The Origins of Pesach and the Haggadah - April 20, 2000 - first day of Pesach

David Steinberg

David reviewed the strong evidence from the Hebrew Bible that Pesach and Hag HaMatzot were originally separate feasts with distinct histories and origins that were united, and made a pilgrim festival to Jerusalem, in consequence of the Deuteronomic reforms at the end of the First Temple period or during the Babylonian exile. He drew on The Hebrew Passover From The earliest Times to AD 70 by J B Segal for this part of the talk.

The second part of the talk drew on the evidence and arguments in Origins of Seder : The Passover Rite and Early Rabbinic Judaism by Baruch M. Bokser. David read most of Mishnah Pesachim chapt. 10 which forms the basis of the Haggadah. He briefly commented the first full haggadah in the Siddur of Rav Saadia Gaon and brought out many of the points made by E D Goldschmidt in his monumental work (in Hebrew) - The Passover Haggadah, Its Sources and History

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Last Updated Nov. 4, 2002