Jewish Reform Movement in the US

Mara W. Cohen Ioannides

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783110523218
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

This volume examines the development of the non-liturgical parts of the Central Conference of American Rabbis' Haggadot. Through an understanding of the changes in American Jewish educational patterns and the CCAR's theology, it explores how the CCAR Haggadah was changed over time to address the needs of the constituency. While there have been many studies of the Haggadah and its development over the course of Jewish history, there has been no such study of the non-liturgical parts of the Haggadah that reflect the needs of the audience it reaches. How the CCAR, the first and largest of American-born Judaisms, addressed the changing needs of its members through its literature for the Passover Seder reveals much about the development of the movement. This in turn provides for the readers of this book an understanding of how American Judaism has developed.

Chapter 1:
History of the Passover Holiday and the Passover Seder Service as Reflected in the Haggadah

[The Seder] “is the founding ceremony of the Jewish people.”

Joseph Tabory4

The story of the Exodus of the ancient Hebrews from the oppression of the Egyptians is one that has resounded among Jews throughout their history. The tale of freedom and redemption as told in the Book of Exodus and the commandment to remember it was later transformed into the Passover ceremony called the Seder. The adaptation of this ceremony is very telling about changes in Jewish practice over time. By understanding how the Seder came to be as we celebrate Passover currently, we can better appreciate the non-liturgical material in the Haggadah and the reasons for it.

The idea of remembrance is central to the Seder. The rabbis asserted “that a Seder act is performed in memory of something as a means to reconnect with an unavailable object or experience.”5In fact, the phrase “in remembrance of the (ZKR) Temple according to Hillel” is in the Mishnah to emphasize that this and what follows is what the rabbis have decided.6The Seder has worked as a tool to bind the Jewish people together and promote remembrance of the Exodus. Because it has been so effective at creating a continuous connection to the past, the ceremony has maintained its structure since at least 1038 C.E.

Biblical References to Passover

In its earliest form, the Passover ceremonies that later developed into the Seder, are described in the Torah in Exodus 12:1–20 where G-d commands Moses and Aaron to instruct the people on how to take a lamb and prepare it and the community for the feast:

1 And HaShem spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying:…

5 ‘Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats;

6 and ye shall keep it unto the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at dusk.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste–it is HaShem’s passover.…

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; howbeit the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 And in the first day there shall be to you a holy convocation, and in the seventh day a holy convocation; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.…

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.

19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a sojourner, or one that is born in the land.

20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.’7

The stipulations made here of how to eat the sacrifice (roasted) and not to destroy the bones are polemics against the pagan sacrificial practices of the period. Because early Semites believed that the life force was in the blood, eating the raw meat and consuming the bones would be a way to ingest the life force of the sacrificial animal.8

It is interesting that in the Torah Jews are given the instructions for performing a ceremony. This is not true everywhere. For example Leviticus 9:8–14 tells about the sacrifice Aaron made, but does not go into great detail about it:

8 So Aaron drew near unto the altar, and slew the calf of the sin-offering, which was for himself.

9 And the sons of Aaron presented the blood unto him; and he dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar.

10 But the fat, and the kidneys, and the lobe of the liver of the sin-offering, he made smoke upon the altar; as HaShem commanded Moses.

11 And the flesh and the skin were burnt with fire without the camp.

12 And he slew the burnt-offering; and Aaron’s sons delivered unto him the blood, and he dashed it against the altar round about.

13 And they delivered the burnt-offering unto him, piece by piece, and the head; and he made them smoke upon the altar.

14 And he washed the inwards and the legs, and made them smoke upon the burnt offering on the altar.

By including, in Exodus details as to the ceremony, there has developed a history of written detailed instruction on how to conduct a public rite. Since the public is to perform this, not a secret society like the Kohenim, the proscribed rite must be recorded in a place the public can easily obtain it and, since the Torah was to be publically read, this was the perfect place.

