Introduction This mishnah is concerned with the recitation of the Hallel at the seder. The Hallel is a group of Psalms from Psalm 113 through Psalm 118. Today it is recited on the three festivals (Pesah, Sukkot and Shavuot), on Hannukah and on Rosh Hodesh (the new month). All of the sages agree that at the seder the Hallel is split into two parts. The first part is recited before the meal and the rest is recited afterwards. The disagreement is over how much is recited before the meal. The second section of the mishnah contains the formula of the blessing recited after this first part of the Hallel is recited.
How far does one recite it? Bet Shammai say: Until “As a joyous mother of children” (Psalm 113). But Bet Hillel say: Until “The flinty rock into a fountain of waters” (Psalm 114). Bet Shammai says that before the meal is eaten, at a relatively early hour in the evening, they should not recite Psalm 114 which starts, “When Israel went forth from Egypt” because the children of Israel had not left Egypt at that early time in the evening. In contrast, Bet Hillel says that the children of Israel did not leave until the next daybreak does this mean that we shouldn’t say Psalm 114 until daybreak? That would be absurd. Rather, since they began to tell the story of the Exodus before the actual Exodus happened, they may recite Psalm 114 before the meal.
And he concludes with [a formula of] redemption. Rabbi Tarfon says: “Who redeemed us and redeemed our fathers from Egypt”, but he did not conclude [with a blessing]. Rabbi Akiva says: “So may the Lord our God and the God of our fathers bring us to other appointed times and festivals which come towards us for peace, rejoicing in the rebuilding of Your city and glad in Your service, and there we will eat of the sacrifices and the pesahim” etc. until “Blessed are You who has redeemed Israel.” Bet Hillel holds that one should conclude the blessing with a formula mentioning redemption. It seems that Bet Shammai would hold that redemption is not mentioned at this point in the evening because the children of Israel have still not been redeemed from Egypt. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva disagree over how the blessing is formulated. For Rabbi Tarfon it is a simple blessing, one which mentions the past redemption but does not have a formal conclusion. The whole blessing reads “Blessed are You, Lord our God, Master of the Universe Who redeemed us and redeemed our fathers from Egypt and brought us to this night.” Note that “and brought us to this night” is not found in the printed edition of the Mishnah but is found in early manuscripts. According to Rabbi Tarfon only the past redemption is mentioned. Rabbi Akiva, on the other hand, sees the Pesah redemption as the paradigm for the future redemption, one which will bring Israel back to her land and the Temple to restoration. Hence the blessing includes a mention of hope for the future. We should note that the version of the blessing which I have translated above is the one found in the printed edition of the Mishnah. The end reads “Who has redeemed Israel”, which refers to the past. The version found in early manuscripts is “Who redeems Israel”, referring to the future. Today we recite Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon’s version in a combination and we conclude with “Who has redeemed Israel.”