and people could no longer join the Rebbe for the Seder. But the customs of his Seder night are known to us. The Rebbe wanted every Jew to know how our Rebbeim—how the Rebbe—conducts himself on Seder night. In this, we merited a very special expression of warmth in our generation. In general, all the customs of Seder night are very precise and deliberate. The Maharil says—and the Rebbe quotes this at the beginning of the Haggadah—that “Every person should be filled with awe and care to fulfill the words of our Sages, who established the mitzvos of the Seder and the Haggadah. He should not take them lightly, even if some things in the Seder seem to a person

04:42 Speaker 2 to be unimportant. He should use his understanding to observe them, for there is nothing empty in them.” In other words, everything is very precise and has far-reaching significance. We know that everything on Seder night has a purpose. It is an exceptionally holy night, and we need to make proper use of it by carefully observing all its customs. Customs in particular are very important, because, as we said, the meaning of Seder night is “You shall tell your child.” And we know that children notice even the fine details of seemingly minor customs. The Rebbe says we can see this in the order of Mah Nishtanah, which begins specifically with something that is a custom. It does not begin with “On all other nights we eat chametz or matzah.” Instead, it begins, “On all other nights we do not dip even once”—and dipping twice is only a custom. The whole reason for dipping twice is to arouse the children’s curiosity. In other words, children notice changes. The Rebbe says we must be careful about all the customs. When it comes to education, we must begin from the outset with every detail and every custom, without skipping a single one. When the Beis Hamikdash stood, the mitzvos of the Seder were fulfilled by eating matzah, the Pesach offering, and maror, as the verse says, “They shall eat it with matzos and bitter herbs.” After the Beis Hamikdash was destroyed, it was established that each person should place two cooked foods on his Seder plate, in remembrance of the Pesach offering and the chagigah offering, which was also eaten on Seder night. The Pesach offering was eaten when one was already satisfied, after eating the chagigah offering. The custom is to put everything on the Seder plate. Based on what the Arizal writes, there is particular care that it be in a plate—a vessel. We know that the matzos beneath the items should serve as plates. So we arrange the matzos so that the matzah is like a plate, a kind of vessel. And at the base

06:52 Speaker 2 of the Seder plate, at its base, we first place the matzos, and on the matzos we place the symbolic foods of the Seder. We place three matzos, corresponding to a Kohen, a Levi, and a Yisroel. Their order, from the bottom up, is the Yisroel matzah, then Levi, then Kohen. Together, their initials spell “Yilach”: yud, lamed, chaf—Yisroel, Levi, Kohen. “Yilach,” meaning to go, to advance from strength to strength. We place specifically three matzos because, as we know, the thanksgiving offering was brought with three thanksgiving loaves, and we are leaving Egypt and thanking Hashem for the Exodus. Conducting the Seder is a kind of expression of thanks for leaving Egypt. The other symbolic foods of the Seder also help explain the freedom of Seder night and our departure, and they symbolize the Exodus from Egypt. For the zeroa, our custom is to take a chicken neck, part of a chicken neck, and roast it. The reason we take the zeroa is that Hashem took us out “with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.” It also represents the Pesach offering, and so we roast the chicken neck. But because we do not want it to look as though, G-d forbid, someone is offering consecrated sacrifices outside the Beis Hamikdash, we specifically take something that is not offered on the altar. We take chicken, roast it, and remove almost all its meat. A little meat must still remain, because otherwise it is not considered a cooked food. But we remove most of the meat and place it on the Seder plate. The egg we take represents the chagigah offering, which was eaten together with, or before, the Pesach offering. “Egg” in Aramaic is bei’a. It also relates to the word for “desire”—the desire that Hakadosh Boruch Hu

09:05 Speaker 2 Blessed is He, wants to redeem us from slavery. With an outstretched arm, He wants to redeem us from slavery. That is really what the shank bone and the egg represent together. Another reason we bring the egg is that, as we know, it is a mourner’s food. On Seder night, we feel a measure of mourning because we want the fullness of joy: to celebrate Pesach and the Seder in the Beis Hamikdash. As long as that is not yet the case, we bring an egg, a food eaten by mourners. There is another reason we eat an egg on Seder night: the day of the week on which Seder night falls is always the day on which Tisha B’Av will fall. The Tur cites an Atbash mnemonic: alef corresponds to tav—the first day of Pesach corresponds to Tisha B’Av. That is why we eat a food that recalls mourning. We have not yet reached the fullness of joy. We hope and long for this Seder night to be in the true and complete Geulah, but as long as that is not yet the case, the Jewish people make a point of recalling this on Seder night too, placing Jerusalem above our greatest joy, and bring the egg to the Seder. The maror and chazeres also tell us the story of the Exodus from Egypt. They remind us of the bitter taste, the bitterness and hardship of the enslavement. You can see this even in the stalk of the maror: at first it is soft, and then it grows hard. Our Sages say that the enslavement was like this. At first, they approached us with gentle words. The Egyptians tried to speak to us gently, but little by little they made their yoke harsher. That is why we bring the stalks of maror specifically: they express the nature of the enslavement, which began gently and then became harsh. The charoses

11:15 Speaker 2 recalls the Jewish people’s enslavement with mortar and bricks. It recalls the clay used to make the bricks. That is what the charoses alludes to. We also know another reason for dipping the chazeres in charoses: there is a harmful substance in the chazeres, deposited by a worm, and dipping it in charoses neutralizes it. But we do not dip it completely, so as not to cancel out its bitter taste. The ingredients of charoses are indicated by the letters alef, beis, nun. It says that the enslavement involved work with wood and with stone. The ingredients are apples, pears, nuts, ginger and cinnamon. The Rebbe says, however, that for some years now people have refrained from using ginger and cinnamon, because these spices are not used due to a concern that they may contain an admixture of chametz. So the charoses consists only of apples, pears and nuts, and we also add wine. In practice, the charoses we prepare for Seder night is dry, because we will later dip in it the chazeres used for korech, and we want the matzah to remain dry. So we do not mix in the wine yet. Only on Seder night, before dipping the maror—the maror we eat on its own, with horseradish, without matzah, at the maror stage rather than at korech—do we dip it in charoses softened with a little wine. In practice, it is customary to take some of the dry charoses and put it on the Kiddush plate, where there are already remnants of wine. That softens the charoses a little with wine, and then we dip the maror. But the charoses left on the Seder plate remains dry; we use it for

13:42 Speaker 2 korech, so the matzos remain dry. The karpas, too, is meant to arouse the children’s curiosity. Before reciting the Haggadah, we take a vegetable and dip it in salt water, something likely to catch the children’s attention. They immediately ask why we are dipping. Of course, the whole purpose of these questions is to get the children talking. Once they begin with a question, we can tell them the story in the Haggadah: “We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt,” and the whole story of the redemption from Egypt. Karpas can also be read as an allusion to “sixty” and “backbreaking labor.” In other words, it represents the six hundred thousand Jews who performed backbreaking labor in Egypt. When we finish Maariv, we should hurry home. As much as possible, all the preparations for Seder night should be completed before Yom Tov begins, so that we can start the Seder immediately, without delay. It is especially important to begin the Seder on time because we want the children to take an active part. The central mitzvah of Seder night is “You shall tell your child.” In fact, we have a number of mitzvos that night. There are mitzvos we have every night, such as reciting Shema at Maariv and mentioning the Exodus from Egypt in Shema, and so on. But Seder night is distinguished by several more mitzvos that come only once a year. There is, of course, the mitzvah of eating matzah and the mitzvah of eating maror, and charoses is a mitzvah too. But the mitzvos on Seder night that are from the Torah are, of course, eating matzah and “You shall tell your child,” which even today is a Torah obligation. Eating maror, by contrast, is a Torah obligation only when

