A UNIQUE SITTING POSITION
The Pesach Seder is a very special celebratory dinner in which we have certain traditions, like consuming certain foods or drinks, to help us recreate the experience of slavery and freedom. We do this following the indication of the Sages who said “…in every generation we should feel as if we ourselves had left Egypt.” The Seder abounds in symbolisms related to experiencing as much as possible physical slavery and physical freedom. One of these symbols is a physical gesture, a sitting arrangement or position we adopt when we eat at the Seder to express (and / or feel) cherut “feeling free by displaying prosperity”, which in the past usually came together. This sitting position is known in Hebrew as haseba, leaning, reclining. The Talmud, Maimonides, the Shulhan Arukh, and practically all rabbis indicate that it is an obligation to eat the Matsa, drink the four glasses of wine, and eat the festive meal while leaning on our left side. Let’s now see the origin and history of this custom. In ancient times, common people would sit on the floor to eat. In other places, like Athens or Rome (where slaves constituted around 80% of the population) slaves were not even allowed to sit on the floor: they had to eat while standing.
At the time the Rabbis of the Talmud established the traditions of Pesach, the nobles, the royalty, and the aristocracy of Rome ate in a “triclinium”, especially when they celebrated an important occasion. It should not be surprising then that the arrangement of the tables and seats modeled the arrangements of the contemporary royalty and aristocracy.
THE ROMAN TRICLINIUM
The triclinium consisted of three or six couches organized in a U-shaped manner, which were “wide enough to accommodate three diners who reclined on their left side on cushions”. The tables, where the food was served, were small semi-individual tables.
You can see here, in this old Roman mosaic, an ancient Roman triclinium. A Jewish triclinium, like the one conceived for Pesach, must have looked like this, but obviously with much more decorum, cleanliness, and good manners.
As you can see, the couches were arranged in a “U” shape manner, which was “ wide enough to accommodate three diners who reclined on their left side on cushions” (see this). In the center, you can see three tables where the food is served. We can now understand better that when the Sages said, for example, that the table should be “lifted” (עוקרים את השולחן) in order to awaken the attention of the children, they literally referred to lifting and removing the individual small tables (called then: qe’ara) where the food was served. You can also see that people used their hands to bring food into their mouths (forks were invented after the 15th Century). And they also recline on the left side. Why on the left? Simply because most of the diners are “righty” and therefore they recline on the left and naturally use their right hand to eat. Additionally, the sages explained, that if a person reclines on his right side while eating, he risks choking with the food (perhaps, the risk was greater than usual for people who were not used to eat reclining). Now we can understand a little better the symbolism of the haseba. The Sages of the Talmud established that to feel free on this night we should recline as the nobility and the aristocracy do. Even poor Jews should feel the night of the Seder as free, important and well-off people, by reclining comfortably on the left side when eating.
FROM TRICLINIUMS TO TABLES
Over time the habit of eating in the triclinium fell into disuse. And some rabbis, like the Raaban (Abraham ben Nathan de Provence, France, 1155-1215), proposed to interrupt this custom, since in Europe the nobles sat on chairs, around a table. The vast majority of the rabbis, however, held that we should not discontinue this ancient custom. And that if we do not recline while eating the Matsa or drinking the glasses of wine, we will not be fulfilling our obligation to its fullest. Some rabbis reassigned the tradition of reclining into a different category: shinui, that is, doing something unusual during the Seder to awake children’s attention and provoke their questions.
THE BEGINNING OF FEMINISM
Another issue that was discussed for centuries is whether women also had to recline while eating. The Talmud says unambiguously “no”. This is better understood when we take into account that at that time, as you can see in the mosaic, it was not part of the protocol for decent women to recline in the triclinium. The Talmud, however, mentions some exceptions, such as isha chashuba, an important woman. In the Roman Empire there were some women who belonged to the elite and were known as “roman matrons” (matronita in the Talmud) who would fully participate in the triclinium. Some rabbis of the Middle Ages, especially in Europe (Tosafot, Rema, etc.) thought that in their own times (12-16 century) all women should recline, since “all our wives should be given the status of important women” …. And who would argue with that?! Over time, the original tradition was “readjusted”, and nowadays men and women, in all Jewish communities, are equally obligated to recline while eating and drinking at the Seder.
