Where has all the Hametz Gone?

Why does the prohibition of owning or benefiting from Hametz (leavened bread) not appear in the Haggadah? We explore different suggestions such as simple male chauvinism or the schism with Christianity and suggest some alternative texts which would address this glaring oversight.

Why is the prohibition of owning or benefiting from Hametz (leavened bread) not appear in the Haggadah?

שמות י״ב:ט״ו

(טו) שִׁבְעַ֤ת יָמִים֙ מַצּ֣וֹת תֹּאכֵ֔לוּ אַ֚ךְ בַּיּ֣וֹם הָרִאשׁ֔וֹן תַּשְׁבִּ֥יתוּ שְּׂאֹ֖ר מִבָּתֵּיכֶ֑ם כִּ֣י ׀ כָּל־אֹכֵ֣ל חָמֵ֗ץ וְנִכְרְתָ֞ה הַנֶּ֤פֶשׁ הַהִוא֙ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֔ל מִיּ֥וֹם הָרִאשֹׁ֖ן עַד־י֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִעִֽי׃

Exodus 12:15

(15) Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread; on the very first day you shall remove leaven from your houses, for whoever eats leavened bread from the first day to the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.

שמות י״ג:ג׳

(ג) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל־הָעָ֗ם זָכ֞וֹר אֶת־הַיּ֤וֹם הַזֶּה֙ אֲשֶׁ֨ר יְצָאתֶ֤ם מִמִּצְרַ֙יִם֙ מִבֵּ֣ית עֲבָדִ֔ים כִּ֚י בְּחֹ֣זֶק יָ֔ד הוֹצִ֧יא ה׳ אֶתְכֶ֖ם מִזֶּ֑ה וְלֹ֥א יֵאָכֵ֖ל חָמֵֽץ׃

Exodus 13:3

(3) And Moses said to the people, “Remember this day, on which you went free from Egypt, the house of bondage, how the LORD freed you from it with a mighty hand: no leavened bread shall be eaten.

שמות י״ג:ז׳

(ז) מַצּוֹת֙ יֵֽאָכֵ֔ל אֵ֖ת שִׁבְעַ֣ת הַיָּמִ֑ים וְלֹֽא־יֵרָאֶ֨ה לְךָ֜ חָמֵ֗ץ וְלֹֽא־יֵרָאֶ֥ה לְךָ֛ שְׂאֹ֖ר בְּכָל־גְּבֻלֶֽךָ׃

Exodus 13:7

(7) Throughout the seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten; no leavened bread shall be found with you, and no leaven shall be found in all your territory.

משנה תורה, הלכות חמץ ומצה א׳:ב׳

(ב) הֶחָמֵץ בַּפֶּסַח אָסוּר בַּהֲנָיָה שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות יג ג) "לֹא יֵאָכֵל חָמֵץ" לֹא יְהֵא בּוֹ הֶתֵּר אֲכִילָה. וְהַמַּנִּיחַ חָמֵץ בִּרְשׁוּתוֹ בְּפֶסַח אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁלֹּא אֲכָלוֹ עוֹבֵר בִּשְׁנֵי לָאוִין שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות יג ז)(דברים טז ד) "לֹא יֵרָאֶה לְךָ שְׂאֹר בְּכָל גְּבֻלֶךָ" וְנֶאֱמַר (שמות יב יט) "שְׂאֹר לֹא יִמָּצֵא בְּבָתֵּיכֶם".

Mishneh Torah, Leavened and Unleavened Bread 1:2

(2) The leavened bread on Passover is forbidden to derive pleasure from as it is stated: "You will not eat hametz" (Exodus 13: 3) - there should be no permissive scenario of eating. And one who leaves leavened bread in his domain during Passover, even if he does not eat it, transgresses two prohibitions as it is stated: "there should not be seen leaven in all your boundaries" (Exodus 13: 7) (Deuteronomy 16:4) and it is stated: "Leaven should not be found in your houses." (Exodus 12: 19).

