“The Transformation of the Haggadah’s Preface as Influenced by the Development of Public Education in Europe and the United States.” (original) (raw)

PROJECT MUSE*

The Transformation of the Haggadah’s Preface as Influenced by the Development of Public Education in Europe and the United States

Mara W. Cohen loannides, Stephen M. Cohen

Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Volume 18, Number 2, Winter 2000, pp. 27-44 (Article)

Published by Purdue University Press
DOI: 10.1353/sho.2000.0054

For additional information about this article
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sho/summary/v018/18.2.cohen-ioannides.html

The Transformation of the Haggadah’s Preface as Influenced by the Development of Public Education in Europe and the United States

Mara W. Cohen Ioannides
Stephen M. Cohen

Abstract

The seder (Passover ritual meal) and haggadah (text used during the meal) were codified in early medieval times. With the decline of women’s Jewish literacy and their role in Jewish society beginning with the Industrial Revolution, the prefatory material in haggadot became more common. Since medieval times prefaces have often been added to the haggadah; yet, in the last two hundred years, the preface has changed considerably from an occasional comment to a standard set of information concerning holiday preparation. Why this change in the preface occurred is under examination in this paper. The change in Jewish educational patterns, which happened through the creation of free public education in both Europe and the United States and resulted in the need for the prefaces primarily among Jewish women, is illustrated.

The haggadah’s preface is usually an explanation of how to prepare the home for the festival, and its development is curious. No other Jewish liturgical book contains such a broad and in-depth introduction into how to prepare for the holiday. However, before we can discuss how such a need developed and was addressed, we must understand the significance of and traditions behind Passover, for without them neither the importance of the haggadah nor its changes over time are clear. In addition, a grasp of the role the haggadah plays in the festivities is imperative. Finally, the role women have had throughout the ages in both Jewish life and this festival in particular must be comprehended. The growth of public education has influenced Jewish women’s Jewish literacy, 1{ }^{1} and, as we shall show, this has not been ignored by haggadah compilers and Jewish educators. The purpose of this paper is a study of the inclusion of introductory material to the liturgy, not a study of the liturgy itself, which varied little until the twentieth century.

[1]

  1. 1{ }^{1} Alexander M. Dushkin defines “Jewish literacy” as “knowledge of Judaism and Jewish culture” (“Fifty Years of American Jewish Education: Retrospect and Prospects,” Jewish Education 37:1-2 [1967], p. 45). ↩︎

Seder

Seder (meaning “order”), the service for Passover, takes place on the first and second nights of Passover. The table around which the seder is celebrated now substitutes for the altar in the Temple, and a roasted egg and lamb bone represent the spring sacrifices. Traditionally this eight-day festival commemorates the ancient Jews’ exodus from Egypt (Exod. 6:28-15:22), along with the agricultural tradition of celebrating the beginning of the new planting season and the earth’s springtime revival; in more recent times, it has come to represent the struggle for freedom from oppression. This celebration is the only Jewish festival which is purely home-centered. The other Jewish holidays are spent in the synagogue; 2{ }^{2} this is not to say that some parts of other holidays are not celebrated within the home-invariably some meal is involved. However, the seder takes place at home with family and guests over a highly ritualized meal, or a rabbinically organized multimedia experience encompassing sight (special dishes, tablecloths, candles, and guests), sound (songs and prayer in the local vernacular, Aramaic, and Hebrew), smell and taste (particular foods), and touch (varying food textures from the sharp and crunchy matzah to the heavy, sweet, smooth wine). The haggadah (Hebrew for “telling”) is the book which contains the service.

Preparations for this festival are extensive because of restrictions on food (hamets, leavened food, is forbidden for the eight days of Passover). The entire house and all cooking and eating utensils must be cleaned to remove any food which contains, or may contain, a product which has been fermented. The Jews of Rhodes spent between six and eight weeks cleaning their homes, 3{ }^{3} while in some Ashkenazi communities preparations began as early as Hannukah. 4{ }^{4} Susan Starr Sered notes in her study of elderly Jewish women in Jerusalem that "the Day Center women view Passover as the most important, as indeed, the ultimate holiday. The women begin their Passover preparations months in advance. . . . [In fact,] Jewish women have made a cult of Passover cleaning."5

The feast has been traditionally created by the women of the home, and this continues to be the norm, while the men are at the ritual bath preparing themselves for

[1]

  1. 2{ }^{2} Ruth Gruber Fredman, The Passover Seder: Afikoman in Exile (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press), p. 47.
    3{ }^{3} Rebecca Amato Levy, I Remember Rhodes (New York: Sepher-Hermon, 1987), p. 55.
    4{ }^{4} Marion A. Kaplan, The Making of the Jewish Middle Class (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 75.
    5{ }^{5} Susan Starr Sered, Women as Ritual Experts: The Religious Lives of Elderly Jewish Women in Jerusalem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 81. ↩︎

the event. 6{ }^{6} In traditional homes throughout Jewish history, women are exempt from communal prayer in most instances because they have little time for study and prayer (in the formal communal aspects), since their domestic responsibilities require so much of their time. 7{ }^{7} (This does not mean they did/do not participate; it means they are not required to.) They maintain the home and teach the children Jewish customs and traditions, while men study and pray communally. 8{ }^{8}

Education

Historically, these domestic responsibilities have been thrust upon women at a young age. In pre-industrial Europe (marriage being earlier, by the age of 16), women did not have time for a formal education, religious or secular. 9{ }^{9} Most probably a girl would learn to read the vernacular (e.g., Yiddish, Ladino 10{ }^{10} ), and she would learn the required Hebrew prayers (e.g., candle-lighting) in Hebrew, domestic law (e.g., kashrut, the laws concerning food management), and women’s rituals (e.g., mikvah, ritual bathing regulations). However, any further education was certainly not the norm. 11{ }^{11} What she did learn was instilled in an informal manner, usually through the examples set by her mother and mother-in-law. 12{ }^{12} For instance, a participant in Myerhoff’s study of elderly Jewish immigrants in Venice, California said she "knew the Hebrew words [to the daily prayers] by heart, I knew about the washing of the hands, the prayer for the bread, keeping separate the meat and milk, all these things Grandmother taught us. But not what anything means. . . . These things were injected into you in childhood and chained together with that beautiful grandmother, so ever since infancy you can’t know life

