Virtually every Jewish man, woman and child knows what Passover is and has participated at a Seder using the Passover Haggadah. It is the most beloved and universally popular Jewish book. The Haggadah has been published and printed in hundreds if not thousands of versions, and despite the fact that people have been adapting this ancient text and amending the ritual to reflect the consciousness of modernity, it remains remarkably impervious to changes in fashion.Part of the reason for its endurance is the fact that it is a very precisely worded and profoundly mystical text of fabulous complexity and brilliance. It should come as no surprise that all the characters mentioned by name in the Haggadah, R. Akiba, R. Yosi Haglili and R. Yehuda, were known to be active in the mystical arts in first and second century Palestine. Some, like R. Eliezer the Great and R. Akiba were leaders of their esoteric schools and authored Kabbalistic texts of their own.For the first time, the English reader is invited to join a Seder with some of the protagonists of those discussions, to make the personal journey out of slavery, to prepare for personal Giluy Shechinah - Divine Revelation.The Kabbalist Haggadah gives the reader a compelling reason and a marvelous tool for revisiting the original Haggadah. Every line of text and every detail of the ritual is given its basic Kabbalistic description and appropriate Kavanah - Intention. Besides providing a wealth of information to the would-be Kabbalist, a how-to manual of the Mystical Seder, Rabbi J. Hershy Worch takes the reader into the rarified world of Practical Kabbalah where every thought is mirrored and every act brings a response: As below so above - as above so below.The subtext of the Haggadah is the primal trauma, Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, resulting in the loss of intimacy, referred to in the Kabbalah as the Exile of Da'at - Knowing. Slavery is undoubtedly the most prevalent and ancient of human sicknesses. Compulsive behaviors and what are commonly considered `addictions', all the modern barriers to intimacy, are merely the current forms of Egyptian Exile. The Haggadah is an ancient Self-help book, because that's what Kabbalah is all about.

Traditionally, the Jewish festival of Pesach, which celebrates the Exodus from Egypt, is a time when famillies gather to participate in a Seder together. This formalised meal has two main requirements: speak about the Exodus from Egypt and ask questions.While writing about Pesach in my upcoming novel, about a gay eighteen-year-old Jew studying in Israel, certain themes kept recurring. Most poignant was the tension between the questions the characters were supposed to ask and the questions that spoke to their experience as outsiders. The story of the Exodus, as well as the way it is recounted in the Haggadah (which details the programme that the Seder is to follow), sets out a vision for what the God of Orthodox Judaism wants both from and for His people. When you're gay or queer or simply questioning the meaning of your own life, this vision not only falls short but can begin to feel like a prison.I ended up writing a Haggadah of my own which follows the fourteen stages of the traditional Seder. It consists mainly of stories about certain characters that relate to each stage, exploring the concepts of freedom, liberation, and purpose.The Official Jewfro Genius Haggadah will be most relatable to readers with Orthodox Jewish backgrounds, but the themes are universal. We were all raised in one system or another, into which some people seem to fit naturally while others are forced to either compromise or find a safe way out. Even if you never had to grapple with your identity in this system, no person is born with ready-made beliefs or practices and every single one of us has questioned to some extent.The contents of this Haggadah challenge traditional Jewish and religious thought, but this is not intended as an academic or intellectual document. This is all story, reflecting on characters and experiences which resonate regardless of where you stand in relation to religion.

In a generation that has seen an explosion in popularity of books about mystical and meditative traditions, very little has been published about the rich and fascinating mystical traditions of the Jewish holy days. Passover, the first religious holiday of the Jewish people, particularly rewards a re-viewing from a mystical perspective. A Mystical Haggadah takes readers through the Passover ritual with Kabbalistic meditations and affirmations in a friendly, accessible format. This Haggadah also includes many Hassidic teachings and stories that have never been presented to the English reading audience. The book is especially valuable for its transliterations of all the major prayers and rituals, and is refreshing in its creative and spiritually-based adaptation and translation of the primary Haggadah text. A Mystical Haggadah is for all spiritual seekers who wish to explore this root tradition of Judaism as a ritual of cosmic importance. The book is also for Jewish seekers of all denominations who wish to explore the mystical, meditative, and empowering aspects of Jewish traditions as seen through the rich and meaningful Passover eve Seder ritual.

Hasidic Art and the Kabbalah presents eight case studies of manuscripts, ritual objects, and folk art developed by Hasidic masters in the mid-eighteenth to late nineteenth centuries, whose form and decoration relate to sources in the Zohar, German Pietism, and Safed Kabbalah. Examined at the delicate and difficult to define interface between seemingly simple, folk art and complex ideological and conceptual outlooks which contain deep, abstract symbols, the study touches on aspects of object history, intellectual history, the decorative arts, and the history of religion. Based on original texts, the focus of this volume is on the subjective experience of the user at the moment of ritual, applying tenets of process philosophy and literary theory – Wolfgang Iser, Gaston Bachelard, and Walter Benjamin – to the analysis of objects.

In this unprecedented masterwork, The Scholar's Haggadah: Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Oriental Versions, Heinrich Guggenheimer presents the first Haggadah to treat the texts of all Jewish groups on an equal footing and to use their divergences and concurrences as a key to the history of the text and an understanding of its development. The Seder (the ceremony of the Passover night) is one of the most universally celebrated rituals among Jewish families, for what it commemorates–Jewish freedom from bondage–is the glue that bonds all Jews together, traditional and modern, Ashkenazic and Sephardic alike. In the Book of Exodus the Jewish people are instructed to tell their children of how God brought the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt, and thousands of years later this timeless tradition remains an immutable factor in Jewish homes on Passover night. While many commentaries have been written on the Haggadah during the last one thousand years–most delineating the spiritual meaning or the ritual details of the Passover ceremonies–few historical investigations have dealt with texts that are not wholly Ashkenazic. Available for the first time to the reader is a Haggadah that includes the customs and ceremonies of not only Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jewry, but of Yemenite Jews as well. Additionally, the author provides a commentary that not only offers a key to the roots of the Passover ceremonies and an introduction to the thought and practice of talmudic-rabbinic Judaism, but also presents a history of the development of text and practice of the Seder celebration. While Yemenite Jewry still follows texts and prescriptions of Maimonides practically in their original form, unchanged for at least 800 years, European Ashkenazic and Sephardic practices have undergone many changes. While the history of Yemenite Jews is riddled with oppression and migration, the Moslem rulers of their country never extended their persecutions to Jewish books. On the other hand, the history of European Jews is dominated by

Arthur Szyk (pronounced “Shick”) created his magnificent Haggadah in !--?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /--Lodz, on the eve of the Nazi occupation of his native Poland. There is no Haggadah like it, before or since, filled with sumptuous paintings of Jewish heroes and stunning calligraphy.!--?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /-- This edition, the first since 1940 to be reproduced from Szyk’s original art, boasts a newly commissioned and extremely practical English text by Rabbi Byron L. Sherwin, ideal for use at any family Seder, and a special commentary section by Rabbi Sherwin and Irvin Ungar gives insight into both the rituals of the Seder and Szyk’s rich illustrations. The Szyk Haggadah will transform the Seder, bringing the story of the Exodus from Egypt into a more contemporary light.