A small table like a TV tray with a Seder plate on it was placed before each participant in the Seder. The Mishnah records on today’s daf TB Pesakhim 114, “They brought before him matza and ḥazeret and ḥaroset, and at least two cooked dishes in honor of the Festival” (Sefaria.org translation) The Gemara wants to know what these two dishes were.
The first answer: “The Gemara asks: What are these two cooked foods mentioned in the mishna? Rav Huna said: Beets and rice. The Gemara relates that Rava would seek beets and rice for his meal on Passover night, since this ruling came from Rav Huna’s mouth. Although Rava realized that Rav Huna was merely citing examples and did not mean that one must eat those specific foods, he wanted to fulfill the statement of his teacher precisely.” (Sefaria.org translation) The Ashkenazi prohibition against eating rice on Passover is in direct contradiction to our Gemara. Only Rabbi Yoḥanan ben Nuri argued that it was a grain and can leaven on our daf. The overwhelming consensus is that rice does not leaven, but becomes rancid. Consequently, I permit the eating of rice in my household during Passover. We make sure though that the rice is under Sephardic supervision for Passover. Allowing rice on Passover makes the holiday so much more enjoyable for all those friends and family members who need a gluten-free diet.[1]
The second answer: “Ḥizkiya said: The two cooked foods can even be fish and the egg that that was fried on it” (Sefaria.org translation) Rashbam comments that even though fish and eggs were fried together and usually considered one dish, for the Seder they were still considered two distinct cooked foods.
The third answer: “Rav Yosef said: One requires two types of meat on Passover night, one in remembrance of the Paschal lamb and the other one in remembrance of the Festival peace-offering, which was also eaten on Passover night. Ravina said: For the two cooked foods one may use even the meat on the bone and the gravy in which it was cooked.” (Sefaria.org translation) Apparently these two cooked foods did not only symbolically represent the Paschal lamb and the special holiday sacrifices called the Hagigah, they were also the main course or at least the soup entrée according to Ravina.
From the time of the Gemara until the Shulkhan Arukh (approximately 500-1563 C.E.), having an egg on the Seder plate isn’t mentioned. Its meaning has been transformed by Joseph Karo. “They bring before the host a tray that has the three mazot on it, and maror and ḥaroset and karpas (or other green vegetable) and two cooked dishes, one in remembrance of the Pesakh and one in remembrance of the Hagigah. They are accustomed to (fulfill this) with meat and an egg. They are accustomed for the meat to be a shank bone, and for it to be roasted and the egg should be boiled.” (Shulkhan Arukh, Orekh Hayim 473:4)
The Rema on Shulkhan Arukh, Orekh Hayim 476:2 explains why an egg. “In some places they are accustomed to eat eggs, and remembrance for the mourning (over the destruction of the Temple). The reason for this seems to me to be that (the day of) Tisha B’Av is (calendrically) determined by (the date of) Passover eve. Moreover it is a remembrance of the destruction of the Temple, in which Passover sacrifices were offered.
In other words, the cow (the Hagigah) laid an egg.[2]
[1] I
learned about eating rice on Passover from my friend and colleague Dr. Rabbi
David Golinkin. You can read his teshuvah
about eating kitniyot on Passover in
the Responsa of the Va’ad Halacha of the rabbinical Assembly of Israel,
volume 3, 5748-5749. English synopsis pages ix-x and full Hebrew text pages
35-55.
[2] I recently learned about how the egg became the symbol of the Hagigah from Prof. Robert Harris. He titled his lecture “the cow that laid an egg.”
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