[1]

  1. 6{ }^{6} Fredman, The Passover Seder, pp. 14, 77.
    7{ }^{7} Michael Kaufman, The Woman in Jewish Law and Tradition (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1993), p. 35; Shoshana Pantel Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall be Learned”: Women and the Study of Torah in Jewish Law and History (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1993), pp. 43-44.
    8{ }^{8} Lisa Aiken, To Be a Jewish Woman (Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, 1992), pp. 30-31; Kaufman, The Woman in Jewish Law and Tradition, pp. xxi, xxix, xxxiii, 23-41; Moshe Meiselman, Jewish Women in Jewish Law (New York: Ktav, 1978), pp. 16-18.
    9{ }^{9} Sondra Henry and Emily Taitz, Written Out of History: Our Jewish Foremothers, 3rd ed. (Sunnyside, NY: Biblio, 1988), p. 213; Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” pp. 81, 134−135,177134-135,177.
    10{ }^{10} These languages are often described as Judeo-German and Judeo-Spanish (Judezmo), respectively. They are modifications of the local language written with Hebrew characters.
    11{ }^{11} From “ulimmadtem otam et-bneykhem” (Deut. 11:19, “And you shall teach them to your sons [emphasis authors’].” the Talmud (bkidd 29b) derives this principle.
    12 A{ }^{12} \mathrm{~A} participant in a study of retired Jewish immigrants in California called this “domestic religion” (Barbara Myerhoff, Number Our Days [New York: E. P. Dutton, 1978]). ↩︎

without it." 13{ }^{13} Any questions beyond the scope of her knowledge were taken to the father, brother, husband, or rabbi. 14{ }^{14}

The important role Jewish women have in maintaining Judaism should not be ignored; the continuity of a group is based on reproduction and cultural preservation. 15{ }^{15} The family and home are the mainstay of Judaism. Since traditionally Judaism defines gender-specific roles as women controlling the private space and men the public space, it only follows that women would have an incredible amount of influence over their children. 16{ }^{16} After all, kashrut, childcare, elder care, and holiday preparation (cleaning, cooking, and clothing preparation) were all in the domestic sphere. In fact, some might say that a "shtetl woman realized herself through others-children, men, support of the needy. 117{ }^{117} The home is the place where children learn how to live. 18{ }^{18} In Myerhoff’s study one male participant explained:

While we are talking about women we should bring in how important they were in keeping up Judaism. I would say the women had more to do with preserving Jewishness than the men. . . . The father had the job to bring the boy to circumcision, then to cheder, then to Bar Mitzva. But it was the woman who was the guide. . . . Remember, it was the women who saved Moses and raised him up in secret. Always, it was the woman who gave the moments of life into the family, in the holidays, in the tragic moments. . . . Uneducated she was, but the woman did the rituals. She had the wisdom. She knew how to live with all the men prayed and talked about. 19{ }^{19}

Many rabbis concurred with this gentleman. The Talmud reminds husbands that “a man’s home is his wife” (Yoma 1.1 20{ }^{20} ), and the Code of Jewish Law states, “for it is only for the wife’s sake that a man’s house is blessed” (vol. 4 145: 10). Rabbi Jonah ben Abraham Gherondi of Spain (thirteenth century) perceived the woman’s role to be enabler, helping her husband and sons fulfill their religious goals, and Professor David

[1]

  1. 13{ }^{13} Myerhoff, Number Our Days, p. 234-235.
    14{ }^{14} Fredman, The Passover Seder, pp. 52, 59; Susan Starr Sered, “Conflict, Complement, and Control: Family and Religion among Middle Eastern Jewish Women in Jerusalem,” Gender and Society, Vol. 5, No. 1 (1991), pp. 18, 23; Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned.”
    15{ }^{15} Kaufman, The Woman in Jewish Law and Tradition; p. 173.
    16{ }^{16} Kaplan, The Making of the Jewish Middle Class, p. 65.
    17{ }^{17} Myerhoff, Number Our Days, p. 243.
    18{ }^{18} Aiken, To Be a Jewish Woman, p. 226.
    19{ }^{19} Myerhoff, Number Our Days, p. 233.
    20{ }^{20} The Talmud of Babylonia: An American Translation:V. A.: Yoma Chapters I and 2, trans. Jacob Neusner (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1994). ↩︎

Kaufman of Austria (1852-1899) saw women as the foundation of Jewish life without which Judaism would be lost. 21{ }^{21}

Because education, prior to the introduction of free secular schools, required the family to either pay tuition or hire a tutor, boys were more likely to be formally educated. Girls whose brothers were being privately tutored might surreptitiously listen in, or, if very lucky, be allowed to sit in on the lessons, though they might not be welcome to participate. If there were no sons, or the family was wealthy, then a father might be more inclined to hire a tutor for his daughters. 22{ }^{22} On the other hand, if the family was poor, then even the boys may not have received a formal education.

