Why wasn’t Moshe mentioned at all in the Hagaddah?
We find that Moshe’s name was left out of Parshat Tetzaveh, leaving Chaza tol scramble to find reasons to explain why. So much more so, here, in the Hagaddah that retells the story of the Exodus, which Mosh had such a strong hand in, how could his name not be mentioned even once?
Clearly this was no accident. In the paragraph of מתחילה עבדי עבודה זרה היו אבותינו the Hagaddah quotes the Pesukim from sefer Yehoshua from Chapter 4, pesukim 2-4, but stops and does not quote pasuk 5 which says, ואשלח משה ואת אהרון ואגוף את מצרים. Leaving Moshe out is intentional?
Even later in the Hagaddah when it says ועל הים מה הוא אומר: וירא ישראל את היד...ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבדו, so only Moshe’s name is mentioned, but nothing about what he did or accomplished! Even his name was only mentioned parenthetically to Hashem. Apparently in older versions of the Hagaddah, this pasuk with his name got left out!
The biggest question here is, why go to such lengths to leave Moshe out of the Hagaddah?
Rav Reuven Margoliyos says Moshe was left out of the Hagaddah to emphasize Hashem’s role in the Exodus. As it says, לא על ידי מלאך...ולא על ידי שליח. The point of the Hagaddah was to come to appreciate every act that Hashem did for us along the way; this is the foundation of Judaism, hence the focus is solely on Hashem himself.
The Chofetz Chaim says something completely opposite. Since we know Moshe was the humblest man to ever live, and every step of the Exodus from Egypt came through his hand, the author of the Hagaddah wanted to downplay Moshe’s involvement to reflect his humility.
The Vilna Gaon adds something that might link both the opinions of Rav Margoliyos and the Chofetz Chaim together. The Hagaddah leave’s Moshe’s name out when quoting the pesukim from Sefer Yehoshua because if it mentioned him once, he would have to be mentioned over and over again. If that were to happen it would appear that the story revolves around Moshe and some of us might erroneously think Moshe did all of these miraculous things by himself, not realizing it was all the hand of Hashem which saved us. This is why the only time the Hagaddah does mention Moshe is where it says ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבד, “they had faith in Hashem and in Moshe, His servant,” emphasizing that everything happened through Hashem and Moshe was only His servant. This also helps us understand why we don’t use the 5th pasuk from Yehoshua that mentioned Moshe -- it mentions him without the word servant.
The message is clear. Pesach, more than any other holiday is about educating our children. It is about instilling in them a love for Hashem and the belief that it was the hand of Hashem that freed us from Egypt. It is for this very reason the Hagaddah goes out of its way not to mention Moshe, with the exception of calling him Hashem’s servant, just one time.
Although we want our children to appreciate Moshe’s greatness, we do not want them erroneously thinking it was he who saved us. We want our children to walk away from seder night believing with all their heart that it was all the hand of Hashem who saved us and continues to do so to this day!
