As some of you have correctly answered, the paragraph in the Haggadah which was written as a response to those who wanted to celebrate Pesah earlier is this:
והגדת לבנך: שומע אני מראש חדש? תלמוד לומר “ביום ההוא”. אי ביום ההוא, יכול מבעוד יום? תלמוד לומר “בעבור זה” בשעה שיש מצה ומרור מונחים לפניך על שולחנך
You should tell your son: can I learn [hear] from the verse [that the telling will be done] from Rosh Hodesh?
[No, because] the verse says “on that day.”
If it is on that day, is it possible [to do it] when it is still day?
[No, because] the verse says “for this”, when Matzah and Maror are placed in front of you on the table.
This paragraph is taken from the Midrash Halakha[i], and unless it comes to reject the trend of making the Seder earlier, it makes no sense. Here are the logical difficulties in the paragraph:
- The first question breaks the beginning of the verse into two sections, but they cannot be read separately. If we read them as written: והגדת לבנך ביום ההוא – you should tell your son on that day, there would be no reason to think that the commandment to tell starts on Rosh Hodesh.
- Rosh Hodesh Nissan is not mentioned in the verse or in its context.
- We do speak of the Exodus every day. It is mentioned in the prayers and Birkat HaMazon.
- Why is “this” understood as only Matzah and Maror? Why is Pesah not mentioned?
The answer is that this paragraph in the Midrash and the Haggada has a clear agenda. It is meant to anchor in the text the argument that one cannot start the Seder earlier in the day, and I am not referring to half an hour before sunset, but rather to a little after midday. The first argument is a deliberate exaggeration, sort of a strawman argument, meant to show that any attempt to make the seder earlier is against the text. The words יכול מבעוד יום are aimed directly at those who claimed that since there is no Pesah sacrifice, the Seder could start earlier. For that same reason, when the author says that the elements of the Seder must be in front of you, he only mentions Matzah and Maror, but not Pesah. His argument is circular, though, because his opponents would claim that the Matzah and Maror can be in front of you earlier.
Because the argument of the Midrash Halakha was not strong enough, another layer of defense was added. The first Mishnah of the tenth chapter of tractate Pesahim says:
ערבי פסחים סמוך למנחה לא יאכל אדם עד שתחשך
On the eve of Pesah, close to Minha time, one should not eat until darkness falls.
This is not about saving appetite for the Seder, it is about starting the Seder before nightfall. The proof to that is the second and third part of the Mishnah:
אפילו עני שבישראל לא יאכל עד שיסב
ולא יפחתו לו מארבע כוסות של יין
Even the poorest Jew should not eat without reclining,
and they should give him no less then four cups of wine.
This interpretation is different than the Talmudic one, because at the time of the Talmud the movement to make Seder earlier has already died. The Talmud explains the first part about saving appetite for the night, but that makes the Mishnah inconsistent. According to my interpretation here, however, the Mishnah is consistent. Its subject is the leader of the Seder, and it lists three conditions, saying that the leader of the Seder:
- Cannot start early.
- Must recline.
- Must have four cups of wine.
We can now go back to the statement of Rabbi Levi and ask why was eating Matzah on Erev Pesah compared to sexual relationships between betrothal and marriage. The answer is that in both cases the culprits were the people of Judea. We have already seen that Judeans cared less about the nature of the fourteenth of Nissan after the destruction, and would continue working on that day until noon.
They were also notorious for not respecting the limits set by the rabbis regarding separation during the period of betrothal. This is reflected in the following statement:
משנה יבמות, ד:י: …הארוסות ינשאו חוץ מן הארוסות שביהודה מפני שלבו גס בה
The Mishnah speaks about a widow and says that she has to wait three months to remarry, for fear that she is pregnant. If she would remarry within the three months there will be a doubt regarding the identity of the child’s father. The exception is a woman who was betrothed and lost her betrothed. The Mishnah says that widowed betrothed women can remarry, because the halakhic separation guarantees that they are not pregnant. But there is an exception to the exception. You guessed right! In Judea they cannot remarry because לבו גס בה which can be roughly translated as “he feels comfortable with her.” Judean couples, in other words, are suspected of having relationships between betrothal and marriage.
This interpretation shows the brilliance of Rabbi Levi’s somewhat aggressive statement. He killed two, or several birds in one shot. He said that one is not allowed to eat Matzah on Erev Pesah, thus eliminating the possibility of an early Seder. He then added that the desire to celebrate earlier is a sign of disregard of the destroyed Temple, which was typical to Judeans, and concludes with hinting that it is also a sign of callousness, similar to the one Judeans practice in their pre-marital life.
Conclusion
The prohibition of eating Matzah on Erev Pesah is a classic example of a rule or statement rooted in the nation’s social, political, and religious conditions, which in later generations has been misinterpreted. The original intention which was to guarantee that the Seder will be celebrated at night, has morphed into a dreaded prohibition, expanded by people in time and scope, and for some, even the idea that it could be punishable by death.
In practice, we can live without a day of Matzah or bread, but it becomes a serious problem when the fourteenth falls on Shabbat, which is a matter for another discussion.
[i] מכילתא דרבי ישמעאל בא – מסכתא דפסחא פרשה יז
Parashat Korach – English reading