It took me about eight days to write and, if nothing more, I got on first name basis with the librarians at UCLA and UJ. (The UCLA library is as boxish and stacky as YU's, but with natural lighting and quiet readers. Halleluyah.)
My topic was anti-Christian polemic in our very own Pesach Haggada. The finished product is fourteen pages long (ninety one sexy looking footnotes!), so to save you some time and insure at least someone reads this, I present a summary of the cool parts.
First, you have to understand the setting. Pesach was very different with the Beis HaMikdash around. Instead of a family-based meal, with a "seder"-ed order, a set text, and the Exodus story at its center, Jews left their homes, joined other large groups, and enjoyed a feast with the paschal sacrifice playing the lead role. The Hurban and the advent of Christianity meant that Pesach needed to be transformed. Jews slowly developed the Haggadah, where the focus of the evening was retelling the Exodus redemption narrative. Christians/Judeo-Christians spoke of another deliverance: that of Jesus' death and his second coming.
Eventually, these variant approaches to Passover split into two independent holidays (i.e. Easter.) But for several generations, the line between Jew and Christian was fairly blurry. To a degree, the different Pesachs competed against each other, and it only makes sense that Rabbinic Jews would lash out against or respond to Christianity in their Seder.
There are many similarities between the Haggadah and early Christian texts, as if Jews were "playing off of" or reacting to Christian practices. It is very difficult to tell who is reacting to whom, or if these similarities are just coincidental. However, below are POTENTIAL cases of anti-Christian polemic.
(Warning: This should not effect your spiritual well-being. Hazal were more than capable of composing texts with multiple layers of meaning. One of those layers is in response to Christianity, which in and of itself is a fairly worthy endeavor. Likewise, some of the "satires" that emerge are impressively clever.)
- The Haggadah's Bnei Brak story is very similar to an ancient Christian tale. Both relate how students got together on Passover night, spent the whole night engaged in conversation, until they were forced to part at cockcrow/time for Shema. The Christian version has a different topic of conversation (a.k.a. a different interpretation of Pesach): Jesus' death. Added bonus: The tannaim mentioned in the Bnei Brak story were all involved in anti-Christian and polemical behavior.
- There's a good amount of evidence to suggest that Ben Zoma was partly Judeo-Christian or was at least sympathetic to their cause. In the Haggadah, he darshens the pasuk to teach that Yetziat Mitzraim must be remembered at day and night, but no more. When the Hakhamim respond, "actually, it must be said even after the Messiah has come" they may be attacking how Christians celebrated Pesach. No, even after your Messiah has come, don't replace Y.M. with J.C.
- The Four Sons' questions have many parallels to Mark 12 and Matthew 24: the number of questions, their various types, one case of "aino yodeah lishol", muzzling of teeth, etc. Furthermore, it seems like the Rasha question was a later addition which does not refer to an "evil" or "wicked" child, but a heretical one! In fact, the phrase "dull his teeth" appears twice more in Rabbinic literature, both anti-Christian passages.
- The wise son receives a strange answer: "So teach him the laws of Pesach: 'we do not conclude with an Afikomen.' " Why is this the center of his education! (FYI: the afikomen that we do today developed later and is just great for concluding the Seder.) There is good reason to believe that afikomen was a once Jewish practice that slowly became overly Christianized. It may have been a discussion about Mashiach (which then became Jesus) or it may have been the matza eating ceremony that eventually turned into the Christian Eucharist and/or Missa. Our words to the wise son are an opportunity to lash out against Christian rituals.
- Why are we doreish Arami Oveid Avi? Why not darshen the actual Exodus story, Shemot 12?! An early Christian text, Peri Pascha, provides evidence that Judeo-Christians had built a complex Christiological homily around Exodus 12, where Moshe became Jesus, the lamb represented the Passion, etc. This "Christian Midrash" was at the center of the early Christian Passover-Easter. Thus, Hazal chose to darshen Arami Oveid Avi - without the Christian undertone, lacking mention of Moshe and lambs! Indeed, our Rabbis were clever: the Midrash plays off of Matthew 2, where Herod seeks the death of child Jesus and an angel compels his parents to temporarily flee to Egypt. The Midrash reads the Pesukim - against pshat - as follows: Lavan seeks the death of Yaakov, who, compelled by God, goes down temporarily to Egypt.
- Peri Pascha includes questions like, "What is the Pesach? Well, it symbolizes . . . " When Rabban Gamliel codifies the symbolic meaning of Pesach, Matza, and Marror - and states that any other explanation invalidates a Seder! - he is likely responding to alternative, Christian explanations.
- Several early Christian texts proclaim, "O the Jews! They are so ungrateful. They did not appreciate leaving Egypt, they did not appreciate the manna, etc." Dayeinu - a perfect Jewish response - contains the same number of verses.
One last point: the article on Ben Zoma being a Judeo-Christian is amazing. At times rational, at times Da Vinci Code-esque, the author claims not only that Hazal knew of Ben Zoma's problematic theology, but so did Rishonim and R. Yosef Kairo!
It can be found at “Ben Zoma, the Sages, and Passover” Journal of Reform Judaism 28b (1981): 33-40.
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