Next year in Jerusalem : A symbolic study of a Jewish ritual

During the festival of Pesach Jews all over the world celebrate the Exodus of t he ,Jew ish people out of Egyptian bondage with a nighttime ritual . As a result of the isolated position in which Jews have found themselves in the diaspora historical ly, th iH r itual , in which fundamental values such as exile, redemption and Jew iHh homeland arc symbolical ly expressed, remained almost unchanged over the years . I n fact, recently, its signi ficance ha::; increased as a result of the political c i rcu J I I ­ stanceH in the Middle East. To understand Jewish feelings about this subject, it iH important to realize that the same fundamental values are at stake here.


Introduction 1
The fe stival of Pesach or Passover, as it is called in the English-speaking world, is widely recog nized as hoiding a primary place in the Jewish religious calender. Jew and non-Jew alike are aware of the key fu nction the fe stival, especial ly the evening meal called the Seder, possesses in Jewish ritual observance2• The fa ct that the importance of Pesach is taken for granted even by many secular, non-observant Jews is all the more reason to attempt to investigate the na ture of the fe stivaP Held in Israel on the first night only and elsewhere on both the first and second nights of Pesach, the Seder concludes with a short prayer fu ll of hope "Next Ye ar in Jerusalem" which can be seen as the ultimate message ofPesach. Now, as a result of the events in the Middle East this fe stival has been re-imbued with political and religious symbols.
Although the Seder ritual has not remained precisely the same throughout its long history, the basic ritual, handed down fr om generation to generation, is, in essence unchanged. A fu r ther aspect to examine, then, is the reason for the continued existence of the Seder in Juda ism.
In this paper, I will analyze the various stages and aspects of the Seder. In particular I will explore the changing emphasis over the last half century that some parts of the ritual have received among European Jews. Further, I will illustrate that this ritual contains a mul titude of symbolic meanings which have always been essential to Judaism in the past and have not lost their relevance today. At the same time, I will show which social conditions have con tributed to the long survival of the Seder ob servance.

The Seder Observance
The general meaning of the Hebrew word Seder is 'order'. In this case, Seder means the partic ular, step-by-step order which this ritual meal fo llows. Taking place, as it does, at the begin ning of the Pesach fe stival, the Seder meal is held at home in the company of fa mily and friends. Among European Jews the Seder al ways took an important place in the religious calendar. Even during the Second World War, Jews tried to observe the Seder ritual.
In 1943, in the Dutch concentration camp Westerbork a few fa milies gathered around the table to hold a Seder. The man who led the Seder was trying to come to te rms with the loss of a ch ild. An other child had undergone an opera tion in extremely pri mitive circumstances. The leader of the Seder began to read fr om the traditional text. A woman who sat alone on a th ree-tiered bunk-bed asked if she could take part . The leader answered h er fr om the text: "Al l who arc hungry may come and eat, and all who are in need may come and celebrate the fe stival of Pesach together with us" (my transla tion fr om Haggadah she! Pcsach).'1 The Seder with its message of hope and comfort was even observed in the most difficult circumstances as a ritual emphasizing commu nitas in the sense 'I\1 rner gave to this concept, i.e. a moment of anti-structure, in which fe el-60 ings of human equality resist the pre;;sure of the established hierarchical order (cf. Tu rner 1969:96 ff. ).
The actual observance of the Seder i;; as fo llows: On the first night of Pesach the H al-fl.fa dah is read. The text relates the miraculous Exodus of the Jewish people fr om slavery in Egypt. Depending on the level of religious knowl edge of the participants, various explanations of the Haggadah are offered since "the more one relates (about the Exodus -D.M.) the more one is to be praised" (Haggadah shel Pesach). Cer tain ritually prescribed fo ods and dishes are then eaten and fo ur cups of wine are drunk in the course of the meal.
The Seder begins with a verbal consecration of the festiva l , after which the fi rst cu p of' wine is drunk. The fiJU r cu ps of' wine urc linked to the fo ur expressions of redemption empl oyed in the Pentateuch in connection with the liberation of the Jewish people [r om Egypt. Then the young est of those present asks fo ur questions. The rest of th e Haggadah can be con sidered a re sponse to these fi:l ur question s.
