Our own Roi Ben Yehuda has an article in Haaretz about one of the most famous parts of the Haggadah, the section towards the end of the meal where we say:

Pour out Your fury on the nations that do not know you, and upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your name, for they have devoured Jacob [the Jews] and destroyed his home. Pour out Your wrath on them; may Your blazing anger overtake them. Pursue them in wrath and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.

Isn’t this a little too mean-spirited? Do we really need to ask God to severely punish our enemies? Are fury and wrath really called for?

 It’s a funny question to ask, and a very contemporary one. Until fairly recently, I doubt many Jewish communities would think twice about that passage. As Jews have faced persecution and hatred throughout time, it’s easy to imagine that these words were a source of comfort and wisdom to them. The enemies of Israel would be dealt with. Those who tried to devour our people, who destroyed our homes, they had it coming.

This Is Before the Wrath: starts flowing Today’s humanistic ideals try to whitewash our emotions, but as Ben Yehuda points out, wrath and vengeance are, to a certain degree, completely healthy responses to persecution and pain. There may be portions of the Haggadah that bother us, or that seem callous in light of contemporary wisdom, but there’s still value there. At the very least, we can say it’s important to understand how wounded and angry Jews were for so many generations that this became a part of our story. And if you think about the Exodus itself, it’s not hard to imagine Jews leaving Egypt thinking that they’d like the wrath and fury of God to pour down on the Egyptians who had enslaved them.

Ben Yehuda ends his article with a quote from a 16th century Haggadah manuscript from Worms with the following supplement:

Pour out Your love on the nations who have known You, and on the kingdoms who call upon Your name. For they show loving-kindness to the seed of Jacob, and they defend Your people Israel from those who would devour them alive. May they live to see the sukkah of peace spread over Your chosen ones, and to participate in the joy of Your nations.

The manuscript has been lost, and recently some scholars have called its authenticity into question, but the idea of counteracting wrath with love is interesting. The seder is as much about thanksgiving—for freedom, and tradition, and family—as it is about redemption. Jews are not strangers to wrath or to love, and at the seder, it’s nice to recognize both aspects of our history.

Passover has taken quite a hit this year: First Manischewitz announced that it wasn’t going to produce any Tam Tams this year, and then Charlton “Moses” Heston passed on to that great gun range in the sky. Luckily, Jewcy’s here to help you cope. We’ve rounded up everything we’ve ever run on Pesach, then salted the mix liberally with some helpful links from outside sources. Need something you don’t see here? Leave a comment, and our readers just might be able to help you out.

THE BASICS

Not totally solid on the whole no-bread thing? Curious about whether having a Iraqi grandmother means you're allowed to eat rice? My Jewish Learning provides all the background information you could possibly need, while Interfaithfamily.com offers resources for Pesach and Easter.

THE SEDER

• How To: Clean For Passover
• Must Have: Laura Cowan's Space Age Seder Plate
• 5 Alternative Seder Styles for a Personalized Passover
• Must Have: The Passover Box of Questions
  
• Ganja is Off the Seder Plate
  

THE TEXT

• We Rate Ten Haggadahs
• Saying Dayenu to the Maxwell House Haggadah
  

THE FOOD

• Dozens of Recipes from the Jew York Times
• This Passover, Forget Your Bouillon Cubes
• Manischewitz Screwed Up, Passover's Gonna Suck
• Passover with Martha Stewart

THE MEANING

• Passover: The Extra Day is YOUR Day
• Counting the Omer
• Slate Explains Why Easter Doesn't Overshadow Passover
• Slate Looks at What the Passover Seder Reveals About InterfaithCouples

THE REST

• Passover: The Most S&M Jewish Holiday
• Seder Behind Bars
• Hump Day Art: Modern Day Exodus
• Clip of the Week: Jewish Mothers Behaving Badly
• Must Have: Alternative Jewish Grooves for Passover

 

 

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.

Fancy Shmancy: a Martha Stewart Passover table setting, replete with Tiffany-blue Haggadah. Excuuuuse me.A haggadah can make or break your seder. Don't believe me? Read the standard Maxwell House Haggadah, and I promise you'll be bored out of your mind. The good news is, there are alternatives out there. Here are five tips to help you choose one that will keep you awake and asking deep questions long into the night.

