The Passover Seder in the Talmud 1

In a previous blog, we looked at the format of the Pesach seder from Mishnah Pesachim. Today, we will begin to analyze each of the mishnayot by looking at what the gemara has to say as it refers to both the seder and the haggadah. We noticed that the original mishnah format of the seder had some similar elements to our modern seder, but structural changes over a thousand years are inevitable. Let’s begin by looking at the first mishnah from chapter 10 in Meseches Pesachim 114 (from Sefaria.org The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noe Talmud Bavli):

The tosefta was a supplement to the mishnaic codification of Jewish Law. While the majority of halachic rulings in the Talmud are in accord with the School of Hillel which tend to be more “lenient”. We can see their philosophical positions as given in Pirke Avot chapter 1:12-15 (“Sayings of the Fathers”; Sefaria.org, The Sefaria edition of the Mishnah with community translation):

With regard to the kiddush, the gemara has similar discussions earlier in Pesachim 106 and 108 with regard to the kiddush for shabbat and the seder (Sefaria.org The William Davidson digital edition of the Koren Noe Talmud Bavli):

We will continue with the next mishnah in another blog.