The Many Seders Of Passover

Whatever your lifestyle or level of Jewish literacy, there's a Haggadah for you.

JONATHAN GRONER
Special to the Jewish News

I

t has been said that more than
4,000 different versions of the
Passover Haggadah — the text
used to conduct the Passover
ritual meal or seder — have been pub-
lished since the Middle Ages. But in
this era — the past two decades or so
— people have really taken the
Haggadah to heart.
Embarking on a cultural journey
beyond the wine-soaked Maxwell
House manual and other well-remem-
bered Haggadot from childhood seder
tables, our generation has developed
an incredible array of variations on
this ancient text.
There are Haggadot that focus on
art, on music, on rabbinic commen-
tary; vegetarian Haggadot, feminist
Haggadot, kibbutz Haggadot, lesbian
Haggadot, children's Haggadot;
Ashkenazic, Sephardic, Chasidic and
mystical Haggadot.
Why this broad and diverse burst of
creativity? I would suggest several rea-
sons. Unlike, say, the Jewish prayer
book, the Haggadah is compact and
relatively brief. A new edition is a
project of months, not years or
decades. Moreover, a built-in audience
can be assumed. The seder is an event
that most Jews, of whatever affiliation,
observe in one way or another. The
theme of freedom is immediately
appealing. Finally, although some por-
tions of the Haggadah are declared by
tradition to be indispensable elements
of the ritual, permission and room are
available in this text to add and to
amplify to one's heart's content.
The Haggadah itself says that who-
ever goes on at length
L-_, telling b about
the Exodus from Egypt is to be
praised. What follows are examples of
a massive literary and religious out-
pouring, a consumer's guide to what's
out there. It is by no means complete,
but it is diverse! Happy Passover.

4/6
2001

A Haggadah for
every table.

A Different Night: The Family Participation
Haggadah, by Noam Zion and David Dishon.
Shalom Hartman Institute.

The authors, affiliated with the Shalom Hartman
Institute in Jerusalem, begin with the Judaically and
educationally correct premise that the seder is and
ought to be a wonderful example of teaching and
learning by doing.
"You shall tell your child about the Exodus," the
Torah commands, and this Haggadah is designed to
permit you to do just that. It retains the traditional
text and adds rabbinic stories, ancient interpreta-
tions, bits of Zionist and Holocaust history — all in
a child-friendly environment.
It is beautifully and diversely illustrated with every-
thing from Chagall and Ben Shahn pieces to medieval
woodcuts to children's drawings. Various artistic ren-
derings of the Four Sons are sprinkled throughout in
an effort to elicit questioning and discussion.
Two caveats: the child-oriented games can get a
bit cloying, as in a proposed contest to name the
"yukkiest plague." And the Hebrew typeface is a bit
small in places.

A Passover Haggadah, edited by Herbert
Bronstein, illustrated by Leonard Baskin. Central
Conference of American Rabbis.

This Reform rabbinical organization omits a good
deal of the Hebrew text and seems to presuppose a
relatively short, streamlined seder.
The Haggadah is beautifully designed, with draw-
ings by contemporary artist Leonard Baskin, and
brings in very appropriate and well-chosen readings
from a number of sources: Abraham Joshua Heschel
Erich Fromm, Chasidic tales, the Book of Psalms.
The karpas — spring vegetable — portion of the
ceremony is accompanied here by a passage from the
Song of Songs. "For lo, the winter is past. Flowers
appear on the earth." An excellent idea.
Still, the balance seems somewhat off center: Why
skip some traditional portions of the magoid — the nar-
rative section — and devote two dozen out of just over
100 pages to the musical notation of Passover Songs?

The Feast of Freedom, edited by Rachel Anne
Rabinowicz. United Synagogue Book Service.

This is the Conservative movement's version of the
Haggadah and it includes nearly all the traditional
words of the text. An attractively produced book as
well, it relies quite successfully on a series of bright-col
ored abstract shapes to create a warm, expansive mood
There are a few new insertions into the text and a
commentary, neatly placed in the margins, illumi-
nates the concepts behind the Haggadah.
In addition to the traditional four cups of wine,