On the Seder table is a special plate with three matzot (unleavened bread), on the top left-hand side is an egg, on the top right a bone, in the centre the bitter herbs -usually a p i ece of horseradish. Below on the left is a piece of vegetable: an onion, a potato or radish, and below on the right is a dish con si sting of a mixture of apple, almonds, wi n e and, depen d ing on local custom, various other ingredients .
Finally, below in the middle there is a quantity of bitter vegetables, mostly a bitter-tasting let tuce. The matzah symbolizes the speed with which the Jewish people had to leave Egypt once the time of their deliverance had arrived.
There was not even time for the bread to rise: the clear implication here, is that the fu ture Messianic redemption will also occur in the twinkling of an eye. The unleavened bread also symbolizes a more personal aspect of redemp tion. Ordinary leavened bread is "risen" -this refers to the "fermenting" process within the person. The ideal person does not possess the egotism and arrogance of the leavened person. He reduces himself to the level of the flat un leavened bread. Matzah is also, therefore, the bread of affliction, the bread of poverty, of insig nificance. The three matzot together symbolize the unity of the Jewish people, consisting as it does of three ritual categories, priests, Levites and ordinary Jews. The egg is a reminder of the offerings brought in the Te mple in connection with the fe stival. It is also a reminder of death, since eggs are eaten as part of the mourning ritual fo llowing the loss of a close relative. The bone is a reminder ofthe Paschal lamb offering.
The Paschal lamb is also a symbol of survival, since in the last moments before the Exodus, the Jews had to smear the blood of a lamb on their doorposts in order that their houses should be recognized as Jewish homes. In this way, they would be "passed-over" during the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. The various kinds of' bitter herbs -horseradish, lettuce and so on, arc a ::;ymbol ofth e bitter time:; of::;lavery.
The Hebrew word lor bitter vegetables is m.aror.
The mixture of apple and wine comes as u con trast to the bitter herbs. It is also reminis ccnt ofthe cement which the Jews used in Egypt to make bricks.
There is yet another aspect of th e contrast between life and death which exists in the Seder. The bitter herbs refer to the bitter perse cution in Egypt when Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, decreed that all male babies were to be drowned in the Nile. On the other hand, the apples in the sweet cement-like mixture are a symbol of life : the women gave birth to their children under the apple trees, so that the Egyptians would not realize that a Jewish child had been born." Finally, the reason why the vegetable on th e Seder plate is dipped in salt water at the com mencement of the Seder is in order to awaken the curiosity of any children who may be present.
Of course, many other comments could be made on the Seder. It is, however, not my inten tion to give a detailed analysis and explanation of every aspect of the Seder. This is not only because Gruber Fredman (1983) has already done a deep study of the Seder but also because I wish to delineate in its "totality" the specific message which is today being propagated by this ritual. It may even be possible that aspects of the Seder which previously received little emphasis, are now coming more sharply into fo cus. For this reason, it is important to establish that the Seder is connected with 'liberation' or 'redemption'. This is already apparent at the beginning. The Seder begins with the drinking of the first of the fo ur cups of wine. Wine is a symbol of freedom. This can be seen fr om the fa ct that a fifth cup is also filled, by some at the beginning of the Seder and by others at a later stage of the ritual. There is a difference of opinion among the sages of the Ta lmud as to whether there are fo ur, or five, expressions of 'redemption' in the To rah and consequently as to whether fo ur or five cups of wine must be drunk at the Seder. As a result of this difference of opinion, a fifth cup of wine is filled, but not drunk, in expectation of the appearance of the prophet Elijah. Before the coming of the Messi ah, Elijah will solve all cl i�;agreements and dillcrences ofopinion. Moreover, he is the proph et who will announce the anticipated Messianic redemption of the future. Then after the first cup ol' wine is drunk, the ritual recital of the story of the Exodus begins with the asking of th e Four Questions "Why is this night different fr om all other nights?". The answer begins: "We were slaves in Egypt" and the liturgical recital of the Haggadah concludes with the words "Next year in Jerusalem". It may be clear that, particularly in extreme circumstances, the Seder fu nctioned as a ritual passage fr om slavery to fre edom. Not only dur ing the Second World War but also in Eastern Europe under communist rule Pesach was cel ebrated as 'our holiday of liberty' (Gilbert 1985: 196). It is necessary to analyze this ritual in more detail to understand its meaning as a ritual of identification of the individual with a collective identity.

