The JPS Commentary on the Haggadah: Historical Introduction, Translation, and Commentary

Illustrations

Illustrations A page from the 1526 Prague haggadah, which contains the blessings for ridding the home of leaven before Passover. This was the first-ever illustrated haggadah, with all art printed from woodcuts. Though the border here was likely borrowed from a gentile printer, the small woodcut at the top right was made specifically for this haggadah. The picture shows a Jew about to begin the search for leaven in his home, with the aid of a candle, a feather with which to pick up crumbs, and bowl to contain them. 142 143 A page from the 1526 Prague haggadah highlighting the song "Avadim Hayinu," celebrating that while Jews were once slaves, they are now free and can help make the world a better place. The top woodcut shows a man leaning on his chair, and the text starting above (and continuing on the bottom left) states the obligation for people to recline at the Passover seder. The woodcut on the lower right, of a man hoeing for clay, represents the haroset, a food that symbolizes the clay used by the Jewish slaves in their construction work. The text below it explains the haroset. The frontispiece ofthe 1711 Sulzbach haggadah. Above the title, two angels hold a portrait ofKing David with his harp, with a rendering ofthe Binding ofIsaac below. Moses and Aaron stand on either side ofthe book's title, their figures copied from the 1695 Amsterdam haggadah. The Amsterdam haggadah was the first to print illustrations from copperplates. It was common for later haggadot to copy the illustrations in the 1695 haggadah because they were so visually stunning, but many people came to feel that the original high quality of these images was diminished by poor-quality reproductions. 144 145 The "Adir Hu" prayer, a hymn that expresses hope for the rebuilding ofthe Temple, appears over a rendering of Jerusalem and the Temple. This image is from the 1711 Sulzbach haggadah, reproduced from the 1695 Amsterdam haggadah. The unique script on the upper half of the page, Rashi font, frequently used in the design ofJewish commentaries, was first used in one ofthe earliest printed books, the commentary of Rashi published in 1473; it was meant to look like the handwriting used for copying books at that time. A page from the haggadah section ofSefer ha-Minhagim, published in Ladino in Amsterdam in approximately 1767. The picture portrays the baking ofmatzah, illustrating the blessing for separating out the challah, which is done just before the matzah is baked. It was common for Jewish families during this period to own prayerbooks that contained the services and rituals for all the holidays of the Jewish year. Thus, the haggadah was often a section ofa larger book, not only the stand-alone text with which many contemporaryJews are familiar. 146 147 The title page ofa 1790 haggadah from Livorno. The text in the upper halfon the page appears in Rashi font, a style oftype that was commonly used in Jewish commentaries ofthe time. Toward the bottom, a grandiose design, most likely the publisher's logo, is featured. The cover of a haggadah published in Prague in 1849 by Moses Israel Landau, a well-known printer and publisher, and a leader in the Prague Jewish community. Along with the Hebrew and German titles that appear here is an artist's rendering ofMoses and Aaron pleading with the Pharaoh to free the Israelite slaves. 148 149 A page from a 1878 haggadah published in Vilna. The closing verses of the seder, ''Le-Shanah ha-baJah beYerushalyim " (Next year in Jerusalem), are followed by a rendering ofthe Egyptians being drowned in the Sea of Reeds after the Israelites have safely crossed. Underneath this picture is commentary by Isaac Abravanel, the well-known Isth-century philosopher, commentator, and statesman. The title page of a haggadah published in Vienna in 1884 by a grandson of the Hatarn Sofer, a leading commentator and Orthodox rabbi of both the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This haggadah contains the commentaries ofboth the Hatarn Sofer, which are in the right-hand column ofthe page, and those ofhis sonin -law, the Hatan Sofer, the father of the publisher, in the left-hand column...