When free public education allowed boys, too poor to either pay tuition or hire tutors, to study, and when schools for girls developed, girls could finally obtain a formal education. Jews were allowed to attend the Austrian schools in the mid-1700s, Italy had free public education prior to 1800 , Hungary declared free schools in 1850 (these were funded by religious groups, free for pupils, and required to teach a certain amount of secular subject matter), and the United States by the 1850s. England instituted free public education in 1970, Germany by 1872, France 1881, Russia after the Communist Revolution. 23{ }^{23}

However, these public schools had a secular, or Christian, curriculum. 24{ }^{24} Thus girls still received no formal Jewish education. Many girls felt their secular education, no matter how excellent, did not make up for their lack of religious education because the education that mattered in the Jewish community was the religious one. 25{ }^{25}

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  1. 21{ }^{21} Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” pp. 150, 264-265.
    22{ }^{22} Eduardo Rauch, “The Jewish Day School in America: A Critical History and Contemporary Dilemmas,” in James C. Carper and Thomas C. Hunt, eds., Religious Schooling in America (Birmingham, AL: Religious Education, 1984), p. 134; Anne Sheffer, “Beyond Heder, Haskalah, and Honeybees: Genius and Gender in the Education of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century JudeoGerman Women,” in Peter J. Haas, ed., Recovering the Role of Women: Power and Authority in Rabbinic Jewish Society (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992); Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned.”
    23{ }^{23} Philip J. Adler, “The Introduction of Public Schoolng for the Jews of Hungary (1849-1860),” Jewish Social Studies 35 (1974), pp. 122-123; Rauch, “The Jewish Day School in America,” p. 134; Adolphe E. Meyer, An Educational History of the Western World, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972); Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” pp. 231-235; Zosa Szajkowski, Jewish Education in France, 1789-1939, ed. Tobey B. Gitelle. Jewish Social Studies Monograph Series No. 2 (New York: Conference of Jewish Social Studies, 1980), p. 12.
    24{ }^{24} Meyer, An Educational History; Nathan H. Winter, Jewish Education in a Pluralist Society: Samson Benderly and Jewish Education in the United States (New York: New York University Press, 1966), pp. 15-26.
    25{ }^{25} Myerhoff, Number Our Days, p. 90; Sered, “Conflict, Complement, and Control,” p. 20. ↩︎

Early public-education laws mandated that all children attend school, either privately or publicly funded. Therefore, the religious schools within the Jewish community continued their courses, while the free public schools focused on secular subjects. 26{ }^{26} Because girls spent their time in public secular school, they received less of the informal domestic religious education than in previous generations. 27{ }^{27} The time spent in school learning secular information and the hours at home focusing on homework took away from the time girls would spend with their female relatives experiencing and absorbing domestic religion. 28{ }^{28} Note that this reduction of religious learning did not apply only to girls. The state-mandated curricula gradually demanded that more time be devoted to secular subjects. As the European governments withdrew funding from schools which did not follow the stipulated curriculum, tuition rose in those Jewish schools which had lost state funding, thus forcing parents to send their sons to secular public schools. The result was an increase in after-school programs to which boys were sent. 29{ }^{29} Hence, boys’ religious knowledge decreased, though not as drastically as the girls’.

Religious Education

This lack of religious education did not go unnoticed in the Orthodox or Reform communities. 30{ }^{30} With the growth of public education, Jewish parochial schools closed, and Sunday schools became popular. 31{ }^{31} In 1838 Rebecca Gratz opened the first free Jewish school in Philadelphia 32{ }^{32} which was the result of the American Sunday School movement founded in 1791 in the same city. 33{ }^{33}

[1]

  1. 26{ }^{26} Meyer, An Educational History; Zolty, "And All Your Children Shall Be Learned, ", pp. 271-273.
    27{ }^{27} Kaufman, The Woman in Jewish Law and Tradition, p. xxiii.
    28{ }^{28} Alan Dershowitz, Chutzpah (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1991), p. 27.
    29{ }^{29} James C. Carper and Thomas C. Hunt, Religious Schooling in America (Birmingham, AL: Religious Education, 1984); Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” pp. 231-239, 268-273; Szajkowski, Jewish Education in France.
    30{ }^{30} Even though Reform Judaism began in Germany in the early 1800s, it did not come into its own until the late 1800s in the United States. Until then, the norm was Orthodox Judaism.
    31{ }^{31} Alexander M. Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York City (New York: Bureau of Jewish Education, 1918), pp. 128-129.
    32{ }^{32} Henry and Taitz, Written Out of History, p. 219.
    33{ }^{33} Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York City, pp. 14, 51. ↩︎

The Bureau of Jewish Education was founded in 1910341910^{34} because, as Alexander Dushkin stated on the first page of the first edition of The Jewish Teacher, "Education has probably never meant as much to the preservation of any group’s life, as Jewish education means at this moment to the continued life of our people. 355{ }^{355} In 1918, Rabbi Yisrael Meir ha-Cohen Kagan published Likuter Halakhot, in which he said:

Nowadays, when parental tradition has weakened and we find girls who do not live close to the parental environment, and especially that there are those who have been given a secular education, certainly it is required to teach them the Pentateuch and also the other books of Scripture [the Prophets and Hagiographia], and the ethical instructions of our sages, as in the tractate Avot, and Menorat ha-Maor and so on, so that the principles of our holy faith will be strong for them. Otherwise . . . they may stray from the path of God, and transgress all the precepts of our religion. 36{ }^{36}

Modern American orthodox writers have commented that "very few people with a college education in Western culture and a grade-school education in Judaism can be properly observant. For a college-educated woman, a college-level [Jewish] education is not optional, it is absolutely required. 37{ }^{37} Rabbi Zalmon Sorotzkin (died 1966) considered these secularly educated women to be “converts” because they did not have the essential basic knowledge traditionally required by the society of Jewish women and acquired through the oral tradition, " and consequently they must be taught the fundamentals of Judaism and the basic practices [emphasis authors’]. . . . Not only is it permitted to teach Torah to girls in our generation, it is an absolute duty . . . to inculcate in their hearts pure faith and knowledge of Torah and mitzvot. 338{ }^{338} These ideas were quite radical for an Orthodox community, because they contradicted the norm of teaching the girls in an informal manner. This view of formal teaching encouraged Hebrew and religious schools to open exclusively for the education of women. A girls’ Jewish day school opened in Paris in 1822, 39{ }^{39} in Tchernigov in 1862, in Kishinev in 1864, and in Minsk in 1864. The Bais Ya’akov movement spread throughout Europe producing many women teachers; this movement was popular partially because of the approval by Abraham Mordekhai Alter, the rebbe of Ger. 40{ }^{40} In 1915, Professor Friedman opened special classes for New York City high school girls, which grew into a number