All references in the Haggadah to Hametz are a reference to ingesting leaven and all meaning ascribed to the prohibition of eating leaven are in direct reference to the positive commandment to eat matzah ... the Jews left in haste and had no time to bake their bread.

הגדה של פסח, מגיד, מה נשתנה ב׳

שֶׁבְּכָל הַלֵּילוֹת אָנוּ אוֹכְלִין חָמֵץ וּמַצָּה, הַלַּיְלָה הַזֶּה – כֻּלּוֹ מַצָּה.

Pesach Haggadah, Magid, Four Questions 2

On all [other] nights we eat chamets and matsa; this night, only matsa?

הגדה של פסח, מגיד, פסח מצה ומרור א׳-ד׳

רַבָּן גַּמְלִיאֵל הָיָה אוֹמֵר: כָּל שֶׁלֹּא אָמַר שְׁלשָׁה דְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ בַּפֶּסַח, לא יָצָא יְדֵי חוֹבָתוֹ, וְאֵלּוּ הֵן: פֶּסַח, מַצָּה, וּמָרוֹר.

מַצָּה זוֹ שֶׁאָנוֹ אוֹכְלִים, עַל שׁוּם מַה? עַל שׁוּם שֶׁלֹּא הִסְפִּיק בְּצֵקָם שֶׁל אֲבוֹתֵינוּ לְהַחֲמִיץ עַד שֶׁנִּגְלָה עֲלֵיהֶם מֶלֶךְ מַלְכֵי הַמְּלָכִים, הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, וּגְאָלָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: וַיֹּאפוּ אֶת־הַבָּצֵק אֲשֶׁר הוֹצִיאוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם עֻגֹת מַצּוֹּת, כִּי לֹא חָמֵץ, כִּי גֹרְשׁוּ מִמִּצְרַיִם וְלֹא יָכְלוּ לְהִתְמַהְמֵהַּ, וְגַם צֵדָה לֹא עָשׂוּ לָהֶם.

Pesach Haggadah, Magid, Rabban Gamliel's Three Things 1-4

Rabban Gamliel was accustomed to say, Anyone who has not said these three things on Pesach has not fulfilled his obligation, and these are them: the Pesach sacrifice, matsa and marror.

This matsa that we are eating, for the sake of what [is it]? For the sake [to commemorate] that our ancestors' dough was not yet able to rise, before the King of the kings of kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed [Himself] to them and redeemed them, as it is stated (Exodus 12:39); "And they baked the dough which they brought out of Egypt into matsa cakes, since it did not rise; because they were expelled from Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they made for themselves provisions."

The aspect of purging leaven from one's property and not deriving any benefit or enjoyment are nowhere mentioned. This is surprising, since as any homemaker will testify it represents the most daunting and challenging aspect of Passover preparation... and therefore, Redemption preparation.

רבי לוי-יצחק מברדיטשוב ז״ל, משהיה רואה בערבי פסחים נשים עוסקות בניקוי וכשרת הבית והכלים, תוך גירוד, קירצוף, שטיפה ורחיצה, היה אומר כדרך שאומרים בשעת תקיעת-שופר בראש-השנה: ״יהי רצון שאלה המלאכים היוצאים מן קשר״ק (קירצוף, שטיפה, רחיצה, קירוד) יעלו לפני כסה כבודך וימליצו טוב בעדנו״...

והיינו, שכל ההכנות הללו יוצרות מלאכים מליצי-יושר לישראל...

הגדה של פסח, עם מעינה של תורה נעספו על ידי אלכסנדר זושה פרידמן, הוצת פאר תל-אביב1957

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, when he saw, on the eve of Passover, women engaged in cleaning and kashering the home and kitchen utensils, through scrubbing, washing, scraping and rinsing, would say as they say at the moment of blowing the shofar on Rosh Hassanah: May it be Your will that these angels that come out of "KiSRIK" (Scraping, Rinsing, washing and scrubbing) rise to the throne of Your abode and advocate good for us.... Which means to say, that all these preparations create angels who suplicate on behalf of Israel.