The Pesach Haggadah
An extremely interesting aspect of the Hagga dah is that it is composed on a question and answer basis. This interrogatory character al ways exists. If, for example, no child is present to ask the fo ur questions, they are recited by one of the adults. If a person conducts the Seder 62 alone, then he recites the fo ur questions on his own. Of all the explanations for the various customs of the Seder offered by the sages the most prevalent is that any children pre�;ent should be stimulated to ask questions.
The Seder, then, can be construed as a ri tual involving question and answer. Symbolically, to ask a question is to emphasize that something is unknown. By giving answers to the question, the unknown becomes known. Obviously, the questioner must be one who does not yet know the answer. Such a one is the youngest member of the group, preferably a child. A child is still This is certainly the case with day and night, as can be seen immediately at the beginning of the Seder. The fo ur questions begin with relatively general questions "Why is this night different fr om all other nights?" Moreover, the Seder takes place at nightfall which is also the begin ning of the Jewish day. The reason is "It was evening, it was morning, the first day" (Genesis 1:5). Based on this text, the evening is consid ered to be the start of a new day.
In the concealment of darkness the revealed light of the dawn lies hidden. This theme is made explicit in the Haggadah with the story which is related about the sages who met to gether to celebrate the Seder. They were so involved in telling the story of the Exodus fr om Egypt, that they did not notice that dawn had already broken. Their students came to inform that it was time to recite the morning prayer.
One of the leading Jewish scholars, the late Rabbi M.M. Schneerson, the so-called Rabbi of Lubavitch, gives the fo llowing explanation of this incident: the sages referred to in the Hag gadah were numbered amongst the great teach ers of Judaism. Their students stood on a lower spiritual level. The "lighi" radi ated by the teach ers had the effcci ol'illuminaiingihe ::;oul::; ofthe students to such an extent thai they thought that the dawn i.e. the Mes::;ianic redemption, had broken. The teachers, who possessed souls which were "higher" than their students, need ed more illumination to attai n redemption than their students, whose "lower" souls were able to find fu liil ment at an earlier level through the corrective actions oftheir teachers (Schneerson 1962:539-540). The theme of concealment and revelation is evident in both aspects ofthe story that ofthe pupils and their teachers and thai of the night becoming day.
The symbolic importance of night is also evident in the Ta lmud. This comprehensive work, treats all religious duties and practices as well as a number of cosmological ideas. The Ta lmud begins with the question of when the evening prayer should be recited. The answer is "From the time thai the priests may begin to eat their 'heave-offering"' (Talmud Brachot 2A). The time indicated here is the time when stars appear in the sky. It is only at a later stage that the question of when th e morning prayer may be recited is discussed. The sages of the Ta lmud continue by discussing why the evening prayer is mentioned before the morning prayer. The answer given is that in the Biblical account of the Creation, the evening of each day is men tioned before the morning.
The fa ct that Judaism's most outstanding religious work which was composed in the first centuries of the Diaspora commences with the theme of night fo llowed by day, signifies that its main fo cus is on exile and redemption. The presentation of this theme in a question and answer fr amework is an indication that the Messianic redemption fr om exile -the morning -is viewed as a revelation which emerges fr om the darkness of the night. Nightfall is not de fined here as when the stars first appear in the sky -the usually Talmudic definition of night but as equivalent to the time when priests, having been ritually purified fo llowing a period of ritual impurity, may once again eat of the offering of grain which they receive as their due (literally heave-offering). This heave-offe ring implies the elevation and sanctification of the material world. If man performes his task in the world in the same manner as that of the priest, the material world will be elevated to its, right ful place and the ultimate redemption will be achieved.
The story about the sages is the only real narra tion in the Haggadah. It is evident that this story is told in order to illustrate how the Seder observance should be conducted. Further, the Haggadah continues with a long drawn-out answer to the four questions in which the events of the Exodus are discussed and the Divine Being is extolled.