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  1. 34{ }^{34} Dushkin, Jewish Education in New York City, p. 100.
    35{ }^{35} Alexander M. Dushkin, “Editorial Statement,” The Jewish Teacher, Vol. 1. No 1 (1916), pp. 1-3.
    36{ }^{36} bSot 201:11a, quoted in Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” p. 67.
    37{ }^{37} Meiselman, Jewish Woman in Jewish Law, pp. 39-40.
    38{ }^{38} Moznaim la-Mishpat sec. 42, quoted in Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” p. 68.
    39{ }^{39} Szajkowski, Jewish Education in France.
    40{ }^{40} Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” pp. 239-242, 268-273, 277-278. ↩︎

of schools for the education of Jewish girls. 41{ }^{41} However, the majority of women did not attend. This lack of attendance was mainly due to three things: women traditionally were not taught Jewish law in a formal manner; these schools cost money which parents preferred to spend on their sons; and those girls attending free public schools came from families which needed their assistance in the home or with an income. 42{ }^{42}

Jewish Literacy

The decrease in Jewish literacy among women affected the way in which they created the home. Mrs. Esther Levy realized this and produced in 1871 the Jewish Cookery Book, on Principles of Economy, Adapted for Jewish Housekeepers, for which she believed a need had “been felt in our domestic circles” for some time. 43{ }^{43} Between the First and Second World Wars an abundance of ritual guides were published with the idea of helping the Jewish housewife maintain her home properly. 44{ }^{44} Without the knowledge imparted by the domestic religion, women needed guidance to prepare the home. Since the majority of holidays occur but once a year (the sabbath is an exception), the Jewish illiterate easily became ignorant about preparations for the annual non-recurrent holidays. In addition, the complex and numerous requirements to make a home-centered celebration guaranteed the unknowledgeable were almost incapable of properly preparing the home and family. Joselit makes a point of this by using the caption “Modern American Jews needed explicit instructions on how to assemble a seder” under a diagram of the seder table from a 1957 Barton’s Candy haggadah. 45{ }^{45}

Additionally, while the immigrant young and first-generation Jews often discarded their parents Old-World traditions, including Judaism, 46{ }^{46} after the Second World War the following generations wished to recapture these traditions; they wanted to return to

[1]

  1. 41{ }^{41} Winter, Jewish Education in a Pluralist Society, p. 77.
    42{ }^{42} Zolty, “And All Your Children Shall Be Learned,” pp. 268-273.
    43{ }^{43} Esther Levy, Jewish Cookery Book, on Principles of Economy, Adapted for Jewish Housekeepers, with the addition of many useful medicinal recipes, and other valuable information, relative to housekeeping and domestic management (Cambridge, CT: Applewood Books, 1988; originally published Philadelphia, 1871; n.p.), p. 5.
    44{ }^{44} Jenna Weissman Joselit, The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture 1880-1950 (New York: Hill and Wang, 1994), p. 136.
    45{ }^{45} Joselit, The Wonders of America, p. 224.
    46{ }^{46} Charles E. Silberman, A Certain People: American Jews and Their Lives Today (New York: Summit Books, 1985), pp. 163-166. ↩︎

their roots. 47{ }^{47} The decline of domestic religion had left a gap in the Jewish experience which the second and third generations wanted to refill. Jewish women were losing the tradition of domestic religion, and Jewish families were moving from the enclaves in the cities to the suburban economically heterogeneous culture. These two factors caused, especially among the women (who remained at home to raise the children), a feeling of the "lack of people who are rich with Jewish cultural experience, 48{ }^{48} which thus influenced the development of the haggadah’s preface.

Traditional vs. Modern Haggadot

A convenient demarcation between these “traditional” (those without prefatory material) and “modern” haggadot (those with prefatory material) occurred in the 1830s, with the publication of Blogg’s haggadah 49{ }^{49} (also known as the Hanover Haggadah). 50{ }^{50} His sudden departure from the traditional haggadah is significant. Blogg shows the first instance where Jewish literacy was declining. It is important to note that Germany was in the forefront of the philosophy of free education 51{ }^{51} (though they were not the first to enact it), and it was here that the Jewish secular movement began, as did Reform (or Liberal) Judaism. 52{ }^{52} Instead of using Yiddish, the vernacular in Blogg’s haggadah is German (although still written in Hebrew orthography) because secularly educated German Jews were well acquainted with the local Gentile language, and Blogg points out in his introduction that the translation of the entire text is complete in German. Two introductory pages of discussion concerning Passover, including a recipe for haroset, mark Blogg’s departure from the traditional haggadah format. A contract (“Contract zum hamets verkaufen”) for selling hamets is provided in both Hebrew and German Fraktur (a Gothic typeface) (according to Preschel this was added in 1836 [Preface]).