Passover Haggadah with Springs of Torah gathered by Alexander Zusha Freidman, Published by Paer Tel Aviv, 1957 (HEBREW)

Could it be that the purging of the leaven was left out of the Seder night by the exclusively male Rabbis who choreographed the Seder and wrote the Haggadah as a result of good old chauvinism? After all, the Magid of Mezritch was the advocate for the downtrodden, the poor, the deformed, the ignorant. By taking the case of the women in whose hands the purge of leaven falls, and placing them at the climactic moment when deliverance is on the line, he implicity confirms that their absence, and that of the purge of leaven ... was gaping. which brings us to the moment of deliverance...

שמות י״ב:מ״ב

(מב) לֵ֣יל שִׁמֻּרִ֥ים הוּא֙ לַֽה׳ לְהוֹצִיאָ֖ם מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם הֽוּא־הַלַּ֤יְלָה הַזֶּה֙ לַֽה׳ שִׁמֻּרִ֛ים לְכָל־בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל לְדֹרֹתָֽם׃ (פ)

Exodus 12:42

(42) That was for the LORD a night of vigil to bring them out of the land of Egypt; that same night is the LORD’s, one of vigil for all the children of Israel throughout the ages.

The Seder is first and foremost about Deliverance - Geula. Deliverance from Egypt and the Final Deliverance of the Messianic Era. It is a Layl Shemurim... a night of Watching.

ראש השנה י״א ב:ד׳

ר' יהושע אומר בניסן נגאלו בניסן עתידין ליגאל מנלן אמר קרא (שמות יב, מב) ליל שמורים ליל המשומר ובא מששת ימי בראשית

Rosh Hashanah 11b:4

Rabbi Yehoshua says: In Nisan our forefathers were redeemed from Egypt; and in Nisan in the future the Jewish people will be redeemed in the final redemption. The Gemara asks: From where do we derive that the final redemption will be in Nisan? The verse states: “It is a night of watching for the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt; this is the Lord’s night of watching, for all the children of Israel throughout their generations” (Exodus 12:42). This teaches that the night of Passover is a night that has been continuously watched, i.e., set aside for the purpose of redemption, from the six days of Creation, and it will continue to be so until the final redemption.

שמות ו׳:ו׳-ז׳

(ו) לָכֵ֞ן אֱמֹ֥ר לִבְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֘ל אֲנִ֣י ה׳ וְהוֹצֵאתִ֣י אֶתְכֶ֗ם מִתַּ֙חַת֙ סִבְלֹ֣ת מִצְרַ֔יִם וְהִצַּלְתִּ֥י אֶתְכֶ֖ם מֵעֲבֹדָתָ֑ם וְגָאַלְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ בִּזְר֣וֹעַ נְטוּיָ֔ה וּבִשְׁפָטִ֖ים גְּדֹלִֽים׃(ז)וְלָקַחְתִּ֨י אֶתְכֶ֥ם לִי֙ לְעָ֔ם וְהָיִ֥יתִי לָכֶ֖ם לֵֽאלֹקִ֑ים וִֽידַעְתֶּ֗ם כִּ֣י אֲנִ֤י ה׳ אֱלֹ֣קֵיכֶ֔ם הַמּוֹצִ֣יא אֶתְכֶ֔ם מִתַּ֖חַת סִבְל֥וֹת מִצְרָֽיִם׃

Exodus 6:6-7

(6) Say, therefore, to the Israelite people: I am the LORD. I will free you from the labors of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and through extraordinary chastisements.(7) And I will take you to be My people, and I will be your God. And you shall know that I, the LORD, am your God who freed you from the labors of the Egyptians.

The four cups of wine that we drink at the Passover Seder correspond to these four phrases of deliverance in Exodus 6. The climax comes between the 3rd cup of redemption וְגָאַלְתִּ֤י אֶתְכֶם֙ and the fourth cup of resolution. This is the moment of the Seder that corresponds to the blowing of the Shofar on Rosh Hassanah. It is here that a reference to the physical and spiritual purging of leaven necessary for the redemption would be appropriate. Instead we get a curse incantation...