Something which resembles a narration and which is in any case, almost a separate entity is the observation that there are fo ur sons, a wise son, a wicked son, a stupid or simple son and a son who does not even know how to ask ques tions . With the exception of the latter, each son asks about Passover. The Haggadah then gives a suitable answer for each son. Only the wicked son, who asks about the purpose of the whole ritual in a manner which indicates that he wishes to exclude himself fr om it, receives the answer that had he been in Egypt he would not have been liberated. On the other hand, the son who, as yet, is unable to ask any questions has to be told about the Exodus in such a way that he also becomes involved.
Rabbi Schneerson explains the "four sons" as referring to fo ur types of people. In these fo ur categories are comprised the whole of the Jew ish people, since the text of the Haggadah in naming the fo ur types of sons, employs the conjunction 'and' -the wise son, and the wicked son, and etc. Evidently a different approach is necessary fo r each type in order to arrive at revelation fr om concealment. The wise son is only wise if he can transform the bad son into a good son, since 'and' creates a connection be tween the wise and the bad son. The simple son is given a patient answer to his question and the son who does not even know how to ask, and who is therefore unable to take the initiative in order to achieve revelation, has to be helped. In other words, here also the individual is seen as part of a whole. During the ritual one is moved to identify oneself with the collectivity. It is surely not accidental that the egg which is related to death is located at the left of the Seder plate and the bone related to life at the right. Despite the fa ct that the bitter herbs are placed in the center, it is tempting to place both cate gories right and left before exile and redemp tion. This would be to fo llow Needham (1973), who showed that in many cultures the opposition between right and left plays a central role in this sort of analysis. Furthermore, then, these 64 pairs of opposites can be included in a more general symbolic classification of Jew ish cul ture (see Meijers 1987 andDouglas 1993:115).
The main themes of the Seder are the liber ation fr om Egyptian slavery, the exodus which fo llows and the entry into and taking posses sion of the homeland: "Next year in J erusalcm". These themes, have their origin in the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people.
In particular the themes "exile", "redemption" and "homeland" have been constantly reiterat ed for thousands of years under all kinds of social conditions (cf. Gruber Fredman 1983: 114;Meijers, 1984). Every year they are experienced anew on the Seder night.

The Social Coercion Resulting fr om a World Network
The huge emotional attachment to the Seder ritual which is to be fo und among the Jews to this day would appear to indicate that the themes emphasized in this ritual have a peren nial relevance and topicality. What kind of so cial conditions cause this continual reliving of particular ideas and values?
This question becomes even more pointed if we remember that the geographic and socio economic setting of the orthodox-Jewish "reli gious regimes", to use Bax's term (1987), was in a constant state of flux. What all these "re gimes" had in common was their special status in society. Jews have almost always, and in almost every place, been placed in a marginal and isolated position. As migrants without land ed property, but with business interests which extended beyond national borders, practicing their own separate religion and as economic competitors with other social strata they be longed neither to the one nor to the other social class. As a consequence of economic and politi cal developments in Eastern and Central Eu rope the power struggle between the differing political and religious groups eventually led to the total exclusion of the Jews. The authorities in various places tolerated their presence only in so far as they could profit from the financial advantage of the Jews' international business connections (Meijers 1989:17). The situation of the Jews of Western Europe differed fr om that of their brethren in Eastern l� urope, due to the fa ct that the majority of Western European Jews had fled eastwards in the Middle Ages. In spite of this, they were oiiicially treated al:l a minority group at least until after the French Revolution but in practice fo r a much longer period.
The position of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire was very similar. Although their l:litua tion was in general more fav orable than in Christian Europe, the Islamic monarchs con sidered them to be th ird-class citizens. In no country were they equal to the other citizens.
Everywhere, they acted as mediators between the different social classes, they became bro kers, fo rming a buffer between two or more social strata and continously holding what Weber called a "pariah-position" (Weber 1960:3).