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  1. 47{ }^{47} Herman D. Stein, “Jewish Social Work in the United States: 1920-1955,” in Marshall Sklare, ed., The Jews: Social Patterns of an American Group (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1958), p. 174.
    48{ }^{48} David Schoem, Ethnic Survival in America: An Ethnography of a Jewish Afternoon School, ed. Jacob Neusner et al. Brown Studies on Jews and Their Societies, 7 (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989), p. 34 .
    49{ }^{49} Originally published in 1830, the changes made in the various editions were additions to the ancillary material.
    50{ }^{50} Though more commonly known as The Hanover Haggadah since that is its original place of publication, for readability the original compiler’s name will be used. Also, see the preface by Preschel in The Hanover Haggadah for a discussion of the minor differences among the first edition, 1830; second edition, 1836, and third edition (The Hanover Haggadah), published in 1961.
    51{ }^{51} Meyer, An Educational History, pp. 268-271.
    52{ }^{52} Eugene B. Borowitz, “Must We Observe All the Commandments and Traditions?” in Liberal Judaism (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1984), p. 326. ↩︎

Nor is this an isolated case. The Triest Haggadah of 1864,531864,{ }^{53} although “traditional” in other aspects, includes musical notation for three popular songs (“Adir Hu,” “Adir Bimlukha,” and “Ehad Mi Yode’a”) as front matter; certainly only secularly educated Jews would be able to read western musical notation. By 1935 Lehmann has added a long footnote, in German, explaining to the German housewife how to prepare for the festival. The following is an excerpt [translation authors’]:

After Purim, the actual preparation time begins. “The Pesach work” occurs now in the foreground with each knowledgeable Jewish housewife; all rooms receive a thorough cleaning . . . yes, each particle of “Hamets” from it [the house] has been carefully removed. . . . [T]here must be no book or newspaper on the dining-table any longer, so that no tiny bits of Hamets can remain on it. . . . And now the festival itself nears! The father, his sons, and the other male members come from the synagogue, and in wonderful splendor, in many shining lights, the carefully set Seder table, richly covered with the most beautiful settings of the house, radiates upon them.

We look at this a little more closely. Wine-bottles and -glasses of various kinds serve as the “Four cups of the Redemption,” which on this evening from each individual, men and women, boys and girls, must be drunk. The “Seder-plate” contains . . . the three unleavened breads. 54{ }^{54}

We distinguish such prefatory material in “modern” haggadot from “traditional” haggadot published prior to 1830 . “Traditional” texts quite often contain a type of extra material, known as rubrics, or stage directions. 55{ }^{55} Rubrics of one sort or another have been used for a thousand years to guide Jews in fulfilling ritual requirements. Vowel points and cantillation marks, indicating proper pronunciation and phrasing in sacred texts, have been used since medieval times and can be considered a type of rubric. Footnotes in printed versions of the Torah indicating the actual pronunciation of a word (as opposed to the written “Divine” spelling which may obscure the true meaning of the word) are a well-known type of stage direction. 56{ }^{56} Vowel points are found in all extant

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  1. 53{ }^{53} The Triest Haggadah of 1864 (New York: Diskin Orphan Home of Israel, 1979; rpt. of Seder HaHagadah Shel Pesach Yom Tziv’dim, ed. A. V. Morpurgo [Trieste, Italy, 1864]).
    54{ }^{54} Marcus Lehmann, Hagadah Shel Pesach (Frankfurt am Main: J. Kauffmann Verlag, trans. 1935).
    55{ }^{55} Lawrence A. Hoffman, “The Liturgical Message,” in Lawrence A. Hoffman, ed., Gates of Understanding (New York: Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1977), pp. 144-145, uses “stage direction” to describe the actions taken during services, for example rising and sitting.
    56{ }^{56} For a deeper discussion of these ideas see Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Pentateuch, 2nd ed., Isaac Levy, ed. and trans. (London: I. Levy, 1962) and Joseph H. Hertz, The Pentateuch and Hafiorahs: Hebrew Text, English Translations, and Commentary, 2nd ed. (London: Soncino, 1990). ↩︎

haggadot. Hebrew is used exclusively in The Kaufmann Haggadah 57{ }^{57} and the haggadot by Farissol (1480), 58{ }^{58} The First Known Printed Haggadah, 59{ }^{59} and The Kittsee Haggadah. 60{ }^{60} Beginning with The Venice Haggadah with Judeo-Italian Translation, 61{ }^{61} stage directions at various points during the seder (“drink the wine,” “light the candles,” etc.) are in Hebrew or a Jewish vernacular. This trend of stage directions in vernacular languages continued, for example, with the use of Yiddish in The Leipnik-Rosentaliana Haggadah, 62{ }^{62} The Vienna Haggadah, 63{ }^{63} The Cecil Roth Oxford Haggadah, 64{ }^{64} The Sulzbach Haggadah 1755, 65{ }^{65} and The Tel Aviv Haggadah; 66{ }^{66} Judeo-Italian in The Venice Haggadah with Judeo-Italian Translation; Yiddish and Ladino in The Matteh Aharon

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  1. 57{ }^{57} The Kaufman Haggadah (Budapest: Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences; reprint of Haggadah [Spain, 1375?]). Reprints of haggadot originally published prior to 1900 have often been renamed after their place of origin, city of location after having been “lost,” or name of their collector. These haggadot are then known by these “new” names, rather than referred to by their original compiler, illustrator, or commentator. Thus, in this article (except for Blogg, as mentioned in note 49) they will be referred to in the text by their “new” names.
    58{ }^{58} Abraham Farissol, Siddur ha-shalem (shel Tefillot) mi-kol ha shana (Mantova, 1480; rpt. 1989), Heb Ms. 805492 in the Four Haggadot from the Treasures of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem Facsimile Edition (Tel Aviv: W. Tumowsky).
    59{ }^{59} The First Known Printed Haggadah (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1960; rpt. of Gersom ben Shlomoh ha-Kohen and Gronem ben Shlomoh ha-Kohen, Hagadah [Prague, 1627]).
    60{ }^{60} The Kittsee Haggadah (Budapest: Publishing House of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1957; rpt. of Hayyim ben Asher Anshel, ill., Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Kittsee, Burgenland, Austria, 1782]).
    61{ }^{61} The Venice Haggadah with Judeo-Italian Translation (New York: The Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1973; rpt. of Leon Modena, Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Venice, 1609]).
    62{ }^{62} The Leipnik-Rosentaliana Haggadah, with a preface by Tovia Preschel (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1977; rpt. of Joseph ben David, ill., Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Altona, 1738]).
    63{ }^{63} The Vienna Haggadah (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1978; rpt. of Aaron Schreiber Herlingen, ill., Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Vienna, 1751]).
    64{ }^{64} The Cecil Roth Oxford Haggadah (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1963; rpt. of Hagadah Shel Pesach [Oxford, 1753]).
    65{ }^{65} The Sulzbach Haggadah 1755 (New York: Diskin Orphan Home of Israel, 1985; rpt. of Hagadah seder shel Pesach [Sulzbach, Germany, 1755]).
    66{ }^{66} The Tel Aviv Haggadah (New York: The Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1971; rpt. of Netanel ben Aron Segal, Seder hagadah Pesach [Tel Aviv, 1771]). ↩︎