15:47 Speaker 2 the Beis Hamikdash stands and we eat the Pesach offering, matzah and maror. Then we fulfill the positive Torah mitzvah of eating maror. This shows us the importance of the mitzvah of “You shall tell your child,” and that is why we should hurry and do everything possible to start the Seder on time, without delays. If the kezaysim of matzah or maror need to be weighed, and everything needs to be prepared—the napkins, the bottles of wine, the matzos arranged so they are whole and not folded over, and a Seder plate for everyone—it is better to do all of that before Yom Tov begins. The exception is arranging the Seder plate, which we do when we return from shul. We set the table with fine dishes, in the manner of free people. There is a mitzvah to use plenty of fine dishes. Of course, we must also make sure everyone will be able to recline while drinking the four cups and eating the matzah. So the custom is to set up another chair with a pillow or two on it, making it possible to recline comfortably. Reclining is so essential that someone who ate the kezaysim of matzah or drank the four cups without reclining must go back and drink the four cups or eat the matzah again, because reclining in the manner of free people is necessary. The Rebbe’s custom was to place an additional chair beside him with two pillows on it, and in that way to recline to the left in the manner of free people. According to our custom, we do not wear a kittel on Seder night. And as we said, we begin by arranging the Seder plate, promptly and without delays. The Seder plate is arranged while standing. The person leading the Seder, of course, arranges his own plate. It is customary for everyone of bar mitzvah age and older to have a Seder plate of his own as well. Children who have reached the age of education and can be taught

17:54 Speaker 2 And to get them used to it, it would be good for them to have a Seder plate with matzos too. As we said, the Seder plate is arranged while standing. The plate itself does need to be a plate—some kind of vessel. Beneath the matzos and the Seder items placed on them, there needs to be a plate of some sort. It doesn’t have to stick out or be visible, but there must be a vessel: after all, this is the Seder plate. We also position the matzos so that they form a receptacle. We don’t put the darker, outer side of the matzah facing up, but rather the lighter side. If you turn a matzah so its lighter side faces up, you can see that it is slightly concave and looks like a vessel. So on Seder night, we position the matzos to look like a vessel, like a plate. We begin by arranging the matzos. We put down the Yisroel matzah, the bottom one, with the Levi above it and the Kohen above that. In this way we go from strength to strength, so we arrange them with Yisroel at the bottom, Levi above it, and Kohen above that. On top of them we place the Seder items. To be precise about the Rebbe’s custom, the Rebbe takes a large cloth and folds it several times. Between its folds, the Rebbe places the matzos—Yisroel, Levi, and Kohen—and places the Seder items directly on the top layer of the cloth, above the uppermost matzah. The Rebbe places the shank bone, the egg, and all the other items right on the cloth, without an additional plate or dish. Before

19:55 Speaker 2 doing anything mentioned in the Haggadah during the Seder, it is especially important to look in the Haggadah and read the instructions written there. The Rebbe makes a point of reading aloud what is written in the Haggadah. For example, the Haggadah begins: “He should arrange on his table a plate with three matzos placed one on top of another: the Yisroel, with the Levi above it and the Kohen above that.” We should actually read those instructions aloud, not just carry them out. The shank bone is placed on the right, above the matzos—on the right side, above the top matzah. According to our custom, the shank bone is a chicken neck. It is roasted, and almost all the meat is removed. There is even a description of the Frierdiker Rebbe removing the sinew found there, but a little meat must remain. After all, the shank bone and the egg are two cooked foods, and we are careful to have two cooked foods on the Seder plate. So the shank bone goes on the right, and the egg is placed opposite it, on the left. We make a point of leaving the egg in its shell. Beneath them, in the middle, we place the maror. This gives us a shape like a segol: shank bone, egg, and maror below them in the middle. For the maror, we take lettuce leaves, of course after preparing them properly before Yom Tov: soaking them for three minutes in soapy water, rinsing them, and drying them thoroughly. Later, at a certain stage, we will put the chazeres—not the maror, the chazeres—into the korech, and we want it to be dry because of the concern about gebrokts. That is why we dry all the lettuce leaves thoroughly. We take the lettuce

22:08 Speaker 2 leaves and put horseradish inside them. We take grated horseradish, and the Rebbe also takes a piece of ungrated horseradish. We take them together and wrap them in the lettuce leaves. In fact, the Rebbe made them into something like balls: he took the horseradish and squeezed it until it formed a ball, then wrapped it all in the lettuce leaves. We place it, as we said, in the middle, below the shank bone and the egg. That gives us the segol of shank bone, egg, and maror. Now we form another segol beneath that. Below the shank bone we place the charoses. According to our custom, charoses has just three ingredients: apples, pears, and nuts. The Rebbe also spoke about the custom of adding cassia and cinnamon, but because of the concern that they might contain a mixture of chametz, we do not use those spices on Pesach. We set that custom aside in order to be especially careful to avoid even a trace of chametz on Pesach. So the charoses consists only of apples, pears, and nuts. We grind them well, but we do not yet soften the mixture with wine, even though the charoses is supposed to have something sour added to it. We do put wine in the charoses, but the charoses placed on the Seder plate is dry, without wine. At a certain point, we will soften it with wine—at least some of it—before eating the maror, as we will see, with Hashem’s help, when we reach the maror stage. But as I said, what we put on the plate is dry charoses made only of apples, pears, and nuts. On the left, we place the karpas. The karpas is below the egg. For karpas, we take an onion. According to the Rebbe’s custom, we take a whole onion in its skin, or half an onion, also with its skin on; we do not peel it. Then below, we place the chazeres.

24:34 Speaker 2 The chazeres is below the maror. So we have the second segol: charoses, karpas, and chazeres. According to our custom, the chazeres is prepared just like the maror. We take lettuce leaves, and here it is particularly important to make sure they are completely dry. It is preferable that there be no water at all on the Seder plate, so the leaves used for the maror should be dry too. But this is especially important for the leaves used for the chazeres, which we will actually use to wrap the matzos. So we take the lettuce leaves, put grated horseradish inside them, and, as we said, the Rebbe also takes a piece of ungrated horseradish. We fold the leaves over it, wrap it well, and place it there. So, to sum up the Seder plate: we have the plate, with the three matzos on it, separated by folds of the cloth—a cloth between each matzah. The bottom matzah is Yisroel, above it Levi, and above that Kohen. On the top layer of the cloth are the shank bone, egg, maror, charoses, karpas, and chazeres. Our Seder plate is ready, and we can begin the stages of the Seder. The feeling of freedom on Seder night is expressed in the way we sit, too. We sit like free people by reclining to the left. There is no difference here between left-handed and right-handed people: everyone reclines to the left. The reason is that reclining to the right could, G-d forbid, create a risk of food entering the windpipe. So everyone reclines to the left. Reclining gives us a feeling of freedom, and therefore the things eaten on Seder night as an expression of freedom are eaten that way. Maror, though, does not represent freedom; it represents enslavement, and therefore it

