PHOTOS FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

passover

Inspiring Haggadot

Illuminated manuscripts
tell the same Pesach story
in a handcrafted way.

ABOVE: This illustration
came from the Sarajevo
Haggadah, one of
the oldest Sephardic
Haggadahs in the world,
made in Barcelona
around 1350.
RIGHT: Known for its
extensive use of gold leaf,
this Haggadah was made
near Barcelona around
1320. Here a family
searches for chametz
before the holiday.

LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

O

nce upon a time, owning a book
Many manuscript Haggadot from the mod-
amounted to a big deal. To begin
ern period have survived in collections all
with, to get parchment for the
over the world.”
pages, you had to slaughter a
Each famous Haggadah manu-
flock of sheep. For the words, you
script now has its own name: the
would need a skilled calligrapher
city where it was stored (Sarajevo,
with a beautiful hand. Another
for example, or Guadalajara), or
specialist, expert in Hebrew
the family that owned it (Prado or
grammar, would put in the vow-
Rothschild) or some feature of its
els. If you wanted pictures, too
artwork (Birds’ Head or Golden).
— and if you could afford them,
Looking at the writing and pic-
tures in these old, handcrafted
you would want pictures — you
would hire an expert illuminator. Dr. Yoel Finkelman examples of the Haggadah can work
as an effective exercise to prepare
Finally, a bookbinder would put
all the pages together, and you
for Passover. Let your imagination
would have a book. If you had
animate a painting of a medieval
enough funding for just one book, there is
Jewish family searching for chametz or
a good chance you would commission a
our ancestors walking on dry land through
Haggadah. A relatively short book, with the the sea. Some place in the middle of the
script for a home service, the Hagaddah
Haggadah, you can usually find a page
made a nice first or only entry to your
with stains from drops spilled on the page
library.
hundreds of years ago. You may even find a
Even after printing with moveable type
portrait of a family seated or reclining at a
came to Europe in the 1400s, some callig-
table — probably the family that commis-
raphers produced copies of the Haggadah
sioned the Haggadah all those years ago.
by hand. Yoel Finkelman, curator of
Judaica at the National Library of Israel,
FINDING INSPIRATION
explains why: “Manuscript Haggadot didn’t Prepare for your seder by remembering the
die out with the founding of print, both
feasts Grandma cooked, the way Grandpa
because they were considered fancier or
led the seder and by imagining how our
because people in some places didn’t have
ancestors told the story when the main
access to printed ones that they liked.
course was the barbecued lamb or kid

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March 29 • 2018

jn