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March 27, 2022

Mah Nishtanah: The Mishnah’s Fifth Question!

Dr. Chanan Gafni

Dr. Chanan Gafni

Chanan Gafni Studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, while earning his academic degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (MA) and Harvard University (PhD). He currently teaches at Hebrew University and Midreshet Lindenbaum. His publications include The Mishnah’s Plain Sense (2011), and most recently: Conceptions of the Oral Law in Modern Jewish Scholarship (2019).

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The Passover Seder is the most meaningful of all Jewish rituals, and the Mishnah — arguably the most significant rabbinic text — lays out the entire Seder in tractate Pesachim. Yet the anonymous author of the Passover Haggadah has deviated from the Mishnah both in form and content. What is the religious/educational thinking that drives the classical Haggadah to alter the Mishnah? We ask, Mah Nishtanah?

This Rapoport Memorial Lecture, taught by Dr. Chanan Gafni, is sponsored by Dr. Samuel and Sanda E. Rapoport.

It was originally recorded on 03/27/2022.

The Annual Rapoport Memorial Lecture

The Annual Rapoport Memorial Lecture - 03/27/2022
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