26:53 Speaker 2 It is not eaten while reclining. The same is true of karpas, which symbolizes the hard labor: it, too, is not eaten while reclining. There is a discussion about whether karpas should be eaten while reclining, but in practice the custom is not to recline when eating karpas. But what is? The four cups, which we drink in the manner of free people. Of course, we must drink them while reclining. And of course the matzah—the portions of matzah, korech, and the afikoman—are eaten in the manner of free people, while reclining. The Sages instituted the drinking of four cups on Seder night. We make Kiddush over the first cup; this is what the Seder mnemonic calls Kadesh. The four cups correspond to the four expressions of redemption, and also to the four cups of punishment that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give the wicked among the nations to drink, and to the four cups of consolation that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give the Jewish people to drink. We drink the cups with song: song is recited only over wine. The first cup is the cup over which we recite the sanctification of the day, as the Sages instituted for every Shabbos and Yom Tov. So Kiddush is recited over the first cup, the Haggadah over the second, bentching over the third, and Hallel over the fourth. Of course, we recite the signs of the Pesach Seder. We read the whole sequence as written: “Kadesh, Urchatz, Karpas, Yachatz.” We say all of it and proceed to the first sign. The first sign is Kadesh. We try to use a beautiful silver cup, and each person pours their own cup. It is written that some have the custom—and in fact it is a widespread Jewish custom—for one person to pour for another, as an expression of freedom. Nevertheless, our custom is not to insist that someone else pour; in practice, each

29:05 Speaker 2 person pours their own cup. The Rebbe was once asked why he wrote in the Haggadah, “Our custom is not to insist that someone else pour.” Seemingly, he could have written that it is not our custom for someone else to pour, which would make it clear that the Chabad custom is for each person to pour their own cup. But the Rebbe explained that on one occasion someone did pour for the Frierdiker Rebbe. Since the Frierdiker Rebbe had done that once, he could not write that it was not a Chabad custom. Of course, in practice, we do not insist that one person pour for another; the custom is for each person to pour their own. We pour the wine into the cup in three pours. On the third pour, we let the wine continue until the cup overflows and the wine spills over. Then we lift the cup. We pick it up with the right hand, transfer it to the left, and then lower it back onto the right hand. The fingers are curled and bent like this, and we begin reciting Kiddush. While reciting Kiddush, we look at the candles, and when we say Borei Pri Hagafen, we look at the wine. We follow this procedure each time we lift the cup. Whenever it says to lift the cup and we drink one of the four cups, we do it in this order and recite the prescribed text. It is important to remember that someone who already said Shehecheyanu when lighting the candles should not say it again. In practice, men say Shehecheyanu during Kiddush, not at candle-lighting. But women who recite Kiddush do not say Shehecheyanu again, since they already lit candles and said Shehecheyanu. We do not say Shehecheyanu twice for the same occasion. In fact, this Shehecheyanu blessing covers all the mitzvos associated with this night. Shehecheyanu is a blessing on reaching this occasion, so it covers even the mitzvos connected with preparing for Pesach—the mitzvah of removing chametz, the mitzvah of eating matzah and eating maror, all

31:28 Speaker 2 the special mitzvos, and the mitzvah of “You shall tell your son.” All these mitzvos come around from time to time, so it would be appropriate to say Shehecheyanu over them. But of course, the Shehecheyanu in Kiddush covers all those special mitzvos of Pesach. We drink the cup in one go, and do the same with all the other cups. It is preferable to drink each one in one go. If that is not possible, then of course we drink it in several swallows, but continuously, without a pause. As I said, there is a strong preference to drink the entire cup in one go, so it is better to use small cups. Someone who is unsure whether they can drink the whole cup properly should use even a cup of the minimum size. According to the measure of Rabbi Chaim Naeh, that is 86 milliliters; that way they can drink the entire cup in one go. Of course, there is particular emphasis on drinking wine rather than settling for grape juice. But someone with a medical condition that prevents them from doing so should consult a rav. Often there are lighter wines that can meet both the halachic requirements and the preference for wine, while also being less harmful to one’s health. So it is worth seeking advice about this before Seder night, each person according to their circumstances. Of course, we drink the cup while reclining to the left. And not just this cup: all four cups are drunk while reclining to the left, in the manner of free people. Then we move to the second sign, Urchatz. Throughout the year, whenever we eat something dipped in a liquid,

33:27 Speaker 2 we first wash our hands, without a blessing. The reason is a safeguard connected with terumah. We know that terumah must be eaten in a state of ritual purity. When a fruit is wet—dipped in a liquid—and that moisture is wanted, meaning it did not just get wet unintentionally, but either it was intentional or, even if it was not, I am glad it got wet, then the fruit becomes susceptible to ritual impurity. So to reduce the possibility of the fruit becoming impure, we must wash our hands first. Strictly speaking, this would have been necessary only for terumah. But the Sages instituted the practice so that the laws of terumah would not be forgotten, applying it even to ordinary food, and to everyone, not only kohanim. Everyone washes their hands throughout the year before eating something dipped in a liquid. The halachic authorities write that some people do not observe this throughout the year. Nevertheless, even those who do not observe it all year are careful on Seder night to wash their hands before dipping the karpas in salt water. One reason is to arouse the children’s curiosity. Children are used to making Kiddush on Shabbos and Yom Tov nights and then immediately washing their hands and beginning the meal. But here, after washing their hands, when a child is ready to start the meal, they suddenly see karpas being brought out and dipped. Seeing this unusual order, they will ask Mah Nishtanah. That opens the way for them to ask about the other things—what the matzah is and what the maror is—and then we fulfill the mitzvah of “You shall tell your son,” which of course you

35:30 Speaker 2 The mitzvah of “You shall tell your son”—if we want to fulfill it properly, it needs to be done through questions and answers. So there are a number of things we do on Seder night to arouse the children’s curiosity, and one of them is washing our hands before karpas. We wash without a blessing, of course, because this is not the washing we do for a meal, for eating the matzos. It is only for food dipped in liquid, so we do not make a blessing. But we must remember not to lose awareness of our hands, so that they stay clean, and therefore we do not speak. Even though we did not make a blessing, we still do not speak after washing. We do not make a blessing, but we do not speak either. Since we do not speak, we try to read all the instructions for Urchatz and Karpas beforehand. As we said, before doing each thing on Seder night, we say the instructions written in the Haggadah. Since we do not speak after washing, before we begin Urchatz we read what the Haggadah says: “He washes his hands and does not make a blessing,” and we also read what pertains to Karpas: “He takes less than a kezayis of karpas, dips it in salt water or vinegar, and makes a blessing.” So here, too, we observe the custom of not speaking while also following the custom of reading the instructions. We eat karpas on Seder night to arouse the children’s curiosity. They are used to beginning the meal right after Kiddush, but here we suddenly stop and eat a vegetable, and the children are supposed to ask, “Why is this night different?” As we said, before eating the karpas, because we dip it in salt water, we wash our hands

37:38 Speaker 2 because it is food dipped in liquid. We wash without a blessing, and afterward make the blessing “Borei pri ha’adamah,” having in mind that it should also cover the maror and the chazeres. We therefore eat less than a kezayis, so that we will not be obligated to make an after-blessing after eating the karpas. Now, karpas is eaten without reclining, because it is not eaten as an expression of freedom. Rather, it symbolizes the backbreaking labor of the Jewish people in Egypt. Now, we first make the blessing over the karpas and only then dip it. All year, we make the blessing over bread while it is whole, out of respect for the blessing, and only after breaking it do we dip it in salt. But with karpas and maror, we want the blessing to be as close as possible to performing the mitzvah, so we dip before the blessing and eat immediately after the blessing, without interruption. After washing our hands without a blessing, we take the onion—as we said, the karpas is actually onion. Using a knife, we open the onion and take out its center, making sure the piece is smaller than a kezayis so that we will not face a question about an after-blessing later. We do not want to make an after-blessing over the karpas, because we want the blessing of “Borei pri ha’adamah” to cover the maror and chazeres as well. So we take a piece smaller than a kezayis from the outset. We dip the heart of the onion, that small piece, in salt water. The salt water should really be prepared before Yom Tov, but of course, if it was not prepared beforehand, it can also be made on Yom Tov itself.

