Thursday, April 21, 2005

A Passover riddle

Shamelessly stealing an idea from Gil, here's a last-minute riddle for Passover. I heard it from someone who heard it from an academic (whose name I forget) who lectured about the history of the Passover Haggadah. (If anyone else heard the lecture, please let me know who it was so I can credit him.)

The question: Of today's standard (Orthodox) text of the Haggadah, what part was added most recently? When and why?

My own followup question: What other part of the Hagaddah should have been changed for the same reason, but wasn't?

5 comments:

Sharvul said...

Maybe "leshana haba'a..."?

Zman Biur said...

All you eager solvers will have to wait a bit for the answer - I'll give the overseas readers until after the second day of Yom Tov to come forward.

Yes, I'm relentlessly optimistic here...

Meanwhile, a hint: Sharvul is warm.

Zman Biur said...

The answer: The word "habenuyah" after "l'shana haba'ah b'yrushalayim" - "Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem".

It was added in the 19th century after Jews had begun to return to Jerusalem.

I'll leave the followup question open until next week.

Sharvul said...

Ahem... "warm"? I was spot on...

Anyway, as for your follow-up question, perhaps you're referring to "u'vene yerushalayim" in birkat hamazon?

Zman Biur said...

Okay, you were very warm. You identified the location of the change, but not what it was, or when or why it was made.

Though I confess I could have given you stronger encouragement.

Regarding the followup: Good one, but that's not what I was thinking of. I'm thinking of a text specific to the Haggadah.