{"id":89129,"date":"2021-02-18T15:46:50","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T13:46:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=89129"},"modified":"2021-02-18T15:46:50","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T13:46:50","slug":"the-storyteller-and-the-stickler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-storyteller-and-the-stickler\/","title":{"rendered":"The Storyteller And The Stickler"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[],"acf":{"old_id":"89129","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64758,"related_cahpter":"681","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"A white lie at the seder table?\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"

My mother-in-law is a poet and a storyteller. She likes to take an interesting tale and makes it even more interesting. On occasion, my father-in-law interrupts her story, pointing out an inaccuracy or imprecision. Her retort: “Don’t be a stickler!” My translation of this phrase is: “Why are you ruining my account with facts and figures? I am not writing a history book!” The stickler, my father-in-law or another culprit who interrupted the story, most likely is thinking “But even a story needs to be accurate.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The same argument between a storyteller and a stickler is recorded in the Tosefta (Berachot 10:9) between the students of Shamai and Hillel. The topic of discussion is which psalms should be recited before the meal at the Passover Seder:<\/span><\/p>\n

How much of the Hallel does one recite? Beit Shamai says until the verse “The mother of the children rejoices” (psalm 113). Beit Hillel says until the verse “The flint becomes a spring of water” (psalm 114).<\/span><\/p>\n

Beit Shamai said to Beit Hillel: “Did Israel at this point exit from Egypt?” (Psalm 114 mentions the Exodus, and at this point of the evening, Pharaoh had not yet given consent).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beit Hillel said to them “Even if you wait until later in the evening, to the time when we had permission to leave, you still wouldn’t be able to mention the Exodus from Egypt (according to your criteria of exactness) since Israel only physically left Egypt noon the next day.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Shamai was a pedantic teacher. Among his favorite saying was “Say little and do much.” His students were equally exacting in their zeal to fulfill the law. They tended to interpret the Torah in its literal sense and were honest to a fault. They did not even permit praising a bride in an exaggerated manner to endear her to her groom. Therefore they felt that Psalm 114, which begins with the words “As we left Egypt”, could not be said at the start of the Seder, since Israel was officially still enslaved at this time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beit Hillel responded, “Don’t be a stickler!” Their founder Hillel’s actions and words portrayed openness: He accepted any student willing to learn, and one of his favorite sayings was “Love mankind.” Hillel’s students followed his liberal approach in interpretation and law. They strove to make the Torah attainable for the general public, and even permitted telling a white lie to make someone happy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, Beit Hillel felt the annual Passover Seder should not be a dry, albeit accurate, recounting of the Exodus. Rather, on this night we should re-experience the feelings of liberation Israel had when leaving Egypt, and convey the lessons of the Exodus to our families.\u00a0 Based on this idea, Beit Hillel required psalm 114’s poetic recounting of the Exodus to be recited before eating the festive meal, even with its sequential inaccuracy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, this psalm is not only recited at the Seder, but many families sing it in unison as a joyous expression of our freedom.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":89130,"id":89130,"title":"ps114-storyteller","filename":"ps114-storyteller.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/ps114-storyteller.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-storyteller-and-the-stickler\/ps114-storyteller\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ps114-storyteller","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":89129,"date":"2021-02-18 13:46:29","modified":"2021-02-18 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