39:50 Speaker 2 When it falls on Shabbos, it is a little different: it says that one may not make strong salt water, so one should use a little less salt than usual. Usually, the salt water is made with two-thirds salt and one-third water. Of course, there is no need to make a large amount; we are only dipping into it. But that is how the salt water is prepared. The Rebbe adds a little salt water before dipping. So, to repeat: we take the onion, remove a piece from its center, dip it three times, and only then make the blessing “Borei pri ha’adamah.” When making the blessing, we have in mind that it should also cover the maror and the chazeres in korech. Of course, women can use a potato for karpas. Yachatz. Before reciting the Haggadah, we break the middle matzah. We take the larger piece for the afikoman and divide it into five pieces, while the smaller piece stays between the top and bottom matzos. The Rebbe’s custom is to turn the matzah so that it does not look broken but appears whole. In any case, the reason we leave the broken matzah between the other matzos is that matzah is called lechem oni—bread over which we answer, but also the bread of a poor person, who eats a broken piece. We need two whole matzos for lechem mishneh, but we also make sure to have the broken piece over which we can recite the Haggadah. That is why the broken matzah remains between the top and bottom matzos. It is customary to cover the larger piece taken for the afikoman, so that no one mistakenly eats it

42:07 Speaker 2 during the meal. Some say that by doing so, we are also telling another part of the story. It recalls what is written about the Jewish people leaving Egypt with “their kneading troughs bound up in their garments.” In remembrance of that, we also cover and wrap the afikoman. We take the middle matzah. As we said, there are three matzos on our Seder plate. We take the middle matzah while it is still covered by its cloth—each matzah has a cloth covering it—and break it in two while it is still wrapped: one large piece and one small piece. We divide the large piece into five pieces. In other words, we break it four times to make five pieces. Of course, we do all this while the matzah is still inside the cloth. We take those pieces of matzah and put them aside between the cushions. As we said, there are cushions on which we recline. We leave the pieces between them until after Shulchan Orech, until the Tzafun stage of the Seder, when we will eat the afikoman, with Hashem’s help. The small piece of the middle matzah remains between the other matzos, and we will eat matzah with it. This matzah is not whole; it is a broken piece, and that is called lechem oni, because a poor person eats a broken piece. A poor person cannot always afford to buy a whole loaf, so a broken piece is what he eats. One reason matzah is called lechem oni is this resemblance to the poor: on our Seder plate, we have a matzah that is broken. In the time of our Sages, people would sit reclining on cushions and pillows, and each person had a table. To arouse the children’s curiosity, they would remove

44:21 Speaker 2 the table, so that the children would ask, “We haven’t eaten yet—why are you taking the table away?” Once the children asked, that opened the way to tell them the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Later it says that times changed, and they would only lift the Seder plate. Those things became less surprising to the children, and in practice today we just move the plate slightly and uncover the matzos. The matzos remain uncovered throughout the recitation of the Haggadah, so we can illustrate “because of this” when the matzah and maror are actually before you. When we lift the cup—as our Sages say, song is recited only over wine—at “Vehi She’amdah” we lift the cup, and we also lift it at “Lefichach.” So before doing that, we first cover the bread, and only then lift the cup, so that the bread will not be shamed, since the blessing over bread takes precedence over the blessing over wine. Our Sages said, “One does not recite a blessing over a cup of calamity.” We know it says, “These are your gods, O Israel,” and therefore we do not recite song over a cup of calamity. For that reason, when we mention the plagues—“blood and fire and pillars of smoke,” each of the Ten Plagues, and also their groupings, Detzach, Adash, Be’achav—we customarily pour out some of the wine before us, over which we recite the song. We do not want to recite it over a cup of calamity, so we pour the wine into a vessel, a broken vessel, representing anger and wrath, and have in mind that only what has been poured out represents anger and wrath. What remains, however, we know to be wine that brings joy. So the intention here is very, very significant. Although the Alter Rebbe generally does not include mystical intentions in the siddur, only practices that are accessible to everyone, here the Alter Rebbe does include the intention, because it—

46:31 Speaker 2 because the intention matters here. One must have in mind that only what is poured out is wine associated with anger and wrath, while what remains in the cup is a cup of wine that brings joy. That is why we only add wine to it: we do not pour out the whole cup, but add to the wine already in it. At the conclusion of the blessing “Asher Ge’alanu,” we drink the second cup. There is a disagreement among the halachic authorities as to whether one must again recite the blessing Borei Pri Hagafen, since it was already recited at Kiddush. In practice, though, the custom is to recite the blessing over each cup on Seder night; each cup requires its own blessing. Our Sages instituted drinking four cups in a manner befitting free people, so with each cup one fulfills a mitzvah in its own right, and therefore we recite a separate blessing over each one. Maggid. The Haggadah says, “He lifts the plate containing the matzos and says...” In practice, our custom is not to lift the plate, but only to uncover some of the matzos. As we said, when the cloth is lifted, all three matzos are uncovered. We begin, “Ha lachma anya di achalu avhasana be’ara deMitzrayim,” and at the end there is “Leshanah haba’ah.” We need to pay attention to how we say it. The word haba’ah appears twice: once it is stressed on the penultimate syllable, and once on the last syllable. In “Leshanah haba’ah be’ara deYisrael,” haba’ah is stressed on the penultimate syllable. But in “Leshanah haba’ah bnei chorin,” it is stressed on the last syllable. Then the Haggadah says that we move the plate with the matzos aside, pour the second cup for him, and at this point the child asks, “Mah Nishtanah?” Originally, the custom was to remove the table, and the children were supposed to ask, “Why are you taking the table away? We haven’t eaten yet!” This would arouse their curiosity and lead them to ask, “How is this night

48:37 Speaker 2 different?” In practice, that is not what we do today. Back then, each person had a table of their own, so it was possible to take away each person’s table. Today, though, that is not applicable. Everyone eats at one table, and each person has only a Seder plate. So when it says to move the plate aside, that is to arouse the children’s curiosity. In practice, though, we do not remove the plate altogether; we just move it slightly to one side and cover the matzos. Earlier we uncovered the matzos, and now we cover them. It says, “At this point the child asks, ‘Mah Nishtanah?’” Of course, before that we pour the second cup, and then the child asks “Mah Nishtanah?” Our custom is to begin by saying, “Tatte, ich vel dir fregen fir kashes,” or, in Hebrew, “Father, I will ask you four questions.” Before the questions, the child first says that he is going to ask these four questions. In practice, everyone asks. The child asks, and the custom is that everyone asks—all the children ask. If he has no sons, the daughters ask; if he has no daughters either, his wife asks. And if he is sitting and conducting the Seder alone, he asks himself. In addition, even someone who, rachmana litzlan, has neither father nor mother still says, “Tatte, ich vel dir fregen fir kashes.” Even someone without a father says, “Father, I will ask you four questions,” and begins reciting the questions. After the child asks the four questions, the custom is for the person conducting the Seder to repeat the questions himself. Then we return the plate, uncover some of the bread, and say, “Avadim hayinu.” So, as we said, the plate is returned. We moved it aside earlier, and now we bring back

