PESACH MATH

ABSENCE OF MOSHE FROM THE HAGADAH

NO QUANTITY OR NULL?
The figure of Moshe is deeply engraved in the national consciousness as one of the pillars of Jewish
faith. In the light of this, it is extremely surprising to find so few references to Moshe in the
Passover Haggadah. He appears there only once, incidentally, in the context of a quote from
Parshat Beshalah (and some manuscripts of the Haggadah do not have this verse and do not
mention Moshe at all).
The authors of the Haggadah had numerous opportunities to mention Moshe. The Haggadah provides a
history of the Jews, mentions the exodus from Egypt, the splitting of the Red Sea, and the
revelation at Sinai – all events in which Moshe's role was quite significant.
How, then, are we to understand the omission of Moshe's name from the Haggadah? Is this omission
accidental or deliberate? Below we present two possible explanations:
A. The omission of Moshe's name could be a desire to ascribe these miraculous acts solely to G-d.
B. The omission of Moshe's name might also have served anti-Samaritan polemics. The Haggadah
appears to have taken shape over several centuries, from the end of the Second Temple period
through the time of the geonim. During these years, especially towards the end of the Persian
period, the struggle between rabbinic Judaism and the Samaritans reached a peak. Moshe was a
figure of great importance to the Samaritans, considering the fact that they included in their canon
only the Pentateuch (the Five Books of Moshe). Hence it seems quite reasonable that the authors of
the Haggadah might have wished to minimize the role of Moshe as part of their anti-Samaritan
(and perhaps also anti-Christian) polemic. The story of the exodus from Egypt, as it is recast in the
Haggadah, shows an attempt at coping with the personality cult that had developed around the
figure of Moshe, which in its most extreme manifestations went as far as to almost deify him.
ZERO
People may not necessary appreciate the importance of the number zero, besides the fact that
you would love to have a lot of them behind some other numbers in your bank account. In fact, you
would think that the number zero is just like any other number. Nothing special about it! Well, after
you read through this very brief history of the number zero, hopefully you would see it in a new
light.
Believe it or not! The number zero that we are accustomed to, came into existence rather
late, around 200 A.D. (centuries after the great Classical Greek Period, which can arguably be called
the origin of the modern mathematics). The number zero as we know it was conceived in India.
They were the first to recognize a mathematical representation of concept of no quantity. Connected
with this late appearance of the number is the second significant fact, namely, that zero must be
distinguished from nothingness (null). Undoubtedly it was the inability of earlier peoples to perceive
this distinction which accounts for their failure to introduce the zero. This was very understandable
because the difference is very subtle.
You can see the distinction of zero and nothing by considering the following examples: A
person's grade in a course he never took is no grade or nothing. But he may, however, have a grade
of zero. Or if a person has no account in a bank, his balance is nothing. On the other hand, if he has
a bank account, he may very well have a balance of zero.
That was interesting, but you may think, "What else can someone possibly say about the
number zero, it is just a number...?" Well, zero is not just a number; it is a very important number.
With the availability of zero, mathematicians were finally able to develop our present method
of writing whole numbers. We count in units and represent large quantities in tens, tens of tens, tens
of tens of tens, etc. Thus we represent one hundred twenty-three by 123. The left-hand 1 means, of

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course one tens of tens; the 2 means two times ten; and the 3 means three units. The concept of zero
makes such a system of writing quantities practical since it enables us to distinguish 11 and 101.

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Note: Allusion to Moshe in the Haggadah

‫ = משה‬365 = ‫נרצה‬
Moshe is the first redeemer and the final redeemer

From Innerpedia

0 (the 0 (the number zero) is translated in modern Hebrew as ‫( אֶפֶס‬efes).

The word appears a few dozen times in the Bible. Its meaning in the Bible tends round the locus of
"nullfiy."

As a number, zero is first alluded to in Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) in the words: "...Before one,
what do you count." This statement also implies that zero is different from other numbers, not a
revealed but rather a concealed entity. Thus, the relationship of zero to other numbers is a concealment-
revelation one.

In Kabbalah as explained in Chassidic teachings, the word the modern Hebrew word ‫( אפס‬efes) is part
of a triad of terms that are related: efes (‫)אפס‬, ayin (‫)אין‬, tohu (‫)תהו‬, which can be translated as zero,
nothingness, and chaos. This triad corresponds, in order to the three heads of the crown, and thus zero
corresponds to the highest head, the unknowable head (radla).

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