We have a religious obligation to talk about Pesach and the exodus from Egypt, in the hope of building a connection between us and the Hebrews of Moses’ time.

How we do this is laid out in the Hagadah, a mash-up of writings assembled over several hundred years but first edited in about 200 CE by Judah HaNasi (Judah the Prince, or Leader) and published in Tractate Pesachim in the Mishnah. This sets out the basics: the Four Questions; the requirement to expound the Exodus story; the drinking of four cups of wine; and the explaining of symbols (matzah, shankbone and maror).

Over the next 300 years, the Talmud (~200–500 CE) adds to this, with interpretations of biblical verses, and anecdotes about the seder nights (e.g., the rabbis at Bnei Brak who went on talking until it was time for shacharit).

In the second half of the first millennium, the Geonic period (~600–1000 CE), the Hagadah becomes more fixed, especially in the tenth century, under the Egyptian-born Saadia Gaon (the Very Excellent Saadia), who became head of the Sura academy in Babylonia. Saadia produced one of the first known hagadah texts, which we recognise for such standards as Ha Lahma Anya, Dayeinu and Chad Gadya.

In this sense, the Hagadah can be seen as a walk through time: 1. The Biblical core; 2. The Mishnah layer; 3. The Talmudic layer; 4. The Geonic layer; 5. Medieval additions; and 6. Later embellishments (1500 CE to today).

But there’s a significant gap: we have no specific information about how to celebrate Pesach, or how Pesach was celebrated, from the Exodus to the rabbinic period about 1,500 years later. At most, there are passages in the books following the Exodus that describe how Passover was observed in practice, especially the sacrifice and the eating of the lamb, but they do not prescribe how we should—either because it was understood and there was no need or because it had been forgotten. 

In particular, we have Joshua 5:10–12, where the Israelites camp in Gilgal after entering Israel, celebrate Pesach and eat roasted grain and matzah. (It’s at this point that the daily supply of manna stops.)

In 2 Kings 23, we have the Temple-era Passover, in which King Josiah institutes a major national Pesach celebration, sacrifices are performed in the Temple, and the people are told to keep the feast “as written in the book of the covenant”, which confirms that the practice had been lost. Here, commemoration of Pesach relies on centralised Temple worship; there is no obvious seder narrative. 

And third, and very much later, 2 Chronicles 30 and 2 Chronicles 35 tell us about the reforms of the Second Temple period. Here, in chapter 30, King Hezekiah restores Passover, the people gather in Jerusalem, and they celebrate with joy and prayer. Some irregularities are also noted: late observance and mixed participation.

In 2 Chronicles 35, looking back to Josiah’s Passover maybe 80 years later, we have a detailed description of........

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