Tag Archives: Passover

(Bloody Mess) Expressionist Chad Gadya (Menachem Birnbaum)

Posted on April 17, 2014 by zjb

My father buys one kid. Cat kills kid. Dog kills cat. Stick kills dog. Fire burns stick. Water consumes fire. Ox drinks up water. The butcher slaughters ox. Angel of death slays butcher. And God, the Holy One, kills the angel of … Continue reading →

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Moshe and Sorel (The Pressburg Haggadah of Hatam Sofer)

Posted on April 16, 2014 by zjb

I saw this 1924 facsimile copy of the Pressburg Haggadah at Marilyn Braiterman Rare Books this year at the New York Antiquarian Book Fair. I’m sure I’m getting details wrong but apparently the ms. was  presented to the Chatam Sofer to … Continue reading →

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Domestic Redemption (No Meta-Narrative) (Washington Haggadah)

Posted on March 29, 2013 by zjb

David Stern explains the difference between the medieval Sephardi versus Ashkenazi Haggadah has having to do with the difference between a more group-national perspective versus a more domestic scale. You can see this in the Golden Haggadah, the Rylands Haggadah, … Continue reading →

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Redemption (Brutal) (Brother Haggadah)

Posted on March 28, 2013 by zjb

This is one brutal Haggadah. I ran into it in Marc Epstein’s new book on the medieval Haggadah. It is the so-called “Brother Haggadah” to the more famous Rylands Haggadah. It’s presumed to be 14th C. Catalonian. The figures in … Continue reading →

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Angelic Animal Jews (Birds’ Head Haggadah)

Posted on March 24, 2013 by zjb

I never knew what to make of the figures in the Birds’ Head Haggadah until I read Marc Michael Epstein’s recently published The Medieval Haggadah: Art, Narrative, and Religious Imagination. First of all, and perhaps most obviously, the birds are … Continue reading →

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Haggadah (Leonard Baskin)

Posted on April 12, 2012 by zjb
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My Haggadah (Leonard Baskin & Elie Wiesel)

Posted on April 10, 2012 by zjb

I grew up in the 1970s with the CCAR Reform Haggadah with the gorgeous prints by Leonard Baskin. Since these were some 20 or so purchased Haggadah, they stayed with my family year in and year out. After my father … Continue reading →

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Seder Table (Narrow Place)

Posted on April 10, 2012 by zjb

  One of the images that remained with me when I read Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff’s Mongrel or Marvels: The Levantine Writings of Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff  was the image of a long Seder table in a narrow room. Searching a month … Continue reading →

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Wise Son (Religious Education & Unbelief)

Posted on April 9, 2012 by zjb

  I’ve had cause to puzzle about religious education. Let’ say you send a kid to an orthodox Jewish day school, because you figure it’s actually the best Jewish day school in the city, and because you want him to … Continue reading →

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One more comment re: Wieseltier & the “New American Haggadah”

Posted on April 6, 2012 by zjb

(chag sameach!) Reading Wieseltier’s review felt like watching someone murder someone. On the other hand, my mom thought LW’s review hit the nail on the head. She doesn’t read Hebrew, but she think the English is awful! Siegfried Kracauer  said … Continue reading →

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