The Passover Haggadah: Moses and the human role in redemption.

IT IS WIDELY ACCEPTED THAT THE PASSOVER HAGgadah attributes responsibility for the redemption from Egypt to God alone and leaves no room for a human role. Two proofs are said to confirm this:

* The words of the Haggadah itself: "The Lord brought us out of Egypt not by an angel, not by a seraph, not by a messenger, but by the Holy One, blessed be Her, Himself ..."

* The nearly universal belief that the traditional Haggadah makes absolutely no mention of Moses.

The following illustrates the common wisdom on this matter. The source is noteworthy--The Israel Passover Haggadah, a work by the great scholar of rabbinic literature, Rabbi Menachem Kasher.

 
    "And not by the hand of a messenger"--refers to Moses, for the 
  plague of the slaying of the firstborn was effected only by the Holy 
  One, blessed is He, and no other. The compilers of the Haggadah found 
  no opportunity to quote even one saying or tale in praise of Moses. In 
  fact, his name is not mentioned in the entire Haggadah. The compiler's 
  purpose is to continually stress that thanks are due only to the 
  Almighty for our miraculous redemption. (2) 

The Hebrew in Kasher's Haggadah reads the same, but includes a footnote mentioning a biblical citation found in the Haggadah that indeed does mention Moses' name. Alas, the translation lacks this footnote!

This article examines the Haggadah's treatment of Moses and its understanding of the human role in the redemption from Egypt. Although the Haggadah certainly downplays his role in the Exodus, the traditional text has not entirely eliminated Moses: it refers to him twice, once by name and once obliquely. We begin by reviewing these references in light of the Haggadah's evolution and then turn to the Haggadah's midrash, "Not by an angel...." Reading this midrash against the backdrop of an ancient theological controversy--the "Two Powers in Heaven" heresy--and probing the likely sources of its language suggests that it argues against more than one supernatural participant in delivering the last plague and not against a human role in the Exodus. We then discuss the Haggadah's minimization of Moses as a precaution against tendencies to deify him. This historical background sets the stage for exploring the significance of Moses' presence in the Haggadah and of other passages in this text that point to the human responsibility in the redemption from Egypt. An excursus examines the origins of the myth of Moses' complete absence from the Haggadah. The notion derives from a comment by the Vilna Gaon and probably reflects his antipathy toward the Chasidic concept of the tzaddik.