משנה פסחים י:א - אפילו עני שבישראל לא יאכל עד שיסב.
The Mishnah (Pesachim 10:1) records that even a poor person should not eat on the first night of Pesach (the Seder) until she-yesev. This requirement in the Mishnah is recorded by the Shulchan Arukh (16th century, Orah Chayyim 472:3), but what does it mean to yesev? Apparently because the term yesev was a known practice, the Mishnah did not explain what the term means. Also, this could explain why the Mishnah (Pesachim 10:4) did not include a question concerning hasibah within its list of the mah nishtanah, though it is now part of the mah nishtanah, see our discussion on the Haggadah “Mah nishtanah: How many questions compromise the mah nishtanah?” Note, we will refer to different conjugations of the word yesev, such as mesev, mesubin, hasibah and hasabah interchangeably.
The Mishnah Berurah (end of 19th century, beginning of 20th century, comments on Shulchan Arukh 472:7) explains that hasibah means to turn one’s head towards the left with a pillow under one’s head. Presumably this means also that one’s body is to be turned towards the left as a person slouches somewhat to the left. Note it is not clear why a person needs a pillow for hasibah, and the Shulchan Arukh does not refer to a pillow.
The Rambam (13th century, Laws of hametz and matzah, 7:8) records that hasibah is required when one eats matzah and drinks the four cups of wine at the Seder. The Rambam adds that for the remainder of the meal if one is hesev, then this is preferable but not obligatory, see also Rama on 472:7 who quotes from R. Yaakov Weil (15th century, Germany) that it is best to yasev throughout the entire meal.
The Shulchan Arukh records that one does hasibah when drinking the wine (473:2, 479:1, 480:1) when eating the matzah (475:1, 477:1, see also Be'er Hetev 472:8), but not when eating the maror (475:1, see Talmud Pesachim 108a). (The Shulchan Arukh does not mention hasibah by the second cup of wine but presumably once he wrote to mesev by three of the cups of wine, he also meant that one was to mesev by the second cup of wine, see Mishnah Berurah 472:23.) Encyclopedia Talmudit (1981, vol. 9, on Hasibah, footnotes 134 and 150) quotes the Meiri (13th century) that one should mesev even when reciting the Maggid, but as the Meiri was lost for generations this opinion is not quoted by later authorities.
This understanding of the word yesev, to turn to the left (what is commonly referred to as leaning), is problematic since it is an odd and an uncomfortable way to eat and drink. Why by the meal of the year, when we fulfill the biblical mitzvah of eating matzah, do we eat in a strange manner? The Rambam (Laws of hametz and matzah 7:7) writes that this way of eating and drinking signifies freedom, but how does eating in a strange manner signify freedom? The answer I have been told is that this way of eating was the way the wealthy Greeks/ Romans ate, even if it is/ was uncomfortable. This answer raises more questions. Why are we copying the Greeks/ Romans? The Romans destroyed the second Bet ha-Mikdash, and we are supposed to eat like them by the Seder?
Two, did Greeks/ Romans really eat and drink by turning to the left and slouching? Why would they eat in an uncomfortable manner? I happened to be at a museum in Sicily, which showed Greeks having a feast where they were reclining on couches with their legs extended, but they were sitting upright to drink in the picture. In fact, this was the reason for the pillow to prop up their backs in order that they could sit upright to drink. In other pictures of Romans that I have seen on the internet, they also were not eating and drinking leaning to the left.
A separate question is that the understanding that the word yesev refers to turning to one’s left when eating the matzah and drinking the four cups of wine does not accord with the Mishnah Pesachim 10:1. The Mishnah is referring to preparation a person makes before the meal, and records that even a poor person is to yesev before eating. This means that the action associated with yesev happens before one eats or drinks and not when one eats and drinks. One might be tempted to understand that the Mishnah means to prepare to yesev before one eats, like by putting out pillows to recline on, but the Mishnah records that a person should not eat until he is yesev, which means the person has done this action before eating and not that one is preparing to do the action.
Possibly, the confusion of the term yesev developed since there are two ways to understand the term in the Torah. Bereshit 42:24 uses the term to refer to turning, that Yosef turned from his brothers, which would be the source for the definition of yesev to mean to lean, but in other verses, such as Bereshit 19:4, Shemot 13:18, 28:11, 39:6, the term means to circle around something. Note even the definition of to turn away is related to the second definition of circling since turning away is the beginning of the circling around.
This second definition of yesev gives a very simple understanding of the Mishnah, which accords with the Greek/ Roman practice. The crucial point of the Greeks and the Romans by their feasts with regard to the Seder was not that they ate with their feet raised and extended but that they sat in a circle. The Greek would put the couches along the edges of the room, to circle the room, while the Romans in their triclinium, (three couches) would arrange the couches in a U shape, which would be a three-quarter circle around the table. Thus, the meaning of hasibah is to sit in a circle. The Mishnah in Pesachim 10:1 means that the poor person was to arrange to sit with other people in a circle by the Seder, as apparently during the entire year he/ she ate by him/herself. This seating arrangement was to be done before the meal began since the Mishnah is referring to preparations before the meal.
This same understanding also occurs in the Mishnah Berachot 6:6, which records that if people hesebo, then one person can recite a blessing for the other people. Rav Hai Gaon (quoted in the commentary of the Melechat Shelomo on the Mishnah) explains that the Mishnah means that the people are seating in a circle together, which shows that they joined together to eat. Similarly, Tosefta Berachot 5:5 asks how does one arrange the order of hisav? The Tosefta does not answer to turn to one’s side, but it discusses how to arrange the beds and who sits where. Note also that the Yerushalmi (Pesachim 37b), which records that mesubin is a sign of freedom, does not indicate that one is to turn or lean or slouch when one eats, but rather it just contrasts mesubin with slaves, who it claims ate standing up.