1. Know Your Audience: Is your seder going to have countless kids? Numerous boomers? A gaggle of teenagers? Ten vegetarians? Several seniors? Keep this in mind when you’re selecting a haggadah. If you're going kid-friendly, you definitely want something with great pictures, and maybe even activities to keep everyone occupied. If there are mostly seniors at your seder, consider choosing something that emphasizes history, or that’s more academic.
2. Check Out the Illustrations: A haggadah with great text but weird illustrations is kind of a drag to use (the Feast of Freedom, for instance). Often the illustrations are a commentary in their own right, so when you’re rifling through haggadahs in the store, check out the pictures: It's a good way of predicting if the interpretation is going to speak to you.
3. Keep Length in Mind: If you’re looking to be in bed by 10:30, you probably don’t want seventy pages of reading during the Magid section. Of course, you can pick and choose what you’ll read, but you don’t want your guests to be overwhelmed. On the other hand, if you like epic seders, then look for a haggadah that’s got plenty of commentary on every page.
4. Look For Themes: If you’re going to be hosting a crew of vegetarians, mostly women, people of many faiths, or tons of tree-huggers, don’t be afraid to check out haggadahs geared specifically to your guest list. Yesterday we told you about ways to make your whole seder themed, but it really all starts with a haggadah.
5. Feel Free to Mix and Match: There’s no rule that says you have to go around the table taking turns reading paragraphs from the same book. If you can’t decide on one haggadah for everyone to use, get an assortment and let people choose the one they like best. You can also copy specific pages you like from different haggadahs (if you’re on a budget, try your local library, where you can check out haggadahs for free) and assemble your own haggadah made up of different parts from different books.

Related: 5 Alternative Seders

 

Three years ago I read an article in the New York Times about the Ringling Brothers Circus going Kosher for Pesach. I can’t link to the full article anymore because you need to be a TimesSelect member to read it, but here are some highlights:Passover fun: Redemption means we get balloons and clowns and a lion tamer

With Cotton Candy And Potato Kugel, A 3-Ring Passover
By JOSEPH BERGER
Published: April 9, 2004

Here's how to make the circus kosher for Passover:

Sell hot dogs without rolls and buy two brand-new cotton candy machines -- uncontaminated by any leavened products -- so thousands of observant Jewish children can have this circus treat.

Insist there be no female performers, including the Lycra-clad star aerialist and horse trainer Sylvia Zerbini, a k a the Circus Siren, since the most rigorously observant Jews require modest dress of women.

That's how an Orthodox group in Brooklyn made it possible yesterday for 19,000 men, women and children to exult in the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus at the Garden, and fulfill the Torah commandment to be joyful on Passover.

It was Ringling Brothers' first kosher performance.

But was it a real circus without the Circus Siren? ''It's not because we don't like ladies,'' said Rabbi Raphael Wallerstein, a yeshiva principal in Brooklyn who has become the reigning impresario of such Orthodox holiday events. ''I'm married with 13 children and over 30 grandchildren. We love ladies. It's out of respect for them.''

The Greatest Show on Earth had its ethnic flourishes. The band started the afternoon by playing ''Dayenu,'' a rousing song at the Passover Seder that children love. And David Larible, the master clown they call the Prince of Laughter, wore a yarmulke to perform a miracle that more than one youngster must have thought was right up there with the parting of the Red Sea and the Ten Plagues: he turned another performer into a goat for several heart-stopping seconds.

But mostly the children shrieked, gasped, guffawed and gazed in wonder like all children who experience a circus, maybe more so because most of these children don't have televisions and have never even seen a circus program.

''It was very scary,'' said Lazer Schlesinger, a 12-year-old from Flatbush with side curls, after seeing the lion tamer, Jason Peters, put his head in a lion's mouth. ''I was scared he was going to rip him up and eat him.''

The circus also agreed to the special accommodations, letting the organizers bring in their own food, including potato kugel, and reserve areas in the Garden for those men and women who want to sit only among members of their own sex.

Circus officials said they had performed for private groups before, but that yesterday's show was the first in the circus's 134-year history that has restricted female performers.

Rabbi Wallerstein also asked that the music be less hard-driving and that Crazy Wilson Dominguez, who crosses himself as he begins his gravity-defying walk on the whirling Pendulum of Pandemonium, do so out of audience view.

Tim Holst, Ringling Brothers' vice president for talent productions, said that as a result of these requests, the show had to be restaged in spots and extra rehearsals held. But the performers, he said, were ''very respectful to the requests of this audience.''