50:51 Speaker 2 the plate and again uncover some of the bread. As we said, once we uncover the bread, all the matzos are actually uncovered, and then we begin reciting the Haggadah. The Haggadah should be recited in a way that is clear to everyone at the Seder, especially the children, and as vividly as possible. This is the central mitzvah of Seder night, the mitzvah passed down with us from generation to generation: “And you shall tell your child.” This is the place to go into detail and expand, of course in a manner and at a level suited to the children. At the same time, we need to make sure the children stay awake with us and have time to eat the matzah. Each person should conduct the Seder according to his knowledge of his children—how much they can listen and sit through. And of course, the Haggadah is recited with joy and with explanations that speak to the hearts of those listening. When we reach “Vehi She’amdah,” the Haggadah says: “One must lift the cup and cover the bread.” So wrote the Arizal. We know that the reason we cover the bread is so that it will not be shamed, because the blessing over bread—the matzos—takes precedence over the blessing over wine. Since we are lifting the cup, over which we recite Kiddush, we cover the bread so that it will not be shamed. It is therefore more appropriate—and this is the practice—to cover the bread first and only then lift the cup. After reciting “Vehi She’amdah,” we set down the cup and uncover the bread again. When we reach the Ten Plagues, and earlier, when we reach the words “blood and fire and pillars of smoke,” we pour from the cup—the second cup that we poured—into a broken vessel, as it says. One can use a disposable plate or a negel vasser vessel, a vessel into which we pour. The vessel is placed on the floor. We pour small amounts; we do not dip a finger into the wine and sprinkle it, but actually pour small amounts and say “blood”

53:15 Speaker 2 “And fire and pillars of smoke.” After that, we also say the Ten Plagues—each of the plagues: blood, frogs, lice—and “Rabbi Yehudah gave them mnemonic signs: Detzach, Adash, Beachav.” We pour out wine for those too. The Haggadah says: “When saying ‘blood and fire and pillars of smoke,’ pour out three times. Do not remove the wine with a finger, but with the cup itself.” As we said, actually pour it out, rather than remove it with a finger. Pour it into a broken vessel, and have in mind that the cup represents the sefirah of Malchus, and that one is pouring from the wine inside it the anger and wrath within it, through the power of Binah, into a broken vessel, representing the kelipah called Torof. All of this is what one should have in mind when pouring from the cup, both when saying “blood and fire and pillars of smoke” and when saying the plagues. What’s interesting is that the Alter Rebbe includes these intentions even though his siddur is generally written for everyone. So if the Alter Rebbe did include them, there is a purpose to having them in mind. In other words, this intention is relevant to each and every person. In simple terms, as I said in the introduction to the reasons for pouring out the wine, we don’t—it says [unclear]—it isn’t fitting for us to make a blessing over a cup of wrath, a cup of calamity. Here we mention undesirable things, things involving anger and calamity, so it isn’t fitting to make a blessing over them, or to use them for the second cup. So I have in mind that only what is poured out represents anger and wrath, while everything that remains is wine that brings joy, a cup of joy over which we will begin to say Hallel. And that is the second cup we will drink at the Seder. So, since what remains represents wine that brings joy, it says not to

55:18 Speaker 2 pour it all out, but to leave wine in the cup. We add more wine to it, and in this way we make the cup fit for use. So now we have a full cup. When we reach “How many favors Hashem has bestowed upon us,” we say those lines consecutively, without a pause between them. Then we come to the passage “Rabban Gamliel would say: Whoever has not spoken of these three things on Pesach has not fulfilled his obligation. They are: the Pesach offering, matzah, and maror.” Of course, we say it as it is written. I hope that, with Hashem’s help, this Pesach we will be in the Beis Hamikdash and will actually be able to say, “This Pesach offering that we eat.” But as long as we have not yet merited that, we read the passage: “The Pesach offering that our ancestors ate when the Beis Hamikdash stood.” Then, when we reach “This matzah,” the Haggadah says: “Take the broken matzah in your hand and say...” In practice, the custom is to take the two matzos—the middle matzah and the bottom matzah—by means of the cloth beneath them, and hold them that way while saying it. In other words, not the top one, only the middle and bottom matzos together with their cloth. We say, “This matzah that we eat—for what reason? Because...” and then let go. That is, we hold them until after saying the second “because.” When we reach “This maror that we eat—for what reason?” the Haggadah says: “Take the maror in your hand and say...” In practice, our custom is to place our hands on the maror and on the chazeres for korech while saying, “This maror that we eat—for what reason? Because...” Again, we leave our hands there until after saying the second “because.” The Haggadah says that when one reaches “Therefore,” one should cover the matzah, raise the cup, and hold it in one’s hand until the end of the blessing “Who redeemed us.” In practice,

57:21 Speaker 2 what it says would mean that the cup remains in one’s hand until it is drunk. But our custom in practice is to raise the cup from the words “Therefore, we are obligated” until “and let us say before Him, Halleluyah.” Then we set the cup down again and begin Hallel: “Praise, servants of Hashem,” “When Israel went out of Egypt.” Later, when we reach the blessing “Who redeemed us,” we raise the cup again. As we said, we pick it up with the right hand, pass it to the left, then lower it back onto the right hand and begin the blessing: “Blessed are You, Hashem, our G-d, King of the universe, Who redeemed us and redeemed our ancestors.” We conclude, “Blessed are You, Hashem, Who redeemed Israel,” and say the blessing “Creator of the fruit of the vine.” Our custom is to make a blessing over each cup individually, and of course we drink this cup while reclining. Rachtzah. As we said, before each step of the Seder, our custom is to read the instructions written in the Haggadah—to read, in the Alter Rebbe’s own words, what needs to be done at each stage. Now we are about to wash our hands, and we refrain from speaking until after eating the afikoman. The steps ahead of us are Rachtzah, Motzi, Matzah, Maror, and Korech. During these five steps that we are now, with Hashem’s help, about to perform, we cannot speak, so we also cannot read the instructions aloud. Before Rachtzah, then, we read quietly all the instructions in the Haggadah through the end of Korech—in practice, up to Shulchan Orech. After reading all of that, we go to wash our hands, make the blessing on washing the hands, and come to Motzi. Of course, this time we wash with a blessing, as we do before a meal throughout the year. Then we come to the step called Motzi, named for the Hamotzi blessing that we are now going to say.