הגדה של פסח, ברך, שפוך חמתך א׳-ב׳

מוזגים כוס של אליהו ופותחים את הדלת:

שְׁפֹךְ חֲמָתְךָ אֶל־הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר לֹא יְדָעוּךָ וְעַל־מַמְלָכוֹת אֲשֶׁר בְּשִׁמְךָ לֹא קָרָאוּ. כִּי אָכַל אֶת־יַעֲקֹב וְאֶת־נָוֵהוּ הֵשַׁמּוּ. שְׁפָךְ־עֲלֵיהֶם זַעֲמֶךָ וַחֲרוֹן אַפְּךָ יַשִּׂיגֵם. תִּרְדֹף בְּאַף וְתַשְׁמִידֵם מִתַּחַת שְׁמֵי ה׳.

Pesach Haggadah, Barech, Pour Out Thy Wrath 1-2

We pour the cup of Eliyahu and open the door.

Pour your wrath upon the nations that did not know You and upon the kingdoms that did not call upon Your Name! Since they have consumed Ya'akov and laid waste his habitation (Psalms 79:6-7). Pour out Your fury upon them and the fierceness of Your anger shall reach them (Psalms 69:25)! You shall pursue them with anger and eradicate them from under the skies of the Lord (Lamentations 3:66).

Gershom Scholem in his work The Messianic Idea in Judaism points out that there have always been two aspects of Jewish Messianism. Catastrophic and Utopian. Think of the Day of Judgement and a day when the lion shall lay down with the lamb. In "Pour out Your Wrath" we have only the Catastrophic.

Scholem also distinguishes between Jewish and Christian Messianism. At the time of the writing of the Haggadah, Jewish Messianism is National and Christian is personal.

He writes: Christianity conceives of redemption as an event in the spiritual and unseen realm, an event which is reflected in the soul, in the private world of each individual, and which effects an inner transformation which need not correspond to anything outside. But it remains peculiar that this question concerning the inner aspect of the redemption should emerge so late in Judaism—though it finally does emerge with great vehemence.

In Pour Out Your Wrath we see only the external and national... if the deliverance is delayed, it is because of the Nations who know thee not...

ברכות י״ז א:ב׳

ור' אלכסנדרי בתר דמצלי אמר הכי רבון העולמים גלוי וידוע לפניך שרצוננו לעשות רצונך ומי מעכב שאור שבעיסה ושעבוד מלכיות יהי רצון מלפניך שתצילנו מידם ונשוב לעשות חוקי רצונך בלבב שלם.

Berakhot 17a:2

... after Rabbi Alexandri prayed, he would say the following:
Master of the Universe, it is revealed and known before You that our will is to perform Your will, and what prevents us? On the one hand, the yeast in the dough,the evil inclination that is within every person; and the subjugation to the kingdoms on the other.
May it be Your will that You will deliver us from their hands, of both the evil inclination and the foreign kingdoms,
so that we may return to perform the edicts of Your will with a perfect heart.

We return to the question of why the purging of physical leaven and the leaven of our hearts is seemingly absent from our Seder. Israel Jacob Yuval details the conflagratory nature of "leaven" in Jewish-Christian tensions in the Middle Ages. In his article Passover in the Middle Ages in Passover and Easter; Origin and History to Modern Times pp 141-2 writes:

But burning leaven evoked messianic images of redemption, as we see from the thirteenth-century halakhic authority and German pietist, Eliezer of Worms: “As reward for the burning of leaven, Israel will set Esau [Rome] on ﬁre.” Little imagination is needed to guess what Christians who observed the ceremony must have thought. On the eve of Passover, on the day which (as Jews reckoned it) Jesus was crucified, Jews removed all leaven from their home and burned it—while thinking of the destruction of Christianity and the coming of redemption. Some Jews themselves feared that interpretation....