Haggadah 1710671710^{67} and The Hamburg Haggadah; 68{ }^{68} and Yiddish, Ladino, and JudeoItalian in The Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695691695^{69} and The Hamburg-Amsterdam Haggadah of 1728.701728 .{ }^{70}

More than instructions or explanations may be included in “traditional” haggadot that are written in vernaculars. Rabbinical commentaries, such as those by Abarbanel (in The Tel Aviv Haggadah) or Teomim (in The Matteh Aharon Haggadah of 1710), may be included. Some haggadot, like The Offenbach Haggadah 1722, 71{ }^{71} The Hamburg Haggadah, and The Sulzbach Haggadah 1755 provide the text to popular Passover songs (like “Had Gadya” and “Adir Hu”) in Yiddish.

But the sole front matter in these “traditional” haggadot, if any front matter is included, is the mnemonic poem, which is usually provided in the vernacular. 72{ }^{72} The mnemonic is as follows:

  1. kadesh (sanctification)
  2. urehats (washing the hands before a religious ritual)
  3. karpats (eating the greens)
  4. yahats (breaking the matzah)
  5. maggid (recitation of the biblical story)
  6. rohsah (washing the hands before the meal)
  7. mosi masah (taking out the matzah)
  8. maror (remembering the bitterness of slavery through bitter herbs)
  9. korekh (eating bitter herbs between two pieces of matzah)
  10. shulhan orekh (set the table and eat dinner)
  11. tsafun (finding and eating the afikoman, dessert, i.e. finishing the meal)
  12. barekh (grace after meals)

[1]

  1. 67{ }^{67} The Matteh Aharon Haggadah 1710 (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1982; rpt. of Aaron Teomim, comm., Seder Matzah Eharen [Frankfurt, 1710]).
    68{ }^{68} The Hamburg Haggadah (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1961; rpt. of R. Jacob ben Judah Leb, Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Hamburg, 1731]).
    69{ }^{69} The Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695 (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1974; rpt. of Abraham ben Jacob, ill., Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Amsterdam, 1695]).
    70{ }^{70} The Hamburg-Amsterdam Haggadah of 1728, with a preface by Tovia Preschel (New York: Diskin Orphan Home of Israel, 1980; rpt. of Ya’akov ben Yehuda Leib, ill., Seder Hagadah Shel Pesach [Hamburg, 1728]). Ya’akov ben Yehuda Leib (The Hamburg-Amsterdam Haggadah of 1728) and Jacob ben Judah Leb (The Hamburg Haggadah) are the same person, according to Preschel’s 1980 preface of The Hamburg-Amsterdam Haggadah of 1728.
    71{ }^{71} The Offenbach Haggadah 1722 (Brooklyn: Diskin Orphan Home of Israel, 1983; rpt. of Hagadah [Offenbach, Germany, 1722]).
    72{ }^{72} The Kaufmann Haggadah, The First Known Printed Passover Haggadah, and The Kittsee Haggadah do not include the mnemonic poem. ↩︎

  2. hallel (praising God with psalms)

  3. nirtsa (conclusion)

The Siddur ha-shalem (shel Tefillot) mi-kol ha shana, the Hamburg Haggadah, and the Leipnik-Rosentaliana Haggadah incorporate pictures to make the mnemonic more interesting and comprehensible to those who may have had difficulty reading. Preschel 73{ }^{73} believes the last copied the idea from The Venice Haggadah. Only the Offenbach Haggadah 1722 and the 1753 Cecil Roth Oxford Haggadah provide the poem exclusively in Hebrew. Interestingly, the Fuerth Haggadah 1741741741^{74} has the poem only in Yiddish.

The Passover Hagadah with English Translation 75{ }^{75} pictures the seder plate on the cover, which serves as an educational tool rather similar to the pictorial description of the mnemonic poem. This tradition of a graphic description of the symbolic foods became quite popular in “modern” haggadot, with each haggadah having its own flavor. Some, like the Passover Haggadah, 76{ }^{76} provide only a graphic of the place with pictures of the foods on the back of the cover page. Others offer only textual descriptions of the plate, like Roth’s "beside these object[s the bone and the egg], the tray contains some Bitter Herb . . . and a toothsome mixture known as Haroseth. . . 777{ }^{777} Most provide both a picture and labels for the words. Birnbaum 78{ }^{78} and Regelson 79{ }^{79} do this in Hebrew and English, while Link 80{ }^{80} uses Spanish. A basic recipe for haroset is provided by Link,
73{ }^{73} Leipnik-Rosentaliana Haggadah, inside front cover.
74{ }^{74} The Fuerth Haggadah 1741 (New York: Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel, 1976; rpt. of Hagadah Seder Shel Pesach [Fuerth, Bavaria, 1741]).
75{ }^{75} Passover Hagadah with English Translation (np: Behrman’s Jewish Bookshop, 1910; rpt. New York: Ktav, 1951).
76{ }^{76} Passover Haggadah (New York: Shulsinger Brothers Linotyping and Publishing, 1954).
77{ }^{77} Cecil Roth, The Haggadah-A New Edition with English Translation, Introduction, and Notes (London: Soncino, 1959).
78{ }^{78} Philip Birnbaum, trans., The Passover Haggadah (New York: Hebrew Pub., 1953).
79{ }^{79} Abraham Regelson, Haggadah of Passover (New York: Shulsinger Brothers Linotyping and Publishing, 1944).
80{ }^{80} Pablo Link, Hagadah Shel Pesach (Buenos Aires: Imprenta Jorman, 1949).