In Leviticus 23 the focus is also on the unleavened bread:

5 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at dusk, is HaShem’s passover.

6 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto Ha-Shem; seven days ye shall eat unleavened bread.

7 In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

8 And ye shall bring an offering made by fire unto HaShem seven days; in the seventh day is a holy convocation; ye shall do no manner of servile work.

In Numbers 9:1–14, these celebrations are commanded to continue as a way of remembering the Exodus. These celebrations were incumbent upon all Israelites.

2 ‘Let the children of Israel keep the passover in its appointed season.’…

4 And Moses spoke unto the children of Israel, that they should keep the passover.

5 And they kept the passover in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at dusk, in the wilderness of Sinai; according to all that HaShem commanded Moses, so did the children of Israel….

10 ‘Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: If any man of you or of your generations shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto HaShem;

11 in the second month on the fourteenth day at dusk they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;

12 they shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break a bone thereof; according to all the statute of the passover they shall keep it.

13 But the man that is clean, and is not on a journey, and forbeareth to keep the passover, that soul shall be cut off from his people; because he brought not the offering of HaShem in its appointed season, that man shall bear his sin.

14 And if a stranger shall sojourn among you, and will keep the passover unto HaShem: according to the statute of the passover, and according to the ordinance thereof, so shall he do; ye shall have one statute, both for the stranger, and for him that is born in the land.’

Not until after the nomadic Hebrews had settled into Canaan and had become agriculturalists were the sheep sacrifice and the festival of matzah joined.9 Before this time, more than likely these were, at first, festivals celebrating the newly born animals for pastoralists and first harvest for farmers.10

While there was no central temple at the time Leviticus was composed, by the time of the composition of Deuteronomy 12 there was a focus on a central cultic place:

5 But unto the place which HaShem your G-d shall choose out of all your tribes to put His name there, even unto His habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come;

6 and thither ye shall bring your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, and your tithes, and the offering of your hand, and your vows, and your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herd and of your flock;

7 and there ye shall eat before HaShem your G-d, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein HaShem thy G-d hath blessed thee….

11 then it shall come to pass that the place which HaShem your G-d shall choose to cause His name to dwell there, thither shall ye bring all that I command you: your burnt-offerings, and your sacrifices, your tithes, and the offering of your hand, and all your choice vows which ye vow unto HaShem.

Thus, the push for a central cult had been established. The presumption in these two passages is that “the worshiper is free to return home to observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread.”11This demanded a standardized ceremony surrounding the sacrifice.

Seder Beginnings in the Talmud

The Seder, as modern Jews understand it, was first outlined in the Talmud. There are sections in the Haggadah, like that about “the wandering Arameans,” that date back to the latter half of the 3rd Century C.E.12Tractate Pesachim Chapter 10 focuses specifically on the structure of the Seder and why participants do what they do.

The Jews of the Talmudic period interpreted the destruction of the Temple as retribution by G-d against the sinful Jews. Thus, to rebuild the Temple required redemption of the Jews after a period of chastisement. Hence part of the purpose of the Talmud was to show th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: History of the Passover Holiday and the Passover Seder Service as Reflected in the Haggadah
• Chapter 2: Development of the Non-Liturgical Portions of the Haggadah in the Context of the Evolution of Jewish Education
• Chapter 3: Development of the German Reform Movement and its Liturgies
• Chapter 4: Growth of the American Reform Movement and Its Liturgies Including the Non-Liturgical Elements in CCAR Haggadot – The Early Years
• Chapter 5: Development of the American Reform Movement and Its Liturgies Including the Non-Liturgical Elements in CCAR Haggadot the Middle Years
• Chapter 6: Evolution of the Reform Movement and Its Liturgies Including the Non-Liturgical Elements in CCAR Haggadot – The Modern Period
• Chapter 7: The Reform Movement and the Non Liturgical Elements in the CCAR Haggadot in the New Millennium
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of Names
• Index of Subjects