Tue, May 13, 2008

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Ten Haggadahs To Try This Passover

 
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Your haggadah can make or break the seder, so choose wisely. Here are some of our top picks:

A Different Night
Authors: David Dishon and Noam Zion
Recommended for: Families with kids spanning different age brackets.
We love: Activities, games, and commentary that speaks to everyone at the table.
But we’re not crazy about: The pictures. Kind of boring.

Haggadah for the Vegetarian Family
Author: Roberta Kalechofsky
Recommended for: Vegetarian families. Duh. (Vegans will also be pleased).
We love: Contemporary social twist on the classic story. Redemption as freedom from life as a carnivore. Plus, it’s just nice to see a seder that doesn’t revolve around brisket.
But we’re not crazy about: How preachy it is. If there are any non-vegs around, they probably won’t love it.

The Nechama Leibowitz Haggadah
Author: Nechama Leibowitz, Shmuel Peerless
Recommended for: Anyone who loves close readings of text, and is willing to run with questions for further study
We love: Leibovitz is famous for her surveys of other commentators, and her succinct summaries of various approaches to the story. She’s in rare form in her Haggadah, and finds some obscure but fun sources to look at.
But we’re not crazy about: No pictures at all. Plus, probably boring if you’re not a fan of text study.

 

The Feast of Freedom
Author: Rachel Rabinowicz
Recommended for: Families with teenagers, or groups that like long juicy discussions.
We love: The commentary is arranged on the page in a way that makes it very easy to skip the things that don’t interest you, and go straight to the things you love.
But we’re not crazy about: The weird ripped paper pictures, and the length (by page 120 I start to wonder if Freedom will ever be attained).

 

The Katz Haggadah
Author: Baruch Chait and Gadi Pollack
Recommended for: Kids, and adults who love Midrash
We love: The pictures are gorgeous—incredibly detailed cartoons that incorporate Midrash into each frame. It comes with a little guide that explains the source behind every detail in every picture. Awesome.
But we’re not crazy about: The commentary is uber-frum, and not as appropriate for young kids as the pictures might lead you to assume.

The Animated Haggadah
Author: Rony Oren
Recommended for: Kids
We love: It’s a claymation Haggadah with a corresponding DVD. Totally engrossing, and as an added activity, kids can be given Play-Do and can try to recreate one of the scenes in the book.
But we’re not crazy about: How scary it is. There are some pictures that are genuinely creepy or frightening.

The Sarajevo Haggadah (You’ll have to take it out of your local library—it’s not in print anymore)
Author: Unknown
Recommended for: History Buffs
We love: The original Sarajevo Haggadah is centuries old, dating back to at least the Spanish Inquisition. It has been passed down from families, and is now in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Scholars have scrutinized details to learn about the lives of its creators, and a new book, The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, is a fictionalized account of its history. A recent New Yorker article traced the history of the Haggadah, and the Muslim museum curator who saved it from being looted by the Nazis.
But we’re not crazy about: No commentary to speak of—it’s pretty much just the basic Haggadah text. You have to read history essays to really glean much from the book.

 

Ha-Lila Ha-Zeh
Author: Mishael Zion,Noam Zion
Recommended for: Hebrew speaking families. This Hebrew equivalent of A Different Night has awesome pictures, and great activities and songs.
We love: The collection of different interpretations of the Four Sons.
But we’re not crazy about: It being in Hebrew. Even for those of us English-speakers with really good Hebrew, it takes an extra level of concentration to read this Haggadah.

Carlebach Haggadah: Seder Night with Reb Shlomo
Author: Chaim Stefansky
Recommended for: Hippies who love Hashem. Touchy-feely, but grounded in Hasidism, the stories of Reb Shlomo Carlebach carry this haggadah.
We love: Carlebach’s interesting takes on the true meaning of freedom.
We’re not so crazy about: Just how hippie it really is.

The Jewish World Family Haggad
Author: Shoshana Silberman, with photography by Zion Ozeri
Recommended for: Photography lovers, big geographically diverse groups, and families
We love: Ozeri’s amazing pictures of Jewish communities around the world, from India to Iran to the Upper West Side. The text is simple and pretty pluralistic. It’s short and very sweet.
But we’re not crazy about: there could be a little more commentary, and the pictures are so good, you’re left wanting more of those, too.