Regelson, Sloan, 81{ }^{81} Kolatch, 82{ }^{82} Glatzer, 83{ }^{83} Silverman, 84{ }^{84} Silver, 85{ }^{85} and A. Kaplan. 86{ }^{86} For example, “In antiquity this pap made of crushed fruit, mostly apples, nuts, and almonds, to which ginger or cinnamon and wine were added, was the common raw vegetable sauce” 87{ }^{87} and "This is a mixture of chopped apples, walnuts and cinnamon, moistened with wine. 88{ }^{88} A. Kaplan and Schatz 89{ }^{89} go yet a step further and add the reasoning behind the use of the particular ingredients.

The history of Passover and the festival’s importance historically and currently was also included in the “modern” front matter. Samuel 90{ }^{90} wrote 17 pages of introductory text on the history of Passover. This text is not the first occurrence, because Blogg 91{ }^{91} did include a history of the festival (albeit much shorter, only two pages) in German. This historical explanation is very popular in twentieth-century haggadot. Obviously, the compiler/commentator felt his audience lacked this knowledge that would add significance to the festival. After Samuel, Link provides 13 pages on the history and importance of this festival, Sloan offers two and a half pages, Roth two, Morel 92{ }^{92} eight, Kolatch five, Silverman one paragraph, and Schatz four pages. Glatzer goes so far as to include a bibliography and commentaries on the subject.

Along with this need to discuss the history and importance of Passover came the definition and explanation of the haggadah, something reasonably obvious to those fully

[1]

  1. 81{ }^{81} Jacob Sloan, trans., The Passover Haggadah: With English Translation, Introduction, and Commentary (New York: Schocken Books, 1953).
    82{ }^{82} Alfred J. Kolatch, The Family Seder: A Traditional Passover Haggadah for the Modern Home (New York: Jonathan David, 1967), p. 2.
    83{ }^{83} Nahum N. Glatzer, ed., The Passover Haggadah-With English Translation, Introduction, and Commentary (New York: Schocken Books, 1969), p. 8.
    84{ }^{84} Morris Silverman, ed., The Passover Haggadah (Bridgeport, CT: Media Judaica, 1978).
    85{ }^{85} Arthur Silver, Passover Haggadah: The Complete Seder (New York: Menorah Pub., 1980), p. 47.
    86{ }^{86} Aryeh Kaplan, trans. and ed., The Basic Haggadah (New York: Maznaim, 1982).
    87{ }^{87} Glatzer, The Passover Haggadah, p. 8.
    88{ }^{88} Kolatch, The Family Seder, p. 2.
    89{ }^{89} Bezalel Schatz, ill., The Bay Area Jewish Reform Hagadah . . . (Berkeley: Benmir Books, 1986).
    90{ }^{90} Maurice Samuel, trans., Haggadah of Passover (New York: Hebrew Pub., 1942).
    91{ }^{91} Salomon Ephraim Blogg, ed., Seder HaHagadah Shel Pesach (Hanover, 1861; rpt. The Hanover Haggadah of 1861, with a preface by Tovia Preschel, New York: Diskin Orphan Home of Israel, 1994), maggid.
    92{ }^{92} Robert Morel, ed., Haggada de Paque (Haute Provence: St. Martin, 1962). ↩︎

immersed in Jewish culture. Again, Blogg was the first with two pages in both German and Hebrew. Samuel, the 1954 Passover Haggadah, and Glatzer all include this section.

Most haggadot from this century include at least one of the modern elements listed above. A few exceptions, however, do exist. A 1923 haggadah from Berlin 93{ }^{93} calligraphed to be reminiscent of medieval works, contains no “modern” innovations. Pregel’s haggadah from 1965941965^{94} likewise contains no explanations or clarifications.

Analysis

As we see, the growth of a true introduction (or preface) happened at the turn of this century, almost a generation after the creation of free public schooling. These changes coincide with Rabbis ha-Cohen and Sorotzkin’s concerns about women’s Jewish literacy and the rise of literacy (reading skills) among the general public, and women specifically. 95{ }^{95} That the language of the preface is local, not (exclusively) Hebrew, is important because for a woman to fulfill the obligation of the seder she must do more than eat the ritual food and be present, she must understand what is happening. (This applies to all Jews, not women exclusively. 96{ }^{96} ) Thus, the preface then grew from a simple set of instructions for what needs to be on the ritual table to elaborate discussions of the significance of these items and the festival itself.

Perhaps the first to explicitly recognize the need for instruction was the Central Conference of American Rabbis (a Reform movement umbrella organization), which in 1903 decided to create a haggadah which would "offer as an appendix, historical material and additional literature of an interesting, instructive, and inspiring nature. 97{ }^{97} The need for “an interesting, instructive, and inspiring” liturgy becomes clearer in the 1907 haggadah’s foreword, where the editors explained: "The moral and spiritual worth of such an hallowed institution [as Passover], which has become a vital part of the Jewish consciousness, is priceless. It would be an irretrievable loss were it to pass into neglect. To avert such a danger, has been the anxious thought to which this little book

[1]

  1. 93{ }^{93} Hagadah Shel Pesach (Berlin: Ferdinand Oftertag Verlag, 1923).
    94{ }^{94} Alexandra Pregel, ill., Hagadah shel Pesach (Massadah-P.E.C., 1965).
    95{ }^{95} Kaufmann, The Woman in Jewish Law and Tradition, p. xxxiii.
    96{ }^{96} Shulhan Arukh, Orah Hayyim 472:14 Halikhot Betah 18:15-26.
    97{ }^{97} Joseph Krauskopf and Henry Berkowitz, Report of Committee on a Pesach Haggadah. Central Conference of American Rabbis Yearbook, vol. 13. Proceedings of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Annual Convention (New York: CCAR, 1903), p. 64. ↩︎

owes its origin. 98{ }^{98} They must have felt some “loss” was happening and were anxious to avoid it.