59:33 Speaker 2 For Hamotzi, we take the matzos with our fingers separating them and say the blessing over all three matzos as they lie on the Seder plate: “Who brings forth bread from the earth.” Then the Haggadah says: “Do not break any of them; instead, let the third matzah slip from your hand.” In other words, simply let the third matzah fall, leaving only two in our hand: the top matzah and the second matzah, which is the broken piece. Before breaking them, we say another blessing over them: “Who has sanctified us with His commandments and commanded us concerning the eating of matzah.” Eating matzah on Pesach night is a positive mitzvah from the Torah. When saying this blessing, we need to have in mind not only the matzah we are about to eat, but also the matzah we will eat for korech and the matzah of the afikoman. In fact, that is why we do not speak or interrupt until after eating korech: we want the blessing to apply to the matzah in korech as well. We also have in mind the matzah of the afikoman, but we were not required to refrain from speaking all the way until after the afikoman. Perhaps when the Beis Hamikdash stood, the aim was to fulfill the mitzvah of eating it with matzos and bitter herbs—“They shall eat it with matzos and bitter herbs,” right? To take the Pesach offering, matzah, and maror and eat them together. So, in fact, the matzah over which the blessing “concerning the eating of matzah” was originally made is the matzah with which one fulfills the obligation on Pesach, eaten together with the Pesach offering and the maror. One might therefore have thought—but the Gemara says, “After he has filled his stomach with it, should he then make the blessing ‘concerning the eating of matzah’ over it?” So we have to make the blessing at the beginning. But,

1:01:46 Speaker 2 In practice, one should be careful not to speak until eating the matzah at the end of the Seder night together with the Korban Pesach and the maror. That is apparently how it is when the Beis Hamikdash stands: one refrains from speaking from the blessing “Al Achilas Matzah” at the beginning of the meal until after eating the Korban Pesach. But as long as we are still holding the Seder at home, we refrain from speaking only until after eating korech, not until after the afikoman. Then we take a kezayis—two kezaysim—of matzah. If possible, it is recommended to divide up the matzah for the members of the household so that each person has their kezaysim, perhaps even weighing them before Yom Tov. The question is always how much a kezayis is exactly. In practice, our custom is that a kezayis of matzah is 27 grams, and a kezayis of maror is 19 grams. It can be weighed before Yom Tov, so that each person has the amount of matzah they are obligated to eat ready in a bag. That way it is accessible, and everyone can eat right away without questions. But of course, anyone who has a Seder plate takes from the matzos on the plate. He takes from the upper matzah and the lower matzah—no, not the lower matzah, the broken matzah, right? He takes two kezaysim from the upper matzah and the broken matzah. If there is not a kezayis left in the broken matzah, he can make it up from the upper matzah, taking a little more than a kezayis, so that together the two matzos, the second and the first, amount to two kezaysim. The kezaysim of matzah must be eaten—it says in,

1:04:03 Speaker 2 It says in the Haggadah, “Then he should break off a kezayis from each of the two and eat them together while reclining.” What does it mean to eat them together? Some have said that one must swallow them together, meaning to gather them in the mouth so that they are swallowed together. But in practice, the custom is to put them into the mouth together. In other words, if these are the two matzos—the second and the first—one puts them into the mouth so that both enter together. In this way, we fulfill what the Haggadah says about eating them together. In practice, the Rebbe was not seen to be particular about actually swallowing them together, but rather ate them continuously, without a pause. Of course, it is only the placing of them in the mouth that is done together. On the first night, because the matzah is so precious to us, we do not dip it in salt, even though throughout the year we dip the bread over which we make the blessing, out of regard for the blessing. But on the first night, because the mitzvah is precious to us, we do not dip the matzah in salt; we simply eat it as it is. At the beginning of the meal, there is a custom to take a little salt and sprinkle it on the matzah, to fulfill the custom of eating bread with salt as well. After eating the matzah—of course, one must be careful to eat the matzah within the time of kedei achilas pras, which is four minutes. That is generally the accepted measure. There is a difference of opinion as to which matzah fulfills the mitzvah of eating matzah and over which one says the blessing of Hamotzi: is the blessing “Al Achilas Matzah” said over the broken matzah or over the upper one? That is why we eat the two kezaysim together, placing both the upper matzah and the second matzah into the mouth together. The third matzah is left for korech. The procedure

1:06:14 Speaker 2 is to take the three matzos—the upper and lower whole matzos, with the broken matzah between them—and hold them while saying the blessing “Hamotzi Lechem Min Haaretz.” Then one lets the third matzah slip from one’s hand and says the second blessing, “Al Achilas Matzah,” while holding only the broken matzah and the upper matzah. Then one eats two kezaysim, placing them into the mouth at the same time. In this way, immediately after the blessing we are certainly placing into our mouth the matzah with which we fulfill the mitzvah. When saying “Al Achilas Matzah,” we also have in mind that this blessing should cover the matzah we will eat for korech and the matzos we will eat for afikoman. That is why we do not speak until we finish eating korech, so that the blessing applies to the matzah of korech without an interruption. So we do not speak until after we have finished eating korech. But there is no prohibition against speaking after eating korech, even though we also had the afikoman in mind when saying the blessing. Up to korech, one can still take care not to speak. After that, they did not impose anything further, and one may speak, even though the intention was for the blessing to cover the afikoman as well. The custom is always to dip bread in salt in honor of the blessing. We know that the table is like the altar, and the covenant of salt is an everlasting covenant. When the Satan brings accusations against the Jewish people for being without Torah during the interval between the blessing of Hamotzi and eating the bread, the accusers can make their case. But the salt immediately calls the covenant to mind. That is why it is always important to dip bread in salt. But on the Seder night, the first time

1:08:32 Speaker 2 we say the blessing “Al Achilas Matzah” and eat the matzah, we do not dip it in salt, because the mitzvah is precious to us on the first night. Nevertheless, the Rebbe’s custom at the beginning of Shulchan Orech was to take a little salt, sprinkle it on the matzah, and eat it. But the first time we eat matzah, we do not dip it in salt, because eating matzah on the first night is precious to us. Eating maror and eating korech. The primary Torah mitzvah of eating maror on the night of 15 Nissan applies when eating the Korban Pesach, as it says, “They shall eat it with matzos and bitter herbs.” Today, when we do not eat it—G-d willing, we hope to reach the Beis Hamikdash before the Seder night and fulfill all the mitzvos according to Your will—but during the exile, when there is no Korban Pesach, the mitzvah of maror is rabbinic. We dip the maror in charoses. Charoses is also a rabbinic mitzvah, a mitzvah in its own right. Eating charoses is itself a mitzvah, but we say the blessing “Al Achilas Maror” only over the maror. No separate blessing was instituted for charoses. When saying “Al Achilas Maror,” we have in mind that it should also cover the maror in the korech. We eat maror without reclining, since it was not instituted as a remembrance of freedom, but as a remembrance of “they made their lives bitter.” As for korech, we know that when the Beis Hamikdash stood, Hillel would wrap the Korban Pesach, matzah, and maror together and eat them, as it says, “They shall eat it with matzos and bitter herbs.” The question was what happens after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, when the mitzvah of maror is rabbinic. Some say that after the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash, when the mitzvah of eating maror is rabbinic, one cannot wrap them together. Hillel, too, would know that it is not right to wrap the maror in the matzah, because the rabbinic mitzvah comes together with a Torah mitzvah,

1:10:42 Speaker 2 It could interfere with, even nullify, the taste of the matzah, which is a Torah obligation. Therefore, even according to Hillel, it would not be right to wrap the matzah and maror together. But some say that even today Hillel does hold that the maror should be wrapped together with the matzah, and that is how korech should be made. So we want to satisfy all opinions. We first eat the maror on its own, dipping it, of course, in charoses, and recite the blessing “on eating maror,” intending it to cover the chazeres in korech as well. Then, after eating the maror, we eat the chazeres wrapped in the matzos. After eating the matzah, we move on to the maror. The Haggadah says: “Then he takes a kezayis of maror, dips it in charoses, shakes the charoses off it so that the bitter taste is not nullified, and recites this blessing.” He recites the blessing on eating maror. In practice, we take some of the charoses on our Seder plate, which, as we said, is dry, and transfer a little of it to the plate beneath the Kiddush cup. There, we soften it slightly with wine. We dip just a little of the maror into the charoses, shake it off afterward, and recite the blessing “Who has sanctified us and commanded us concerning the eating of maror.” When reciting the blessing, we intend it to cover the chazeres that we will eat in korech as well. We eat the maror without reclining, and we make sure to eat it within the time known as kedei achilas pras—no more than four minutes. Korech. The Haggadah says: “Then he takes matzah number three and chazeres with it, in the amount of a kezayis, dips it in charoses, takes them together, and says the following.” So we take the charoses on the Seder plate, and it is

