Pesach Publications - Part 7: The Rebbe's Haggada (1)

00:01 This is behemshech in continuation to the earlier installment regarding the Rebbe's elaboration on the manner of reciting the Haggadah and why the words chas al sidur Pesach are not found in the Chabad Haggadah. We now continue with installment number seven, where we will elaborate on the Haggadah with the Rebbe's commentaries, which was published in the year Tov Shin Vav 1946, and on its various editions. Firstly, this is based on a compilation of various articles which were written by noted and esteemed writers on various occasions. The articles were written by Harav Shlema Zevin, who is very famous for the Encyclopedia Talmudis, which he began, and today it's a whole institute, Encyclopedia on the Talmud, and more Svarim on Halacha, etc. And by Harav Chananya Eisenbach, and Yebodel Chaiyim Tevim, Harav Tuvia Bloy, and Harav Meir Madan. His article was published in the Machanoyim in Tov Shin Yud Zayim 1957, and all this is translated here into English. Firstly, the name of the Rebbe's Haggadah is Haggadah Shel Pesach im L'kutim Minhogim B'Taimim. It means Haggadah Shel Pesach with a compilation, a selection of customs and reasons. And now we're going to be reading from the various articles which were written in the gear to the Rebbe's Haggadah. That modesty which motivated the Alter Rebbe to refer and entitle his name Sefer with the name L'kutim Amorim, as the Alter Rebbe modestly writes that the name of the Sefer is L'kutim Amorim, as it would merely be just a collection from different Svarim. The same modesty motivated

02:32 his successor in the seventh generation, the Rebbe, to refer to one of his Svarim besheim L'kutim Minhogim B'Taimim, that it is a compilation, a collection, a selection of customs and reasons. True that the name L'kutim Minhogim B'Taimim is similar to the name of the Tanya, which is L'kutim Amorim, and it brings out a very modest impression. On the other hand, it is not at all as in Tanya, likewise in the Haggadah, any deception in the quality of the Sefer. Now we're going to speak about the cover of the Sefer. The highlight of the appearance of the Haggadah was primarily also being the Rebbe's first Sefer that was accompanied with a directive for generations, a directive that came from the previous Rebbe. In the series of publications of Malechas Eitzer Achsidin, which is the Lubavitch publishing house of Svarim Nigla Achsidis, there were Heicholas, chambers designated for each one of the Rabbeim, beginning from the Baal Shem Tov and the Mizrachi Magid, and the Alter Rebbe, the Baal HaTanya, Baal HaSuch HaNoroch is the Heichola Shlishi, and so on to the Rebbe. Every one of these Heicholas Svarim, the covers of the Svarim, were designed by the previous Rebbe with a certain frame. Every Rebbe has a design on the Sefer, a specific frame that the previous Rebbe chose, etc. When the previous Rebbe was asked by the Rebbe, what cover should he use for his Haggadah? And the previous Rebbe responded, My father, the Rebbe Rashab, was an inward person. You are likewise an inward

05:07 person. It would be appropriate that the Haggadah should be published with the cover, with the design on the cover as my father's Svarim. Maskunte, speaking now about the structure of the Sefer, in one of the articles written by Rab Meir Madan, he writes as follows, The Haggadah is small in quantity and surprises the readers because of two aspects. One, the huge abundance of sources from our sages and from Rishonim and Acharinim. It is difficult to understand how such a huge abundance is absorbed in such a thin, skinny Sefer of 47 pages. Which is mostly the text of the Haggadah and less than that, the words of the compiler and the editor. The second inyan, which is in a sense surprising, the fact that the author is a Hasidic Rebbe, at the present the Rebbe and leader of Chabad Hasidim throughout the world. Here he is revealed in his Haggadah as a scientific researcher who amazes the reader with his vast knowledge, common sense, scientific analysis, and the ability to inquire into sources, various versions of earlier and latter times, and of Psutish al Mikra, and all this in a short format, concise and accurate. In one of the articles is mentioned that the Sefer consists, number one, sources for the sections in the Haggadah and how these sources were developed in the way it's being recited over the course of the generations. Secondly, the halachas, the laws of the night of the Seder in a very concise manner. Third of all, reasons and sources for

07:31 the halachas and customs of the Seder. Four, answering questions which are raised in regards to the version of the Haggadah in a very scientific way. Chadah vechalakah, sharp and smooth. Five, the minhagim Chabad for the night of the Seder. Six, explaining the reasons and sources of the difference between Chabad and the other customs and versions. And finally, seven, an explanation on the Alter Rebbe's instructions which are accompanied in the Nusach of the Haggadah and their sources being cited. These seven sections are not in a separate format, but they're all combined together. Whatever is needed at that piece of the Haggadah, the Rebbe reflects it in some of the seven or even all of the seven according to the sequence in the Haggadah, according to the order of the Haggadah, in accordance to what is needed to be mentioned at that point. In many letters we find the Rebbe's responses in a way of pilpul and shakla v'tarya, going into elaboration, in a great elaboration, and discussing the inyan why the Rebbe worded a certain comment in a certain way in the Haggadah. We will im yirtzeh Hashem continue in the next installment.