telling

Distinctions

Haggadah / maggid (הגדה, מגיד)

Force. Rashi (to Shemos 19:3), on v'sageid livnei Yisrael: Moshe was to present the matter forcefully to the men, the detailed expectations and the punishments for failing them, and tageid is related to gid, sinew, something strong and durable, not soft. From this Rabbi Klein infers that haggadah is presenting an idea in a strong, assertive way.

Novelty. Cognates of haggadah attach to information not known before it was revealed: "who higid to you that you are naked" (Bereishis 3:11); Esther not magedes her origins (Esther 2:20); testimony in court (Vayikra 5:1), where the witnesses bring the court new information. In accordance with these sources, Ibn Ezra (to Shemos 19:9) writes that haggadah is specifically saying something new that has not yet been told.

Rabbi Klein finds both implications, force and novelty, in the Haggadah's use of Shemos 13:8 for two of the four sons: one speaks strongly and harshly to the wicked son, and anything told to the son who does not know how to ask is new.

Roots.

• Radak (Sefer HaShorashim) also has haggadah telling something new, and takes the root as נ-ג-ד, neged, opposite.
• Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Rav Hirsch and Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg explain that one who tells his fellow something new sets it opposite, in front of, him, and Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel similarly that the new information opposes what the listener already knows.
• Menachem Ibn Saruk takes the root as the two-letter ג-ד, which Rabbi Pappenheim understands as connection: the telling lets the listener connect to the new information.

On either root, Rabbi Klein notes, haggadah is linked with new information.

Drawing out.

• Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (Sefer HaTishbi): aggadah is an expression of pulling or drawing, since aggadic teaching draws in the heart of its audience; he adduces Targum to Bereishis 37:28, which renders Yosef's being drawn from the pit negidu.
• In the same vein, the Netziv writes that haggadah applies specifically to revealing something by explaining it at great length, a purposely drawn-out narrative and not a brief statement.

(Modern Hebrew, Rabbi Klein notes, has unfairly redefined aggadah as a fairytale or fictional legend.)

Thanks.

• Rabbi Dovid Abudraham reads haggadah as an expression of admission or thanks.
• Rabbi Mecklenburg expresses a similar sentiment: the two-letter root gad is success and fortune, so lehagid is praising Hashem in recognizing His role in one's success and fortune.

Relevance.

• Rabbi Dr. Ari Bergmann, a student of Rav Moshe Shapiro: haggadah takes a past event and draws it into the present by demonstrating its relevance (see also Alshich to Bereishis 24:23), on the model of hagadas eidus, testimony about a past event shown to bear on the court's deliberations now. In his estimation v'higadta requires showing how the story remains relevant to us, beyond recounting it.
• Rabbi Aryeh Pomeranchik heard from the Brisker Rav in the name of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik that the Pesach-night v'higadta differs from the daily mention of yetzias Mitzrayim in that it entails explaining the connection between the story and the mitzvos of matzah and marror; Rabbi Klein suggests this may be derived from the word v'higadta itself.

Rabbi Klein's summary: haggadah implies new information; its roots convey both opposition and connection; it implies a drawn-out narrative, meant to spark dialogue; and at its core it gives a historical narrative contemporary relevance, whether by thanking Hashem for the benefit of those events or by tying the narrative to mitzvos in force.

Sippur / misaper (ספור, מספר)

General.

• Radak (Sefer HaShorashim): sippur relates what already happened or was already told; others allow it for new information as well. Either way it does not specify novelty.
• Rabbi Bergmann: haggadah shows how a past event is still relevant, sippur simply relates a past event.
• In that spirit, Malbim: haggadah is telling something relevant to the listener, misaper telling a story not necessarily directly related to him.
• Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer draws the line at how the speaker knows it: haggadah is relaying what he directly experienced, heard or saw himself, while sippur is the general word for relating any story, even a dream, that he did not physically perceive.

Wholeness.