The lower classes always felt that they were being exploited by the Jews because of the professional services the latter performed fo r the higher classes. At the same time, as many professions were closed for them, their social situation fo rced them to perform these services in exchange for income and protection. Through being fav ored by one class, they attracted the hatred of the other class. In general, the situa tion of the Jews was the result of a complex interplay between different social fo rces in soci eties in which they were strangers. Because of their special status they were constantly op pressed and persecuted. It was therefore a psy chological and a social necessity to fo rm a close ly-knit group that would be easily recognizable for refugees fr om other Jewish communities. In fact, this was one of the principal fe atures of a Jewish community: its members were constantly aware that they might have to appeal to each other for assistance. In this way an extensive world-wide "support-network" developed. The strength of this global network, depend ent as Jews everywhere were on external, social fa ctors, was often uncertain. At any event, in their own local communities Jews exerted great pressure on each other to conform to their own norms, and values. This internal pressure re sulted in a personal inner constraint which, in a certain sense, was just as powerful as the external pressure fr om the host society. Assim ilation into the host society in order to avoid the internal pressure was dif"li.cult, not to say im possib le. It meant severing all previous links and relationships . Moreover, there was so much antagon il:lm to these conl:ltanily mi gra ting peo ple, that assimilation was never a real poss ibil ity. This was also the case in those countries which were relatively good for the Jews . All too often misfortune struck for no apparent reason.
As a result Jews everywhere were apprehen sive of any social unrest or tension. This was especially true whenever th is tension had any connection whatsoever with Jews. This in turn led to an oversensitivity whereby anti-Semitism was perceived in situations where it did not even exist, a tendency to translate every kind of aggression with which Jews were confronted into anti-Semitic terms . In recent times, this process has been intensified by better means of communication. News of the occurrence of a calamity could be disseminated with greater rapidity. As a result of global networks and the interdependence of the Jewish communities, stresses and strains, sometimes only psycho logical, did not remain confined to a specific locality. Anxiety and fe ar could spread fr om one place to another. The only place of refuge, ofter ing protection and repose, was with one's own kind.
Evidently, the ideas and rituals most cardi nal to Judaism would be bound to allude to this problem and moreover would be transmitted almost unchanged fr om one generation to the next. This was even more true in a situation which could be really called "slavery". In those circumstances the only possibility of mentally surviving was identifying oneself strongly with a collective Jewish identity of a free nation with its own territory.

Conclusion
In contrast to what one might have expected, the notions and values which are apparent in the Haggadah are as eloquent today as in fo rmer times. The ordeals of the Second World War, the struggle fo r Israel's existence, and the difficult position of the Jews in many countries con stantly confirm the relevance of these ideas.
Although there are numerous places where Jews are able to live fr eely and undisturbed, a gl ance in the ncwRpapcr will ind icate that th e problem of being Jewish io; constantly re-ap peari ng. It docs not matter whether the news is abo u t th e influence orthe Jewi�:�h lobby in the United States, the spread of anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe or the situation in Israel. These news reports somcti mcs p rod ucc reactions that are stronger than arc necessary from a realistic standpoint. This is especially true regarding the situation in Israel, a country which more than any other is a symbol of the fu ture Mes sianic redemption from exile as well as being a homeland fo r the Jewish people. The signifi cance of the Haggadah in connection with the establishment of, and settlement in the Jewish homeland is even greater now that the fu ture of the territories which have been in Israeli hands since the wars of 1967 and 1973 is under inter national pressure. Ln order to understand Jew ish fe elings concerning this area, it is important to realize that it is not a question of political imperialism, but of fundamental values which are at stake here. The heated emotions connect ed with this issue are a fu ndamental part of a Jewish cultural and historical identity which developed in the course of many hundreds of years . Because of the marginal position of the Jews everywhere in the world during the whole of this period, this identity is constantly being re-confirmed and strengthened. And this iden tity is re-affirmed annually in the Haggadah.

I am grateful to Mart Bax and Peter Kloos who
commented on an earlier version of this paper. 2. It may be this shared notion of the importance of the fe stival, which for the Christian emphasizes Christ's last meal and for the Jew the Exodus fr om Egypt, both major religious fa cts, that lies behind why throughout history it was precisely during Pesach that Jews were so often accused of ritually