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The Rambam's Haggadah and the Ba'al HaTanya's Haggadah lack Nirtzah. @DoubleAA quotes a version of the Simanim poem in which the order concludes with Hallel, as well. Also note the discussion here regarding various mesoros about Chasal Siddur Pesach.

Many of the piyutim that comprise Nirtzah are of unknown origin - note Echad Mi Yodeya and Chad Gadya. My question is not about who wrote them. My question is when Nirtzah was widely accepted as a part of the Seder - that is to say, when were these songs tacked on to the end of the Seder?

Related: What is Nirtzah?

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DonielF
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  • Do you mean when were songs sung after the Seder or when those songs started being called a section called Nirtza? The former probably happened a long time ago, while the latter is probably pretty recent. – Double AA Apr 05 '17 at 20:12
  • @DoubleAA The former – DonielF Apr 05 '17 at 20:12
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    It seems reasonable the Rambam also had songs at the end. He just didn't record them in his Hagadah since they aren't Halakha (like he never mentions specific Shabbat Zemirot in Hilkhot Shabbat). You can't prove anything from Haggadot that don't include stuff like that. – Double AA Apr 05 '17 at 20:13
  • I thought that just the paragraph "Chasal Sidur Pesach ..." constituted Nirtza. – Avrohom Yitzchok Apr 05 '17 at 20:54
  • @DoubleAA Is that better, on both counts? – DonielF Apr 05 '17 at 20:59
  • @AvrohomYitzchok That is just a conclusion from a Piyut from the repetition of the Amida from Shabbat HaGadol (as is the "Vayhi Bachatzi Halayla" poem). Nirtza isn't a thing that is constituted by any particular set of words. Just people sing songs after they finish. People sing songs on Shabbat too. – Double AA Apr 05 '17 at 21:03
  • Although not in any way a complete answer to the question, just wanted to point out that the Ba'al HaTanya v'Hashulchan Aruch is following his general pattern; his siddur includes very few zemiros, piyuttim, yotzros, krovos etc., due to Halachic (Hefsek: שו"ע או"ח סח:א וכן הוא שיטת הרמב"ם והגר"א) and Kabbalistic reasons. (האר"י שער הכוונות ריש ענין נוסח התפלה, מ"א ריש סי' סח, שו"ע הרב סח:ב), though the reason of Hefsek would obviously not apply in the OP's case. – termsofservice Apr 06 '17 at 03:44

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R. Yosef Zvi Rimon's book Hagaddah MiMekorah pins the songs of nirtzah to the end of the fifteenth century. He relates the following:

In all of the haggadah texts of the Ge'onim...and Rishonim, none of the piyyutim that we say during nirtzah appear, and the haggadah ends after nishmat. However, by the time of the Rishonim of Ashkenaz (what is now Germany), some began to appear. Tashbetz Katan mentions the piyyut of "Ki lo na'eh"...Leket Yosher [written by R. Yosef b. Moshe (1423-1490)] mentions the piyyutim of "az rov nissim," "ometz gevuratecha," "ki lo na'eh" and "adir bimeluchah." Over the years, seven piyyutim entered the Ashkenazic haggadot (and gradually, some of them entered the Sephardic haggadot): "chasal siddur Pesach," "az rov nissim," "ometz gevuratecha," "adir bimeluchah," "adir hu," "echad mi yode'a" and "chad gadya".

Aryeh
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