• Rav Moshe Shapiro: everything from ס-פ-ר is interrelated, and sippur is joining many details into a single whole, the "story." A sefer binds its contents into one entity; a sfar, a border, of a country or a city, closes everything within it into one unit; mispar and sofer, number and counting, are the system in which the numbers are bound together in an orderly, logical way. Rabbi Klein adds that telling and counting are paired in other languages too: in German and Yiddish (zahlen, to count), and in English tell, tale and recount, and some etymologists take the tell of "to tell time" as counting.
• Rabbi David Golumb (Targumna to Shemos 9:29 and Vayikra 14:9) instead sees the core meaning of ס-פ-ר as "circle" or "round," relating the words to the Greek sphere: l'saper and sippur describe the way a story gains traction as people go around and around telling it; a city on the sfar, the border, is typically surrounded by a protecting wall; and a sapar, barber, cuts the hair from one ear to the other in a circular motion.

• Rabbi Pomeranchik also reports from the Brisker Rav in Rav Chaim's name two ways the Pesach-night mitzvah differs from the daily mention: it must take a question-and-answer form, and it requires the entire story, from the enslavement through the miracles and the exit to the praise of Hashem. Rabbi Klein finds both components in the word sippur: structured telling, its parts flowing one from the next in one smooth progression like numbers in a count.
• Peirush HaRokeach: haggadah is telling something new, sippur is "the first time and more." Rabbi Klein suggests he perhaps means a story intended to be told many times, one instance in a series, which fits sippur yetzias Mitzrayim, retold every year.

Why Chazal chose it.

• Rabbi Klein's answer: from the Torah's perspective the telling was of something new, the story still unfolding, hence v'higadta; from Chazal's, it had been repeated for generations and was to be passed on, hence misaper.
• Rabbi Yechiel Michel Feinstein, a son-in-law of the Brisker Rav, finds the precedent in Shemos 10:2, where the purpose of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart and the miracles is l'maan tesaper to your children, that they may know Hashem. Because that is the ultimate purpose, Chazal built the name of the mitzvah on it; the Torah's v'higadta teaches only how to tell, not the purpose.
• Rabbi Mecklenburg offers a similar explanation: a hallmark of sippur is explaining something clearly, and the word is related to sapir, the blue gem. Hashem's administration of the world is like the clear blue sky, sometimes clouded when the wicked obscure His role; spelling it out clearly clears the clouds away. According to this, the term sippur fits the telling of the Exodus, because presenting the whole story shows how Hashem oversees all of creation.

Two mitzvos. After a lengthy discussion Rabbi Nosson Gestetner concludes that there are two separate mitzvos at the Seder: sippur yetzias Mitzrayim, verbalizing the story and sequence of events, which binds even one who is alone and already knows the story; and v'higadta, revealing to one's children ideas or details they did not know.

Sources

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Pesach: Telling the Story," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 13 April 2019.

Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Haircut Time," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 2 April 2022.

Cited in the essay: Bereishis 3:11, 24:23, 37:28; Shemos 10:2, 13:8, 19:3, 19:9; Vayikra 5:1; Devarim 26:3; Esther 2:20; the Haggadah; Ramban to Devarim 26:3; Rashi to Shemos 19:3; Ibn Ezra to Shemos 19:9; Radak, Sefer HaShorashim s.v. נגד; Menachem Ibn Saruk; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim, Cheshek Shlomo s.v. גד and s.v. גז, and Yerios Shlomo 1:62a and p. 815 onwards; Rav Hirsch to Devarim 23:3; Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, HaKsav VeHaKabbalah to Bereishis 41:25, Shemos 9:16 and Devarim 26:3; Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel, Redifei Maya s.v. ספר/הגד; Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur, Sefer HaTishbi s.v. אגד; Targum to Bereishis 37:28; the Netziv, Haamek Davar to Devarim 32:7; Rabbi Dovid Abudraham; Rabbi Dr. Ari Bergmann; Alshich to Bereishis 24:23; Rabbi Aryeh Pomeranchik, reporting the Brisker Rav in the name of Rav Chaim Soloveitchik; Malbim, Sefer HaCarmel s.v. מגיד מספר; Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer, Beiurei Shemos Nirdafim s.v. אמר-ספר; Rav Moshe Shapiro; Peirush HaRokeach to Bereishis p. 56; Rabbi Yechiel Michel Feinstein; Rabbi Nosson Gestetner; Rabbi David Golumb, Targumna to Shemos 9:29 and Vayikra 14:9.