How Pesah’s Hakhnassat Orḥim Custom has Become the Norm in Israeli Society!

Rabbi David Golinkin teaches us how Pesah’s Hakhnassat Orḥim custom has been adopted by Israelis since the October 7^th war. It is a beautiful thing to happen.

Shalom, I would like to talk about one brief passage in the Haggadah, and then relate it to our current situation since the war began in October.

I am referring to the famous Aramaic passage that occurs at the beginning of our Haggadah. It says there:

כל דכפין ייתי וייכול, כל דצריך ייתי ויפסח

“Whoever is hungry, let them come and eat. Whoever is needy let them come and share Pesah with us.”

Even though this is recited at the beginning of the Seder, unfortunately in our times, this is merely a formality because people don’t actually walk in from the street and join us at the Seder. In any case, this refers to the mitzvah of haknassat orḥim, hospitality.

This mitzvah has a long and illustrious history which can be traced both through the Bible and Rabbinic Literature. We all know the story of Abraham and the angels (Bereshit chapter 18), the story of Rebecca and the way she greeted Eliezer at the well, and the story of how Jethro (Yitro) welcomed Moses into his home. We also know the story of Manoah and the angel in the book of Judges and the story of the Shunamite woman and Elisha in II Kings.

The value of hospitality is also stressed in Isaiah 58:7 which we read in the Haftarah of Yom Kippur:

הלוא פרס לרעב לחמך, ועניים מרודים תביא בית.

“You should spread out your bread for those that are hungry, and those who are very poor you should bring into your house.”

And in the book of Job 31:32

בחוץ לא-ילין גר, דלתי לארח אפתח

“A stranger shall not sleep outside; I will open my doors to a guest.”

As we segue to Rabbinic Literature, we have a famous passage from the Siddur that actually comes from the tractate of Shabbat, folio 127a:

אמר רבי יוחנן:
שִׁשָּׁה דְּבָרִים אָדָם אוֹכֵל פֵּירוֹתֵיהֶן בָּעוֹלָם הַזֶּה וְהַקֶּרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לוֹ לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא

Rabbi Yohanan said: There are six things of which one can eat their fruits in this world and the principle remains for the next world. What is the first item? Hakhnassat Orhim (hospitality).

Similarly, we learn in Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), Chapter 1:8

יוסי בן יוחנן איש ירושלים היה אומר: יהי ביתך  פתוח לרווחה, ויהיו עניים בני ביתך

“Yossi ben Yohanan of Jerusalem said: Let your house be opened wide and may poor people feel at home in your house.”

In tractate Bava Batra folio 93b, we are told of an interesting custom practiced in Jerusalem before the Destruction of the Second Temple:

עוד מנהג גדול היה בירושלים [לפני החרבן]: מפה פרוסה על גבי הפתח — כל זמן שמפה פרוסה אורחין נכנסין, נסתלקה המפה, אין האורחין נכנסין.

“There was another beautiful custom in Jerusalem before the Destruction: A cloth was spread over the entrance – when it was there, guests entered, and when it was removed, they did not.”

Lastly, to return to the Haggadah, the famous sentence which I quoted kol dikhfin, is based on a story found in the tractate of Ta’anit folio 20b. There we are told that Rav Huna, who lived around the year 250 CE, did this every day of the year:

כי הוה כרך ריפתא הוה פתח לבביה ואמר: כל מאן דצריך ליתי וליכול .

“Whenever he broke bread he used to open his door and say: ‘Let anyone who is needy, come and eat.’ ”

Thus, originally, kol dikhfin was not simply a sentence recited at the beginning of the Seder, it was something that people actually did. So we are told by Rav Matityahu Gaon who lived in Babylon in the ninth century. He clearly states:

“Regarding the custom of saying kol dikhfin yeitei v’yeikhul, this was the custom of our forefathers: they used to lift up their tables and they left their doors open, and they recited kol dikhfin in order that their poor Jewish neighbors should come and eat. They did so in order to receive a reward from Heaven.

(Otzar Hageonim, Pesahim, p. 112, parag. 304)

So what happened? Why did Jews stop observing this beautiful custom? Once again, Rav Matityahu Gaon gives the answer:

“And now that we have more non-Jewish than Jewish neighbors, we provide the poor with food before Pesah, so that they will not have to beg from door to door, but we still lift up the tables and recite kol dikhfin according to the custom of our forefathers.”

And so the custom has remained for over a thousand years. We give kimha d’pisḥa  (money) in order to buy matzah for poor Jews before Pesah to insure that they will be able to purchase their Pesah provisions and we lift the Seder Plate and recite kol dikhfin during the Seder.

How does this play out in our modern reality?

In hutz la’aretz (outside of Israel) and in Israel we, of course, arrange before Pesah to invite guests to the Seder and we also give food and provisions to the poor before Pesah so that they should have what to eat on Pesah.

But, I think that particularly, over the past six months, as the war has raged both within Israel and in Gaza, I think that this principle of hakhnassat orḥim, of welcoming the stranger into our homes, has played out in a very beautiful fashion.

Since the war began on October 7^th, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have welcomed strangers into their homes. They have baked and cooked food for huge numbers of soldiers and they have brought food and clothing to some 250,000 people who were evacuated from their homes near Gaza and the northern border. In other words, this beautiful Pesach custom of hakhnassat orḥim has really become the norm in Israeli society.

We hope and pray that this norm will continue in years to come, not only in times of war, but in times of peace as well. 

We wish all of you a Hag kasher v’sameah, and we hope and pray that the hostages will return home in the near future and that we will defeat our enemies.

Hag kasher v’sameah 

from Schechter!

(Image: Abraham hosting the three angels, ‘Sister Haggadah’, British Library: taken from wikicommons)