It seems what women needed to know about the holiday, to fulfill its requirements and create the festive atmosphere, was not being learned via a domestic religion, “through the rituals.” 99{ }^{99} If no family or Jewishly domestic structure exists, then one may be “missing basic Jewish knowledge . . . lack[ing] a connection to their Jewish past and [, thus,] an interest in the future.” 100{ }^{100} Perhaps Arthur M. Silver put it best: "Why, one may ask, publish yet another [haggadah]? Because there is a need for a Haggadah that brings together all the details of the rituals and customs pertaining to the Seder. . . . For the novice, or one who has some knowledge of a Seder but is confused by the various rites, detailed step-by-step directions are given in the body of the Haggadah."101

The increased secular learning from schools overpowered the religion the youth had previously absorbed at home. This shift was the reasoning behind the creation of Haggadah: A Modern Edition:

The purpose of the Haggadah is to be modern in outlook, yet provide a link to the decisions and traditions of the past. Too many of us are educated in the secular sense, with college or advanced degrees, but without any more than a rudimentary grade-school education in the four-thousand-year evolution of our people. 102{ }^{102}

Additionally, we must consider the time frame in which the popularity of prefaces seems to have grown drastically, during and after the Second World War. Many immigrants to the United States relied on the families in the “old” country to continue the traditions. To be accepted in the local (i.e., U.S.A.) culture, these immigrants dropped many of their religious trappings. However, after the destruction of communities in Europe, postwar American Jewry realized that there was no one else to continue the traditions, 103{ }^{103} and that either they adopted these rituals or the rituals would vanish. This recognition coupled with the massive loss of Jewish scholars who were killed in the Holocaust, and the move from urban to suburban communities, meant that without

[1]

  1. 98{ }^{98} Central Conference of American Rabbis, The Union Haggadah (New York: Bloch Publishing, 1907).
    99{ }^{99} Myerhoff, Number Our Days, pp. 234-235.
    100{ }^{100} Kaufmann, The Woman in Jewish Law and Tradition, p. 177.
    101{ }^{101} Silver, Passover Haggadah, p. v.
    102{ }^{102} Mara W. Cohen Ioannides and Stephen M. Cohen, Haggadah: A Modern Edition (duplicated, 1993), foreword.
    103{ }^{103} Amato Levy, I Remember Rhodes, dedication; Silberman, A Certain People, p. 180; Stein, “Jewish Social Work in the United States,” p. 173. ↩︎

a written record of the customs within a generation the orally learned rituals would be lost. 104{ }^{104}

Future Work

Clearly, this is not a complete survey of all haggadot in existence; there are far too many. However, by studying a sample we can see that there has been a significant impact by secular education practices on the prefaces of haggadot. The next step in this research will be to examine how these prefaces have changed the creation of the seder experience. In addition, a study of prefaces in Sephardic haggadot is in order, to see if the educational practices in the North African and Middle Eastern countries have changed haggadot from those areas in any way.

From this research, we can see that women may not be learning religion through domestic education, and compilers/commentators of the haggadot (men and women) are concerned that this tradition will disappear. Women have recently begun to compile haggadot. E. M. Broner’s The Women’s Haggadah is one of a very few of these nationally published haggadot which has been created by women. This particular haggadah’s purpose is to be "different. The invited men would prepare the meal, serve, and clean. The women would contemplate the traditional Haggadah and write new and relevant prayers. 1105{ }^{1105} Aviva Cantor created The Jewish Liberation Haggadah, in which she “infuse[d] old rituals with new content and menaing”; 106{ }^{106} while she attempted a women’s haggadah, Cantor realized that it did not provide what she wanted-a recreation of her memories of Seders at her parents’ house with "several generations, with children running underfoot and spilling the wine."107

Rarely is information provided in a manuscript unless the audience demands it or the author sees a lack of understanding. Not only do the participants wish to know the customs, but they want to understand the historical context and symbolism of the entire event. Many women with the opportunity for secular education know there is more to learn. It seems, in the case of Passover, that people want to recreate the holiday, and whether they recreate through memory or by following a book it satisfies their needs and allows the next generation to experience the festivities as well.

[1]

  1. 104{ }^{104} Silberman, A Certain People, pp. 176-189.
    105{ }^{105} E. M. Broner, The Women’s Haggadah (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994), p. 1.
    106{ }^{106} Aviva Cantor, “Jewish Women’s Haggadah,” in Carol P. Christ and Judith Plaskow, eds., Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), p. 186.
    107{ }^{107} Cantor, “Jewish Women’s Haggadah,” p. 188. ↩︎

Acknowledgments

Our special thanks to the two Mrs. Lotvins of Springfield, Missouri for the use of their wonderful haggadah collection, the staff of the Asher Library of Spertus College (Chicago) for their assistance and excellent collection of materials, and the interlibrary loan staff of Meyer Library of Southwest Missouri State University (Springfield) for their unending patience. In addition, thanks to Professor Dimitri Ioannides, Professor Jane Hoogstraat, and Professor Margaret Weaver of Southwest Missouri State University, and Professor Beth Wiley of the University of Louisville for their suggestions.