Mazel
Toy!

70

Haggada provides road map for the seder service.

Porcelain seder set in bright primary colors, by
Mordechai Rosenstein for Naaman, Israel
(Seder late with cups, $172.50; square matza
dish, 60; Elijahs cup, $31.25, Esther's).

SUSAN TAWIL

Special to the Jewish News

W

ay before computers,
Jews understood the
importance of interac-
tive education as a
means of imprinting indelible mem-
ories in the minds of children.
Primary among these experiential
lessons is the Passover seder.
As the story of the Almighty's
redemption of our people is retold,
all Jews are mandated to consider
themselves as though they personal-
ly, had left Egypt.
Through the seder, meaning
"order," we re-live the experience,
telling the story with audiovisual and
,
other sensory effects.
We eat matza to recall our hasty
departure to freedom; dip maror
into charoset to remember the bitter-
ness of slavery and the mortar; drip
wine to commemorate the plagues,
etc.
Our guide for this participatory
spiritual history lesson is the
Haggada (narration), the book we

41.

Silk mat= cover with chain-stitched
embroidery offerusalem skyline in blues
and purples, by Yair Emanuel Israel
($60, Tradition! Tradition).

Illustrated Artscroll Children's Haggadah,, by
Mesorah Publications ($17 hardcover, $7
paperback, Borensteins, Esther's and Spitzers.)

we now use, he
use to carry out
explains, is found
the seder for the
in the siddur of
evening's ritual
Rav Amram
meal.
Gaon, who was
According to
head
of the
Rav Shmuel
Haggadot, seder plates
Yeshiva of Sura in
Irons, head of
and afikomen covers
Babylon, in
the Kollel
approximately 850
Institute of
are some of the
C.E.
Greater Detroit
Passover symbols with
In recent times,
and director of
a
profusion
of dif-
the Jewish
an artistic allure.
ferent Haggadot
Heritage
has become avail-
Foundation, our
able, making the Haggada one of the
Haggadot are the result of the cumu-
most published texts ever.
lative efforts of thousands of years of
New editions of Haggadot are
Jewish history. The Haggada's origin
published annually. Here is a sam-
is in the Torah itself The command-
pling of what is being offered in
ment to recount the story of the
local Jewish book and gift outlets to
Exodus from Egypt is found in the
enhance your seder experience (call
book of Exodus, 13:8.
for availability):
"The core of the Haggada dates
On the high end, are the gift
from the time of the Second Temple,
Haggadot, such as the coffee-table-
around 350 B.C.E.," Rav Irons says.
sized Living Exodus Haggadah
The earliest Haggada in the form

(Artscroll, $60); a fancy black leather
and sterling silver-covered book
($150, Spitzer's, Southfield), or a
boxed set of six Haggadot with
embossed copper plate covers ($60,
Borenstein's, Oak Park).
Some Haggadot are artistic, with
beautiful calligraphy and illumina-
tion, such as those by artists Arthur
Szyk ($20, several places), Heinz
Seelig ($34, Esther's, West
Bloomfield, and Tradition!
Tradition!, Southfield) and Raphael
Abecassis ($35, Esther's).
There are basic and beginner
Haggadot, such as The Survival I&
Family Haggadah ($9 paperback), or

The join InParticipate Sing Along
Haggadah in linear format with
translation and transliteration, by the
local "Irrev." Dr. Joe Lewis ($15,
Tradition! Tradition!).
Haggadot especially for the chil-
dren are in the Jewish bookstores,
too. Choices include: My First
Haggadah, an adorable, interactive
loth book ($36); Ma Nishtanah? an
abridged Haggada with photos of
kids doing "seder stuff" ($10); The

4/14
2000

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