The following event, however, reveals the danger that existed in that regard. In the year 1399, a disputation occurred between the convert from Judaism, Peter, and Rabbi Lipmann Mulhausen. The remarkable conclusion of the disputation— the execution of eighty Jews—evokes the impression that this was not a learned debate so much as it was an inquisitorial trial played out against the backdrop of the charge of host desecration [The "host" is the sacred bread used in the Eucharistic service of the Mass]. The central Christian argument was that Jews disdain Christianity and seek to destroy it: “Of all the dough that you knead, you burn a little as an affront to their God [i.e., the Christian God]. Also, on the eve of Passover, the time of the fast [Lent] you burn bread.” The accusations refer to two customs: burning challah (the ritual removal and burning of part of the dough as an equivalent to the dough offering from Temple times, before baking bread) and burning leaven. The apostate from Judaism apparently saw in both a Jewish effort to disparage the host.

Leaven in the New Testament:

Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened [bread] of sincerity and truth. [Corinthians 5:8]

“the leaven of the Pharisees,” which is “hypocrisy” (Luke 12:1; d. Mark 8:15).

It could be that Leaven and the purging of Leaven had become, at least in the early days of Jewish - Christian relationships, a wedge issue.... especially given the reference to the "leaven of the Pharisees" aka followers of Rabbinic Judaism.

Another possibility is that "leaven" and the purging of leaven came to represent a personal conception of redemption which had been co-opted by Christianity and at least, temporarily, jettisoned by Judaism.

Inspired by a footnote from Israel Jacob Yuval in Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages p. 123 we might suggest the following piyyut (poem) which has been preserved (but not necessarily written for) the penitential service on the Eve of the New Year.

אויל המתעה מרגיז ומחטיא בלעהו קלעהו ועוד בל יסטיא

געול המגאל ומטנף טהורים דחהו מחהו מלבות והרהורים

התל המהתל ומפתל ישרים וכחהו שכחהו ולא יקומו אשרים

זבוב המארב במפתחי הלב חנקהו נקהו ולב חדש תלבלב

טמא המזוהם ומסית להאשים יעהו צעהו בלי ענוש בענשים

כלי אשר כליו רעים לפתהו כפתהו מקום בית מרעים

מנון המפנק מנוער לאחרית נדחהו קדחהו מהשאיר לו שארית

שאור המעפש ומבאיש העסה עקרהו נקרהו חטא בלי לשא

פתלתל המנקש ומעקש דרכים צרפהו ערפהו בלי היות סרוכים

קוץ המכאיב וסלון הממאיר רעלהו העלהו כרם להפאר

שפוך מי טוהר דמים להדיח תחטאנו באזוב תכבס ותריח

שני מתלבן עולם ונושע ברחמים יצדיק חקר כבודם לשעשע

חוזק זרע יחשוף וישיב וכשנים קדמוניות אותנו ישיב

Rabbi Simeon b. Isaac, b. Avun (980 - 1040) From: The Authorised Selichot for the Whole Year by Abraham Rosenfeld 1978 p. 152 Selichot for the Eve of the New Year.

Destroy and cast away the seductive folly which excites man to sin, so that he may mislead us no more.

Cast away and blot out from our hearts and thoughts the pollution which deﬁles and pollutes the pure.

Mislead the deceiver, who causes the straight to be crooked; rebuke him and discard him so that idolatry shall not be established.

Strangle and clear away the gadﬂy that lurks at the gate of the heart, so that a new heart may ﬂower (within us).

Sweep utterly away the unclean and foul who seduces us to sin, that he may not cause us to be sorely punished.

Seize the rogue whose instruments are evil, bind him fast, lest the house of the evildoers rise again.

Repel and burn him that was brought up delicately from a child, and has in the end become a master, so that no remnant be left of him.

Remove and destroy the moldy leaven which spoils the dough, so that it may not involve us in sin.

Cause the intriguer, who ensnares us and leads us astray to be burnt out; break his neck, so that he should have no followers.

Poison and uproot the pricking thorn and piercing briar, lest it spoil the vineyard.

Pour out water of puriﬁcation to rinse away our guilt, purge us with hyssop, and wash us clean.

Let the scarlet (sin) be whitened that we may be saved for ever; may he justify us in his mercy, and delight in the search of our glory.

May he lay bare his powerful arm and bring back our captives, and restore us to our former condition as in the days of old.

Geoffrey Stern

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