The Torah commands Jews to enjoy themselves on Passover and two other festivals. During the four intermediate days of the eight-day Passover holiday, when they can travel and spend freely, Hasidic and other rigorously Orthodox Jewish families stream through the Bronx Zoo, ride bicycles and navigate motorized sailboats in Central Park, fill seats at the baseball stadiums and frolic through the region's most adventuresome amusement parks. But there probably has been no holiday event on the scale of yesterday's extravaganza.

Okay, so a Kosher for Passover circus is pretty cool, but I can’t find any mention of it recurring this year. To be honest, though, I’m still recovering from the circuses that were my family’s seders, which included, among other things, Passover Plagues masks, repeated viewings of The Animated Haggadah, and a carbon monoxide scare which summoned a bunch of firemen who walked around my grandmother’s house waving sensors around and telling us to open windows and go to the hospital if we got headaches that wouldn’t go away.

Dayenu is right.

The only part of the haggadah that ever interested me was the four sons. It seems to me that the part of the text that deals with the four sons is the most honest part of the seder. Here we sit down and divide people into groups. There are smart people and bad people and simple people and boring people. This is what we teach our children. Pigeonholing is apparently the best way to deal with fellow Jews.
The Four Sons as Four Books: David Weiner and Yonah Weinreb, The Haggadah in Memory of the Holocaust, 1988
In a way, it’s astonishing that this is a message we’re comfortable giving to kids, but then, it’s not like every family doesn’t have obvious and often predictable roles for each child. The perfectionist, the rebel, the nerd, the misfit, the genius, the drama queen, and so on. You know your role, and you know that no matter what you do and how much you change, you’ll always be the baby of the family, the one everybody considers irresponsible and temperamental. A second cousin of mine once said to me, “You’re the troubled sister, right?” And I shrugged and said yeah, because I was troubled when I was 14, and I know I’m going to live with the label at least until I have kids of my own.

But beyond the unfair labeling that goes on, the actual distinctions between the sons make me crazy, especially the wicked and the wise.

The wise child asks: "What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?" (Deuteronomy 6:20) To that one, you explain all the laws of Passover, down to the very last detail about the Afikoman.

The wicked child asks: "What mean you by this service?" (Exodus 12:26) By saying "you," and not "we" or "me," he excludes himself from the group, and denies God. Answer that child plainly: "This is done because of that which the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt." (Exodus 13:8) For me, not for you: had you been there in Egypt, you would not have been redeemed.

Notice that both the wise and wicked sons refer to “you,” excluding themselves. But somehow the wicked son gets bitched out, and the wise son gets to be teacher’s pet. Why? Because the wise son had enough background to ask a specific question, and the wicked son was brought up in the dark about “this service.” So basically, if you didn’t get a stellar Jewish education you’re not worthy of being redeemed.

It seems to me that there are times when we all should be the wicked son. There are times when standing back and saying, “What is all this?” can be helpful, and instructive and important. Yes, we need to be loyal to each other and our traditions, but sometimes we also need to step back and assess the direction we’re heading. What are we doing here, exactly? It’s a fair question, and when we forget or refuse to ask it we end up in trouble. (See: Israel).

I put together a gallery of different portrayals of the four sons from a variety of haggadahs. Check them out and see everything from a wicked son who boxes to a wise son modeled on Groucho Marx.

The Maxwell House Haggadah: Putting generations of Jews to sleep every year since 1922I really hate Pesach. I know every other Jew in the world loves the seders, and thinks matzah is great and gefilte fish is the best gift we’ve gotten from God since Sinai, but frankly I have very little to say about this so-called season of redemption. I think it sucks. And I’m especially irritated by the seders.

I hate the seders for two reasons:
1) There are, inexplicably, TWO of them. What could possibly be accomplished on the second night?? We just finished telling this story. It’s not like there’s a dearth of Jewish texts out there, so why in the name of God are we sitting around reading the same book two days in a row?
2) I find the Haggadah mind-numbingly boring. And yes, my family owns about forty different haggadot, and I’m not particularly fond of any of them. I’m an equal opportunity hater.

But okay, I get that I’m pretty much alone on this issue, and that it’s not particularly practical to say, “Just skip Pesach this year,” so how about I give some wary recommendations of haggadahs that I don’t hate that much, and some tips for running a seder that doesn’t send all of your guests face first into their matzah ball soup, okay?

So yeah, there’s A Different Night, which is a haggadah that is, seriously, fun for the whole family. Even the skeptical, irritable and too-cool-for-school 22-year-old daughter. But the pictures suck. The Haggadah for the Vegetarian Family is a bit too preachy for my taste, but pretty interesting if you’re a veg. I have a slight obsession with Nechama Leibowitz, and her haggadah does not disappoint, but just like her parsha worksheets, sometimes she skips right over an issue that seems pretty huge.

