On March 26, I posted a blog announcing the publication of a new Haggadah “A Jubilee Haggadah Marking the 50th Year Since the 1967 War” that brought together thirty Israeli and American Jewish peace activists (including me) who offered commentaries on aspects of the traditional Haggadah. See https://rabbijohnrosove.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/a-jubilee-haggadah-marking-the-50th-year-since-the-1967-war/
I opened the blog announcing that
“A new Haggadah has just been published by SISO (“Save Israel – Stop the Occupation”). It is called the Jubilee Haggadah because it marks the 50th year since the 1967 War, a turning point in the history of the modern State of Israel that the writers and editors conjoin with the biblical Jubilee commandment – “You shall proclaim liberty throughout the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you…” (Leviticus 25:10) – and with the celebration of Passover, the festival of liberty.
The Haggadah is part of a new initiative begun by prominent Israeli individuals and organizations in partnership with Jewish leaders around the world who believe that the prolonged Israeli military occupation poses a very real threat to Israel’s safety and well-being, and undermines the moral and democratic fabric of Israel and its standing in the community of nations. See SISO’s website – https://www.siso.org.il.”
I received a thoughtful and friendly reply in Hebrew from Dr. Zioni Ben Yair (I do not know him) that said (translation is mine):
“I certainly sympathize with the need to break free from the corruption of the occupation [of the West Bank] because it contradicts the Torah and Haggadah and it’s making us an undemocratic apartheid state. Nevertheless, I believe we must continue to use the Haggadah as it is without changing even a single letter. The Haggadah has been read during all 82 years of my life, in different situations, in different countries and under different and unique circumstances, and in many cases, there are no proper reasons for change and new formulations….We need to be able to continue to read the Haggadah literally as we are used to doing from time immemorial.” (See Dr. Ben Yair’s original Hebrew letter: https://rabbijohnrosove.wordpress.com/2017/03/26/a-jubilee-haggadah-marking-the-50th-year-since-the-1967-war/#comments
This past week in The Forward, J.J. Goldberg wrote a piece he called “Is Passover Broken Beyond Repair?” in which he discusses a plethora of new Haggadot written over the decades that is a fitting response to Dr. Ben Yair’s comments – see http://forward.com/opinion/israel/368555/is-passover-broken-beyond-repair/?attribution=author-article-listing-2-headline.
Once you read JJ’s article, I suggest asking who is right – The traditionalists who wish not to change a word of the traditional Haggadah, or the innovators of new Haggadot who seek to apply the historic Jewish experience of victimization and liberation to others?
In my response to Dr. Ben Yair, I noted that the traditional Haggadah is a compilation of Midrashim, commentaries, stories, rituals, and symbols that entered the Haggadah over the centuries for specific reasons. A prime example is the custom of opening the door for Elijah, a relatively “recent” addition to the Seder (500-600 years ago) that was introduced during times of anti-Semitic persecution and violence provoked by the blood libel accusation.
Jews opened their doors to show Christians who were sensitive to the New Testament’s deicide accusation against the Jews who happened to be passing by that nothing horrific and sacrilegious was taking place in Jewish homes.
I suggested to Dr. Ben Yair, whose letter shows his concern about the corrupting effect of the occupation on West Bank Palestinians, on the soul of the Jewish people and State of Israel that for the Seder to remain meaningful today, in our generation, its themes of liberation, justice, and compassion must be applied not only to our own Jewish conditions but to the injustices suffered by peoples everywhere.
What do you think?
Rabbi John Rosove's Blog 
Rabbi,
Ravi Abraham Isaac Kook said, “What is old make new — what is new make holy.”
We acknowledge in the Haggadah that “In every generation we are obligated to see ourselves as if we had personally come out of Egypt, as it says, ‘You shall tell your child on that day saying, because of what G-d did for me when I left Egypt.’ ”
We fulfill this mitzvah of “וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ” (Exodus 13:8) by engaging our children and all Seder participants in the story of the Exodus – and its living relevance- through liturgy, midrash, art, song and discussion. The purpose of the Seder is not to calcify the text as if it were a sacred relic, but rather to share the text around the table as a call to personal and communal renewal.
That is why so many Haggadot, and more every year, amend the traditional text not only with translations (because Halacha requires that all participants comprehend the Seder) and art (to stimulate our senses and appreciation), but also with commentaries in footnotes or sidebars or interspersed text that connect the meaning of the Seder to analogous modern and personal issues (whether theological, psychological, political or historical). These supplemental items may develop universal themes of relevance (as in your beautiful new Jubilee Haggadah), or comment on the origins of the Haggadah sections, or detail arguments on different traditions of observance and rabbinic insights past and present. Annotating the Haggadah text and adding additional readings, dvar Torah and reflections in those ways is not just allowed but to be encouraged.
There is a teaching from the Ishbitzer Rebbe, noted in the introduction to the wonderful “The Night that Unites” Haggadah, that Pesach is a time to open our hearts to our inner life and to change, not to be stuck in old ways, as the Zohar explains “One who does not observe the laws of Passover is as if he worships idols.” That is why the Torah places the injunction “You shall not make for yourself a masecha [a ‘solid image’ or ‘mask’]” immediately before the command to celebrate Pesach (Ex. 34:17-18).
The Haggadah is not an idol or unchanging image. It is a call to change. So it, too, continually evolves around the traditional core text. Through these modern Haggadot, we come to answer the question of how we who have become “free”, whether in Israel or the Diaspora, rekindle our faith in divine Mitzvot and break the hidden shackles (moral, spiritual, mental and physical) that still block us from compassion in all our relationships, both personal and national.
As for me, I personally prefer Haggadot that do not omit or reorder the traditional Seder. But adding new materials distinguished from the traditional text in the Haggadah seems to me more than appropriate. It is a longstanding and evocative practice, critical to inspiring reflection and lively discussion of how, today, we can understand and practice compassion and justice, to make a blessing of our liberation, and break the chains of bondage through both personal renewal and Tikkun Olam.
B’Shalom.
Allan _______________________________ Allan T. Marks Partner Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP +1 (424) 386-4376 amarks@milbank.com
As a “new Jew” I do not have the same feeling nor relationship to tradition as does Dr. Ben Yair. I look at the Torah scroll, appearing exactly as it did over two thousand years ago, as a holy relic, and examine it weekly with others, for its message for us today. The Haggadah has a very different place in my heart and mind. My wife, Nancy Weiss, participated with a group of women, decades ago, in creating a document that would reflect and communicate the feminist move towards freedom and annually, she and I re-work this document (Haggadah) to assist those at our Seder Table to explore their own struggles to obtain to freedom. It is this struggle, to obtain to freedom, freedom of body, mind and spirit, the freedom to know god, that makes Judaism and its attendant Holidays and Rituals, so vital in my life. Thank you, Dr. Bob Newport