1:13:08 Speaker 2 dry charoses. We do not soften it with wine; we leave it dry. This is the charoses in which we dip the chazeres that will go inside the matzah, so we make sure it stays dry. After dipping it, we shake the charoses off the maror for korech. We do not dip the matzah in charoses. We take a kezayis of matzah from the third, bottom matzah. With that kezayis of matzah, we wrap the chazeres—the lettuce with the horseradish inside—after dipping them in the dry charoses and shaking it off. We put them into our mouths together, so that each mouthful contains matzah and maror, the chazeres, together. And, of course, we eat it while reclining. Shulchan Orech. At the start of the meal, we customarily eat the egg. As we said, it is a reminder of mourning. First of all, when the Beis Hamikdash stood, people would eat the Chagigah offering, and then eat the Pesach offering when they were already satisfied. We eat the egg to commemorate that, but also as a reminder of mourning: we are not yet completely joyful and do not yet merit to hold the Seder in the Beis Hamikdash. Also, the day of the week on which the first day of Pesach falls is always the day on which Tisha B’Av will fall. So we eat the egg at the beginning of the meal. We eat the Shulchan Orech meal in a spirit of freedom, using fine dishes. It says to eat as much as one needs, but to make sure not to eat more than that, so that, G-d forbid, it does not become excessive eating. One needs to think ahead, because we still have to eat the afikoman. It says: “Afterward, he eats and drinks as much as he needs, and he may drink wine between the second and third cups.” Then one may

1:15:24 Speaker 2 begin setting out the meal: the festive Yom Tov meal. We begin Shulchan Orech by eating the egg from the Seder plate. We peel it, dip it in salt water three times, and eat it. In addition, as we said, the Rebbe’s custom was to take a piece of matzah, dip it in salt three times, and eat it. This is because we had not fulfilled the practice of dipping bread in salt at the start of the meal: on the first night, we do not dip the matzah in salt for the Hamotzi blessing. We eat the festive meal until we are satisfied. It says that a person should eat as much as he needs so that eating the afikoman will be done properly, without strain, and so that it will not be excessive eating. We also make sure to drink enough so that we will not be thirsty later, since we are careful not to eat or drink anything after the afikoman. During the meal, and throughout all the Yom Tov meals, we are especially careful to avoid gebrokts. We make sure that no matzah crumbs, even tiny crumbs, fall onto the food or the dishes we eat from. All this is out of caution to avoid any concern about gebrokts. At the end of the meal, after eating and drinking as much as we need, we may even drink wine between the second and third cups. The custom, though, is not to say “L’chaim,” so it will not appear as though we are adding to the cups. But we may eat and drink as much as we need. At the end of the meal, we eat the afikoman. The afikoman commemorates the Pesach offering. Since the Pesach offering was eaten when people were already satisfied, after they had finished the entire meal, we eat the afikoman at the end of the meal. We eat two

1:17:38 Speaker 2 kezaysim of matzah: one commemorates the Pesach offering, while the second commemorates the matzah eaten together with it. The word afikoman is understood as “afiku man”—that is, bring out the dishes, bring food to the table. It refers to serving the last course of the meal. That is why it is called afikoman: it is the last thing eaten at the Seder meal. We therefore make sure to eat it before midnight, trying to ensure that it is eaten at the proper time. We are also careful not to eat anything afterward. So before the afikoman, we need to eat enough that we will not need to eat or drink afterward, but will retain the taste of the matzah for the rest of the Seder night after eating the afikoman. We now come to eating the afikoman. It says: “Then he takes the afikoman, and all the members of his household eat it, a kezayis for each person. He should take care not to drink after the afikoman, eat it while reclining, and eat it before midnight.” So we take two kezaysim of matzah. We eat two kezaysim, even if there is not enough in the matzah... This is the same middle matzah that we broke. We already ate part of it when we ate the matzah, while the other part has been kept between two cushions since the start of the Seder. All five pieces of the afikoman are there. We eat them in a way that gives us two kezaysim. If there are not two kezaysim, we add some from another matzah, because we make sure to eat a total of two kezaysim of matzah for the afikoman. Ideally, of course. Someone who finds this difficult eats just one kezayis if they are very pressed, but we are very, very careful not to get into that situation and make sure to eat two kezaysim of matzah. We eat them while reclining and make sure to finish eating

1:19:50 Speaker 2 theirs until midnight. Barech. The Haggadah says, “Afterward, a third cup is poured, and Birchas Hamazon is recited over it.” In practice, the custom is to take Elijah’s cup, after it has been thoroughly rinsed and cleaned, and pour Elijah’s cup before pouring our own third cup. First we pour Elijah’s cup, and then our own. There is, of course, one Elijah’s cup at each Seder table. We first rinse the cup we will use for the third cup thoroughly, then pour the third cup and begin Birchas Hamazon. Of course, if there is a zimun, we recite it with a zimun; if there are ten, we recite a zimun with ten. Then we begin Birchas Hamazon. We hold the cup of wine until after saying “Who builds Jerusalem in His mercy. Amen.” Then we set the cup down, and when we finish Birchas Hamazon, we say Borei Pri Hagafen and drink the third cup while reclining. Elijah’s cup. The four cups were instituted to correspond to the four expressions of Geulah: “I will bring you out,” “I will save you,” “I will redeem you,” and “I will take you.” We know there is a fifth expression, “I will bring you,” corresponding to the future Geulah. Some hold that a fifth cup should indeed be drunk. Some say it is optional, some say it is a particularly praiseworthy mitzvah, and others said that a fifth cup should not be drunk, and it was permitted only for someone who needed to drink. We know that, because of this uncertainty, some write that an additional cup is added—Elijah’s cup—and is not drunk. But the Rebbe says that the Alter Rebbe’s words show that Elijah’s cup is, in fact, unrelated to the fifth cup. Elijah’s cup is not drunk at all, and it is not the fifth cup about which