This same term hasibah also appears later in the Haggadah, which records that five scholars were mesubin in Bnei Brak, which means that they were sitting in a circle in the town of Bnei Brak. I would think this is the definition of term whenever it appears in the Talmud, as for example in Pesachim 100a and 113b.
Today if we sit around a table at the Seder, then this should be considered hasibah even if we do not sit with our legs raised and extended on couches like the Greeks and Romans did, but we do not have to copy everything they did. Also, from a practical point of view to recline on couches around a table either requires a very big room or very few people at the Seder. With this understanding we do hasibah for the entire meal, which is the simple understanding of the Mishnah, and not just by the matzah and the four cups of wine. With this approach, is it right or appropriate for a person to follow the understanding that hasibah means to turn/ lean when eating in addition to seating around the table since then one is performing the mitzvot of eating matzah and drinking the wine in a strange manner?
Regardless of how the term hasibah is defined, in the Middle Ages, some opinions stated that there is no obligation at all to do hasibah at the Seder. The Ravan (1090-1170, Germany, Katzenelnbogen 1998, p. 28, also quoted in Safrai and Safrai, p. 114), following the understanding that hasibah means to eat turning to one’s left, writes that the obligation to do hasibah was only because in the times of the Mishnah important officials (the Greeks/ Romans) would eat in such manner, but in his time since important officials did not eat that way when they had fancy banquets, there was no longer a requirement to do hasibah at the Seder. Thus, the Ravan's grandson, the Ravyah (1140-1225, Germany, quoted by the Tur 472, and the Rama on 472:4,7) writes that one sits regularly by the Seder following his grandfather’s ruling. This opinion of the Ravan and the Ravyah is fascinating since they were arguing that our custom can change due to changes in the culture of the non-Jews.
The Ravan and Ravayah’s opinions were so revolutionary that it led to a large backlash. The Rosh (Rabenu Asher, Germany 1250-1327, quoted in the Shulchan Arukh 472:7), who was also a descendant of the Ravan, was so upset by his relatives’ view that he claimed that if a person ate the matzah and/ or drank the four cups of wine without doing hasibah, then the person did not fulfill the mitzvot and had to repeat the eating or drinking. This view is incredible since it makes the fulfillment of the biblical mitzvah of eating matzot dependent on Greek and Roman practices! Apparently, for the Rosh, hasibah had become one of the rituals of Seder, while for the Ravan and the Ravyah, hasibah was not a ritual of the Seder, and hence could be changed.
Rav Yosef Caro (1488-1575) in the Bet Yosef (472) follows the Rosh and quotes the Haghot Maimonides that the Ravyah's position was a singular opinion, and he makes no mention of it in the Shulchan Arukh. This was clearly not true, as at a minimum it was stated by the Ravan and the Ravyah, and quoted by the Tur, but most likely he was so bothered by the idea that one could change the law based on non-Jewish practices, that he wanted to minimize it. However, the Rama (on the Shulchan Arukh 472:4,7) writes that women need not do hasibah due to the opinion of the Ravyah and that if a man did not do hasibah when eating the matzah or drinking the four cups of wine, then he is not obligated to drink wine or eat matzah again because of the Ravyah’s opinion. (However, the Rama re-tracts a little bit from his acceptance of the Rabyah’s opinion since he adds that it is best to eat matzah again and drink the first two cups of wine a second time if on the first occasion, they were done without hasibah.)
The Bach (1561-1640, Poland, 472) is more accepting of the Ravyah’s opinion. He writes that while the law is like the Ravyah, still according to the Ravyah one can do hasibah, so he thinks it is preferable to do hasibah. Also, he writes that if one ate matzah without doing hasibah one has fulfilled his obligation, but still if one can, he should eat more matzah. However, if one drank the four cups of wine without hasibah, then he thinks one should not drink again.
The Arukh Hashulchan (1829-1908, 472:6) is bothered why the Rama wrote that women do not do hasibah because they rely on the Ravyah since he notes that based on this logic, men should also rely on the Ravyah and not be mesev. Thus, he suggests a new reason for hasibah following the understanding that hasibah means to turn towards one’s left and eat and drink in an uncomfortable manner. He suggests (472:3) that we do hasibah today to show a difference between the Seder and other nights, and he claims the hasibah is obligatory. Yet, if the rationale is to just to make differences then it cannot be obligatory, as otherwise anybody can do anything weird (summersaults at the Seder?) and claim it is obligatory. It seems that the Arukh Hashulchan realizes that the Ravyah is correct that today hasibah does not show freedom, but he does not want to accept the Ravyah since he believes that most Rabbis did not accept the Ravyah's opinion. (Aharon Israel, a friend, told me, maybe in jest, that people still do hasibah, lean, since the practice of hasibah is now one of the four questions in the mah nishtanah.)
In conclusion, the term hasibah really means to sit around in a circle, and most people do this at the Seder when they eat together as a family. Even if one believes, for reason not clear to me, that hasibah means to lean, then as noted by the Ravan and the Ravyah, leaning by the Seder has lost its initial meaning of signifying a fancy meal, and there is no need to do it today, except that one wants to be traditional even though it lessens the celebration at the meal since one is eating and drinking in an uncomfortable manner.
Bibliography:
Encyclopedia Talmudit, 1947 – present, first edited by R. Zevin, Jerusalem: Yad Harav Herzog.
Katzenelnbogen, Mordechai, 1998, Haggadah Torat Chayyim, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
Safrai, Shmuel and Zev Safrai, 1998, Haggadah of the Sages, Jerusalem: Carta,