I’m okay with the commentary in the Feast of Freedom, which is the Conservative haggadah, but the pictures are all these abstract ugly ripped paper things that are really distractingly horrendous.

I bought my mom The Katz Haggadah, which has completely awesome pictures and is insanely frum. I wouldn’t use it for it’s commentary, but it’s really fun to look at. My mother doesn’t really like it, which is funny because she’s kind of crazy about haggadahs. But it’s cool. I’m not bitter.

Looking for something a little more alternative? Trying to prove street cred at your seder? You should probably show up with a copy of The So-Called Seder: A Hip Hop Haggadah which has a variety of songs from people like Killah Priest, Theodore Bikel and Matisyahu. Or you can download all kinds of haggadah texts from the web. Here’s an article from USA Today with more info on places to look online, but I’d say you should start with the awesome Open Source Haggadah created by Mobius. Now you’re cool.

If you’re running a seder this year, or are going to a seder that traditionally blows and you want to subtract the suckage, check out a little mini-conversation over at A Simple Jew about how to prep. My Jewish Learning also has some good ideas about ways to keep people interested and engaged all the way through the haggadah.

Or, if you want to take the same route as me, sit in the corner stewing and counting the minutes until pizza is again a viable option.

The Velveteen Rabbi: Makes Seder for youLast week I offered you one alternative  Haggadah, and this week I wanted to suggest another.  Of course, the web is full of interesting sites, with links to all manner of Haggadot, but I like this one because it's really explanatory without being dumb. 

I also really like that it addresses the complex feelings people have about Israel, and the Exodus story.  Without being super-divisive, dogmatic, or political.  No easy task. 

In "a note on Israel", it reads:

"Some may have complicated feelings about identifying with Israel.  But "Israel" doesn't refer only to the land. "Israel is the name which was given to Jacob after he spent the night wrestling with an angel of God. Therefore, "The people Israel" can be interpreted as "people who take on the holy obligation of engaging with the divine."

Now me, I can handle either "Israel" with comfort.  But I think this is a nice, moderate way of leaving some room for people to understand the Seder meaningfully for themselves.

This Haggadah is the brainchild of a blogger you may know already, the Velveteen Rabbi, AKA Rachel Barenblat.  If you don't,  check her out!

Passover Haggadot: Just how outdated is yours?Sometimes one thing leads to another… and you get surprised.

After posting about Jewish estrangement (and writing) the other day, I got an email from the lovely poet Erika Meitner, who also happens to be finishing her dissertation in Jewish Studies right now.

I love when the internet connects me to kindred spirits! Erika and I don’t really know each other, but we have a lot of common ground, so when she directed me to this Haggadah, I decided to have a look. After all, Passover is coming.

Now, let me be honest, and admit (while blushing) that I’m pretty devoted to my horrible New Union Haggadah (printed in like, 1923), complete with its wine-stained grey binding, a very male God, and the patriotic inclusion of “America the Beautiful”. I know it’s not politically correct, but it sounds like my grandfather to me. It smells like Passover and Baltimore, and without it I’m lost.

It’s so bad, and feels so right.

And this new Haggadah-zine, entitled, “Love and Justice in Time of War,” couldn’t be more different. But it will be useful/important/meaningful for many of you, I think. And the Jewish world needs to open up to everyone. Desperately. “The tradition” does not suffer because those who need to interpret it differently take advantage of that right.

Especially when the writing is this good. And when the tradition is left pretty much intact, used respectfully as a scaffold for innovative ideas and multiple perspectives. So I’m glad to find this new Haggadah, and happy as hell to share it with you.

The introduction goes a little like this:

We are both white, Ashkenazi middle-class folks and long-time activists/organizers. We are both queer. Micah is a tranny/alien type. Neither of us grew up in religiously observant households. Most of what we know about Jewish practice, we have learned as adults. We are both familiar with that particular frustration that can arise from not knowing about your own culture, not knowing how or what to ask. And for those of us who are also marginalized because of class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, etc., Jewish knowledge can be especially hard to come by...

And so this is a Haggadah that proceeds from that place. Incorporating the traditional Seder, but also the personal narratives of many kinds of people, new rituals, and a real attention to language.

I suggest you check it out, and not dismiss it before you give it a read. It really surprised me!