Tamar Fox has an MFA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, but she still doesn't like sweet tea. Born and raised in Chicago, she's also lived in Iowa City, Dublin, Oxford, and Jerusalem. When she's not rocking out at honky tonks she teaches


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tarfon


"Nehama Leibovitz Haggada"

Nehama Leibovitz z"l died 11 years ago, and this haggada is new.  The cover of the haggada does _not_ credit her with authorship; it says it's a book of studies on the haggada "from the teachings of Nechama Leibovitz," and that it's edited by Yitzhak Reiner and Shmuel Peerless.  I saw it in a bookstore a few days ago, and had the impression that it was really a pastiche of material from Nehama's works on Bible, and that the focus of her inquiries was the biblical text rather than the haggada text.  It was precisely for that reason that I did not buy the book.  Nehama Leibovitz was one of the great Bible teachers of our time, and she was _the_ great teacher of parshanut, but there's an important difference between Nehama explaining what Rashi says about a Torah verse, on the one hand, and Nehama explaining how the Passover Haggada uses that verse.

Has anyone looked more closely at this book, and is my caution merited? 





Anonymous


The Animated One Rocks!

I had this one as a kid and recently repurchased it for myself. As a kid staring at the clay people pictures kept me from boredom and the creepy pictures were hands down my favorite. I even used it to explain the holiday to my goyish boyfriend.






Tamar Fox


Nechama

We own the Leibowitz Haggadah, and you're right that it's a pastiche of her gilyonot worksheets created by some of her students.  It is focused on the Biblical portions of the Haggadah.  I like that, but yes, if you're looking for more haggadah specific texts, this isn't for you.



Ezra


My Haggadahs of choice

I also like the Breslov Haggadah and Rabbi Eliyahu Tougar's Chassidic Haggadah.





raider2119@aol.com


My favorite...

the Uncle Eli Under the Table Passover Haggudah 

A Present from Uncle Eli
The house had gone crazy, all turned upside-down,
with everyone busily running around.
Mommy was screaming  "Get out of the way!
You can't keep on lying around here all day!
Tomorrow is Passover. You don't look ready.
We have to remove everything that is bready.
Pack up the old dishes and pull out the new.
Prepare for the seder! There's too much to do!"
I just stuffed up my ears, 'cause I'm that kind of kid.
I didn't much care what the rest of them did.
I thought it was stupid; I felt it was dumb
to get so excited  about one or two crumbs
when under my bed, under careful protection,
I keep the world's largest stale bread-crumb collection!
I hate cleaning up. I prefer a good mess.
I'm lazy and mean -- kind of nasty, I guess.
I don't like the seder. It bores me to tears.
I sit making faces  and noises and sneers.
I'd rather be out breaking windows with balls,
or digging up flower-beds, or drawing on walls.
Anything! Anywhere! Rather than be
at the Passover seder with my family.
We mean little kids should be all sent away.
We don't want to celebrate dumb holidays.
Well, those were the thoughts  spinning inside my head.
My ears were exploding, my nose had turned red.
I was very upset at my Mom and my Dad--
disgusted, disgruntled -- in short, I was mad!
When...
right there behind me I heard a soft sound.
I perked up my ears and I turned my head 'round.
And right there before me, as plain as could be
was the weirdest old man that you ever will see.
"Weird" did I say?  He was weirder than weird!
You hardly could see him because of his beard.
It flowed down his body and covered his feet,
all curly and snaggly, distinctly un-neat.
Aside from that beard-- well, you couldn't see lots,
just two twinkly eyes  that peeked out 'tween the knots,
and the hint of a grin that made everything bright
and sometimes turned into a laughing white light.
I stared at this strange little man for a while
as he kept standing there full of laughter and smiles.
The door to the room was still shut up quite tight,
and I didn't know how he had gotten inside.
I finally got up the nerve to speak out:
"You are a strange fellow, without any doubt.
Please tell me who are you? And why are you here?
And why do you look  so fantastically queer?"
He lit up his smile and began to reply:
"I'm your old friend, Uncle Eli am I!
And I, Uncle Eli, am just the right one
to make sure that this year you will have lots of fun.
Instead of just sitting there  twiddling your hands
while the grown-ups read words
that you don't understand,
I've brought you
a special Haggadah to read.
It'll keep you in stitches!
It's just what you need!
I wrote it for children
like you and your friends,
who hardly can wait for the seder to end.
It's just the right thing for a silly young boy--
a Haggadah you'll learn to adore and enjoy."
Then, waving his finger and wiggling his ears,
he stuck his right hand in his tangled white beard
and from somewhere down deep in that jungle of hair
he pulled out a book, which he held in the air.
It's the same fun Haggadah you're reading today.
Don't let your folks see it! They'll take it away.
You might want to hide it where no one can see,
under the table, on top of your knee.
It'll be our own secret. They won't understand
why you cover your mouth with the back of your hand
to stifle the laughs that burst out all the time.
--It's your own special secret, and Eli's
...and mine!





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