1:22:04 Speaker 2 the Rishonim debated in earlier generations. In fact, Elijah’s cup is a custom that arose specifically in more recent generations. It is interesting that the idea of Elijah’s cup emerged specifically in recent generations: as faith and anticipation grow, and people increasingly feel that the Geulah is near, they begin to sense the Geulah as something tangible and prepare a cup for Eliyahu Hanavi. We know that Eliyahu Hanavi also comes to every bris, and the Pesach offering is connected with the mitzvah of circumcision: “No uncircumcised person may eat of it.” Eliyahu Hanavi comes on Seder night and comes to a bris milah, and so we prepare a cup for him. When do we pour Eliyahu Hanavi’s cup? Often, Elijah’s cup used to be poured after Birchas Hamazon, but the Rebbe says that in recent generations, the custom is to pour it before Birchas Hamazon. The Rebbe explained that since we are occupied with the Geulah, we prefer to bring this forward and hasten it as much as possible. Therefore, we pour Elijah’s cup even before Birchas Hamazon. The fourth cup is poured after Birchas Hamazon, before reciting Hallel and before opening the door for “Pour out Your wrath.” One reason we pour the fourth cup and open the door before saying “Pour out Your wrath” is that the four cups of Seder night also correspond to four cups of punishment that Hakadosh Boruch Hu will give the nations of the world to drink. So we pour the fourth cup, open the door, and say, “Pour out Your wrath upon the nations.” We have fulfilled the mitzvah of the four cups; now You fulfill Your word and pour out Your wrath upon the nations. Another reason is that the four cups correspond to the four kingdoms that will rise against the Jewish people until Moshiach comes. The fourth cup corresponds to the final exile, and that is why we say “Pour out Your wrath upon the nations” over this cup in particular. We open the door,

1:24:09 Speaker 2 because this night, Seder night, is a night protected from harmful forces, and we are not afraid of anything. In the merit of this faith, Moshiach will come and pour out His wrath upon our enemies. Another reason we open the door on Seder night is to invite Eliyahu Hanavi. In the merit of this faith, Moshiach will come, and we will indeed merit Eliyahu Hanavi’s arrival to bring us the news of the Geulah. We know that the moment the door is opened is a very, very holy time. It is an auspicious time. The Rebbe Rashab told the Frierdiker Rebbe that on every Seder night, particularly when the door is opened, one should not ask for material things but for spiritual things. One should ask “to be a mentsch,” to be a decent human being, and Hashem will help. We pour the fourth cup, open the door, and say “Pour out Your wrath.” The custom is that when Pesach falls on a weekday, people take candles and go to open the doors all the way to the main entrance facing the street. That means all the doors—if there is a stairwell, if there are several doors before reaching the street exit, they open them all. The other participants remain in their places. Only those who go with the candles to open the doors stand there. That time, when the doors are opened, is a time of Divine favor. It is an auspicious time to make requests, and we need to be wise and make use of the opportunity. We say “Pour out Your wrath,” and then, when those who opened the doors return, we continue reciting Hallel. We begin Hallel with “Not to us, Hashem.” We finish Hallel and continue with what the Gemara calls the Egyptian Hallel: “Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good, for His kindness is everlasting,”

1:26:28 Speaker 2 “The soul of every living being,” and conclude with the blessing of Yishtabach. Afterward, we say Borei Pri Hagafen and drink the fourth cup while reclining. After drinking the fourth cup, we say “Next year in Jerusalem” and return the wine in Elijah’s cup to the wine bottle. The custom is even to add a little wine from the bottle to Elijah’s cup first, and then pour from the cup into the bottle. While returning the wine to the bottle, we sing the niggun “E-li Atah.” We know what the Rebbe cites: the Alter Rebbe did not include “The Pesach Seder is concluded” in his Haggadah. In Chabad there is no “The Pesach Seder is concluded”; rather, it continues constantly. In Chabad, Pesach is not something that ends; it always continues. This relates to “As in the days of your exodus from the land of Egypt, I will show him wonders.” And as the Frierdiker Rebbe explains, once we are redeemed now, it follows that next year we will already be in Jerusalem. It is not that we must wait until next year to be in Jerusalem; we will be in Jerusalem already now, and so next year we will be in Jerusalem as well. Hallel, Nirtzah. We recite Hallel on Seder night. Reciting Hallel is like singing a song of praise. Every Jew must see himself on Seder night as though he has just left Egypt. Just as they sang a song of praise at the Exodus from Egypt, so too on Seder night we recite Hallel, singing and thanking Hashem for the Geulah. We divide Hallel into two parts. When the Beis Hamikdash stood and the Pesach offering was brought, they would recite Hallel and repeat it when eating the offering at night. On Seder night, we divide Hallel into two parts: we recite the beginning before the meal and the end after the meal, so that the Pesach offering is eaten in the midst of Hallel. Even today, when we do not merit to bring the Pesach offering, we recite the

1:28:48 Speaker 2 We eat the matzah of the afikoman, corresponding to the eating of the Pesach offering and the matzah eaten with it. After eating the afikoman, we say Hallel, and then what is called the Great Hallel, “Give thanks to Hashem, for He is good, for His kindness is everlasting,” and conclude with the blessing of Yishtabach. Although throughout the year we say Hallel standing—because we are speaking of Hashem’s praise, and should therefore stand—on Seder night they did not require us to stand. That is not the way of freedom. We may recite Hallel sitting, but we should still do so with solemnity, not lying down or reclining. We know the importance of saying Hallel on Pesach night from Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer. It tells the story of Yitzchak asking Eisav to bring him two young goats. Why two? Because it was Seder night: one for the Pesach offering and one for the festival offering. And why did he want to bless him specifically on that day? The blessing, of course, ultimately went to Yaakov Avinu and, through him, to all the Jewish people. Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer says that Yitzchak saw that his descendants would say Hallel on this night, the night of 15 Nissan, and that the storehouses of dew open on this night. So it is a particularly auspicious night, and saying Hallel on it is especially powerful. The final step of the Seder is Nirtzah. If we have followed this order, we are pleasing to Heaven, and we conclude by saying, “Next year in Jerusalem.”

1:30:59 Speaker 2 And as the Frierdiker Rebbe says, that closing wish, “Next year in Jerusalem,” is really a request that Moshiach come now, so that next year we will already be in Jerusalem. Seder night is called “a night of watching for all the children of Israel throughout their generations.” We see this in the practice of opening the door, and the halachah says not to lock the doors. When thieves are common, though, we do not rely on a miracle, and in practice we do close the door. We also know that on Seder night we omit various passages said for protection from harmful forces, because this night is protected from them. For example, when Pesach falls on Shabbos night, we do not say the blessing of Me’ein Sheva. That blessing was instituted for people who finished davening late on Shabbos night and remained in shul. There was concern that they would be left alone and exposed to the harmful forces found at night, so the congregation was kept there longer. A single blessing was instituted that reflects the seven blessings of the Shabbos Amidah: the first three, the last three, and the middle blessing concerning the sanctity of the day. Although there is no repetition of the Amidah at night, this blessing was instituted so that those individuals would not be endangered. But on Seder night, even when it falls on Shabbos, we do not say Me’ein Sheva, because Seder night is protected from harmful forces. And this applies every year, not only when Seder night falls on Shabbos. We know that this is a night of watching, and therefore

1:33:00 Speaker 2 we do not say the verses intended to protect us from harmful forces. We do not say the verses “Let the chassidim rejoice in glory” and “Behold, it is Shlomo’s bed,” and of course we do not say the blessing of Hamapil. On the first Seder night, the first night of Pesach, we say only the passage of Shema and the blessing of Hamapil, and that is how we finish. We omit all the verses intended for protection. Let us conclude with what the Rebbe says at the end of the Haggadah: the Alter Rebbe did not include the words “The Pesach seder is concluded” in his text, because in Chabad there is no such thing as “the Pesach seder is concluded.” Pesach does not end. Rather, it continues always. And indeed, the idea of the Exodus from Egypt is something we carry through “all the days of your life,” including the days of Moshiach. Every single day we leave Egypt. Every day we advance and emerge from our limitations. May we merit, through this year’s Exodus from Egypt, to leave exile for the true and complete Geulah. May we be in the Third Beis Hamikdash this Pesach, immediately, right now.