NISAN
Table of Contents
Haggadah,
from the Hebrew root-word h-g-d, means to tell. Haggadah,
then, actually refers to the telling of the Passover story, but by extension
to the home liturgy for the first two nights of Pesah (in Israel and
among Reform Jews, the first night only) that accompanies the ritual
meal called the seder (order). The recitation of this liturgy
is based on the biblical injunction to retell the tale of the Exodus
(Ex. 13:8). The seder began as a rabbinic version of first-century Greco-Roman
ritualized meals called symposia; the meal was originally followed by
spontaneous questions to prompt discussion, a Midrashic recounting of
the Exodus, and a recitation of the ten plagues. By the year 200 CE,
the meal had been postponed until the end of the liturgy, and set questions
(mah nishtanah) replaced the spontaneous ones. Over time, the
narrative accompaniment (haggadah) to the meal grew larger and
more varied.
Detail from
18th-century German haggadah (printed in Offenbach, 1795)
Click
to view enlarged
The
earliest extant written haggadah text is a relatively complete fragment
datable to 8th or 9th-century Palestine (found in the Cairo genizah,
a repository for discarded or worn sacred writings). The version that
became canonical for Jews worldwide is part of a 9th-century prayer
book, Seder Rav Amram, by Amram Ga'on of Babylonia. Amram's relatively
sparse after-dinner liturgy text was significantly expanded in Europe
following the Crusades. The Mishneh Torah of Maimonides (1135-1204)
contains the text of the Haggadah which is essentially the same as in
present use, although a number of hymns (some of which are sung at the
conclusion of the seder) were added later by German and Polish Jews.
Throughout the medieval period, beautiful illuminated manuscript haggadot
were created by masterful scribes and artists, bringing the narrative
to life and engaging the children at seder tables. Haggadah illustrations
include many representations of human figures; despite the second commandment
against making graven images, rabbis, patrons and artists apparently
saw no danger of idolatry in using figural representations in haggadot
as they were used in home ritual, and not in synagogue services.
Until the 13th century haggadot were generally incorporated as part
of a larger corpus of liturgical texts (miscellanies). However, with
the growing interest in European book production and the new form of
Christian prayer book for private devotion (Book of Hours) that became
popular in the 13th century, commissions for luxuriously illuminated
manuscripts grew in Jewish circles as in Christian.
The invention of printing in the 15th century inspired new creativity
in haggadah illustration; Sephardi artists began to paint entire biblical
epics, while Ashkenazi (German and Italian) painters drew a running
visual commentary to the liturgy. With printing, the artistic tradition
continued with woodcuts, woodblocks and copper plate engravings.
Detail from
Venice Haggadah, 1629 edition
Click
to view enlarged
In
the 18th century, the art of the Hebrew illustrated haggadah experienced
a revival.. Wealthy Jews (most surviving examples came from Germany,
Austria and Moravia) commissioned manuscript editions of printed haggadot;
scribes and artists copied printed models, adding innovations and adaptations
of their own.
With the revival of graphic arts in the twentieth century, attempts
were made by some Jewish artists to recast the illustration of earlier
haggadot. The haggadah continues to inspire creative expression among
contemporary artists.
|
From:
The Passover Anthology, ed. Philip Goodman. Jewish Publication
Society, 1993. |
|
Illustrations
from haggadot reprinted in: Haggadah and History: A Panorama
in Facsimile of Five Centuries of the Printed Haggadah, ed.
Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi. Jewish Publication Society, 1975, 1976,
1977. |
|
See
also The Five Sages from Bnei Brak meet
the Four Sons,
a discussion by Rachel Wischnitzer, of a few details in
the 15th-century Darmstadt Haggadah |
|