Page 3 - RMBA Upper School Haggadah 2018

1) Investigate - Tell the story using Questions and Answers (Ma Nishtana).

2) Differentiate - Tell the story differently in a way that each child can comprehend (Four Sons).

3) Demonstrate - Use props to tell the story. Rabban Gamliel says you do not fulfill the mitzvah
(according to one opinion this refers to the mitzvah of Sippur) unless you hold up and explain
the meaning behind Pesach, Matzah, and Marror.

4) Reciprocate - We must follow the telling of the story, according to Rav Yosef Dov Soloveichik,
with praising Hashem (which is why we start Hallel at the end of the Maggid section).

5) Elaborate - We are told in the Haggadah that the more we tell the better (“Chol HaMarbeh
Harei Zeh Meshubach - whoever increases their telling of the Exodus from Egypt is
praiseworthy”).

6) Rehabilitate (or Procrastinate) - We are supposed to start with the bad and end with the good
(“Matchil B’Genut U’Mesayem B’Shevach”) because the end of the story is only meaningful if
you know how it started.

7) Extrapolate - We are told not only to remember what happened to our ancestors, but to
imagine that it happened to us directly (“Bechol Dor Vador…” - In each and every generation
a person must see himself as if he personally left Egypt).

8) Communicate - Sippur is supposed to be done, according to Rav Chaim Soloveichik, by
telling the story to others (or even to ourselves if we have no one with us!). Zechirah is a
personal memory. But stories make it communal as we share not only the history of what
happened but also answer questions about the meaning behind it.

It is this last factor which I think is the most important aspect of the Sippur. According to Rabbi
Jonathan Sacks stories help shape identity:

“The most powerful link between the generations is the tale of those who came before us
– a tale that becomes ours, and that we hand on as a sacred heritage to those who will
come after us. We are the story we tell ourselves about ourselves, and identity begins in
the story parents tell their children.”

I want to wish everyone a beautiful Seder night and bless us all that we do not just read the
Haggadah and share a few Divrei Torah, but that we pass on the story (the meaning) behind the
Haggadah. Take some time during the meal to tell the story of your own family’s journey. Share
with your children the map of where they have come from and where you hope they are headed.
Celebrate the amazing story we are all a part of and commit to keep passing it on to each
generation.

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