The Lived Mishnah·A Zeman Nakat Project
Tisha B'Av Series
Mishnah 15 of 41
אִם אֶשְׁכָּחֵךְ יְרוּשָׁלָיִם
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נושא · Topicמַה הָיוּ מְבִיאִים לְפָנָיו בַּסֵּדֶרWhat was set before him at the Seder
Mishnah פסחים י׳:ג׳ · Pesachim 10:3
הֵבִיאוּ לְפָנָיו,
מְטַבֵּל בַּחֲזֶרֶת, עַד שֶׁמַּגִּיעַ לְפַרְפֶּרֶת הַפַּת.
הֵבִיאוּ לְפָנָיו
מַצָּה,
וַחֲזֶרֶת,
וַחֲרֹסֶת,
וּשְׁנֵי תַבְשִׁילִין,
אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאֵין חֲרֹסֶת מִצְוָה.
רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בְּרַבִּי צָדוֹק אוֹמֵר, מִצְוָה.
וּבַמִּקְדָּשׁ הָיוּ מְבִיאִים לְפָנָיו גּוּפוֹ שֶׁל פָּסַח.
They brought before him —
he dips in chazeres, until reaching the matzah course.
They brought before him:
matzah,
chazeres,
charoses,
and two cooked dishes —
even though charoses is not a mitzvah.
Rabbi Eliezer b'Rabbi Tzadok says: it is a mitzvah.
And in the Mikdash they would bring before him the body of the Korban Pesach.
case/objectrestrictive rulingpermissive rulingTannacondition
Transcript
Summary Chart
What was set before him at the Seder▾
CaseRulingReason
What is set before him to begin?He dips chazeres until reaching the matzah course—
What is then brought before him?Matzah, chazeres, charoses, and two cooked dishes—
Is charoses a mitzvah?Tanna Kamma: No — though it is still brought—
Rabbi Eliezer b'Rabbi Tzadok: Yes, it is a mitzvah—
And in the Mikdash?They would bring the body of the Korban Pesach before him—
All Meforshim
Mishnah Insights
The Seder table, and the Korban it remembers▾
עֲשֵׂה לְךָ רַב
R' Eliezer b'Rabbi Tzadok · Dor 2–3 — רַבִּי אֱלִיעֶזֶר בְּרַבִּי צָדוֹק

R’ Eliezer b’Rabbi Tzadok came from a family that remembered Yerushalayim first-hand. His father, R’ Tzadok, fasted for forty years before the Churban in the hope that the city would be spared (Gittin 56a), and the son carried forward many eyewitness accounts of how things were actually done in the Temple-era city. It fits that a keeper of that living memory is the one who insists, here, that even charoses is a mitzvah.

Vegetables first, so the child will ask

Bartenura catches something easy to pass over: serving vegetables before the meal was not the normal way to eat, and that is the whole point. The unusual order is meant to catch a child’s eye and lead him to ask why tonight is different. The dipping itself does two things at once — it prompts that question, and it imitates the relaxed, unhurried manner in which wealthy people ate, so that everyone at the table carries himself like a free person rather than a slave.

Charoses — a mitzvah you do not bless

The Tanna Kama holds that charoses is not a mitzvah at all, only a firmly rooted custom; R’ Eliezer b’Rabbi Tzadok disagrees and calls it a mitzvah mid’rabbanan. Even by his view, though, no bracha is made on it, because charoses is secondary to the maror it accompanies (Tur). Its very texture carries the memory it serves — a thick paste, zecher l’tit, recalling the mortar our forefathers worked in Mitzrayim.

Two dishes for two korbanos

The two cooked dishes are where the Churban shows through the Seder. Rav Yosef understands them as two kinds of meat — one recalling the Korban Pesach and one the Korban Chagigah — set on the table in place of the offering itself, which the mishnah says was brought whole (gufo shel Pesach) while the Mikdash still stood. Not every version of the mishnah even carries these words; some read the line without them. Either way, where a real korban once sat, we are left with a reminder of it.

Series Insights
Series context▾
← Previous
Rosh Hashanah 1:4
Witnesses who override Shabbos for the new moon
Mishnah 15 of 41
Pesachim 10:3
The Seder night, reshaped as remembrance
Next →
Berachos 9:5
Blessing over the bad, and reverence for the Mikdash

Where this sits

Here the series watches a living mitzvah absorb the Churban into its own choreography. The mishnah describes a Seder much like ours — and then marks the seam: where the Mikdash once set the Korban Pesach on the table, the destruction leaves two cooked dishes in its place, a memory where an offering used to be. The night of freedom now carries the loss inside it.

‹PreviousRosh Hashanah 1:4 ›NextBerachos 9:5