The Passover Haggadah - (Lives of Great Religious Books) by Vanessa L Ochs (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This telling of the life of the Haggadah, probably the most beloved of books that Jews own, chronicles its recalibrations over time. It moves from its early sources in the Bible and rabbinic literature; to the years it was a handwritten manuscript; to its life as an illuminated book in the middle ages; to its emergence as mass-produced printed book and later, as an artist's book; to its iterations in the twentieth century in America and Israel, including those using emerging technologies of our day. It is the story of a liturgical text came about to fulfill a biblical injunction to fathers to tell the story of the Exodus from Egypt to their children (literally, to their sons): "And you shall tell your son on that day, 'It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt'" (Exodus 13:8). Despite significant flaws in the text that have occasioned thousands of revisions, it remains well and alive because it allows its users to transmit the story of Exodus as if it happened to them. With a Haggadah in hand at a Passover seder meal, the text kindles the memory of belonging to a people who knew slavery and then liberation and enlivens empathy. An engagement with the Haggadah, inevitably leaves one feeling responsible for helping others to achieve their own liberation"--

Book Synopsis

The life and times of a treasured book read by generations of Jewish families at the seder table

Every year at Passover, Jews around the world gather for the seder, a festive meal where family and friends come together to sing, pray, and enjoy traditional food while retelling the biblical story of the Exodus. The Passover Haggadah provides the script for the meal and is a religious text unlike any other. It is the only sacred book available in so many varieties--from the Maxwell House edition of the 1930s to the countercultural Freedom Seder--and it is the rare liturgical work that allows people with limited knowledge to conduct a complex religious service. The Haggadah is also the only religious book given away for free at grocery stores as a promotion. Vanessa Ochs tells the story of this beloved book, from its emergence in antiquity as an oral practice to its vibrant proliferation today.

Ochs provides a lively and incisive account of how the foundational Jewish narrative of liberation is remembered in the Haggadah. She discusses the book's origins in biblical and rabbinical literature, its flourishing in illuminated manuscripts in the medieval period, and its mass production with the advent of the printing press. She looks at Haggadot created on the kibbutz, those reflecting the Holocaust, feminist and LGBTQ-themed Haggadot, and even one featuring a popular television show, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Ochs shows how this enduring work of liturgy that once served to transmit Jewish identity in Jewish settings continues to be reinterpreted and reimagined to share the message of freedom for all.

Review Quotes

"[A] fascinating, short history of the Haggadah."---Simon Rocker, Jewish Chronicle

"For any-one inter-est-ed in the emer-gence and com-plex evo-lu-tion of the Hag-gadah, this biog-ra-phy offers a trove of infor-ma-tion in engag-ing and invit-ing language."-- "Jewish Book Council"

About the Author

Vanessa L. Ochs is professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and an ordained rabbi. Her books include Inventing Jewish Ritual, which won a National Jewish Book Award; Sarah Laughed: Modern Lessons from the Wisdom and Stories of Biblical Women; and Words on Fire: One Woman's Journey into the Sacred. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.