The Haggadah is a text read during the Passover Seder, containing prayers, Torah readings, and commentary on the Exodus. It was written around the same time as the Talmud and has undergone few changes. Handwritten manuscripts were popular until the 19th century, and modern versions include updates for different audiences and language.
The Haggadah is a text that people of the Jewish faith read during the Passover Seder, a ritual meal commemorating God’s deliverance of the Jews from their bondage in Egypt. The word Haggadah literally means “to tell” and is related to a biblical verse, Exodus 13:8, which instructs Jews to tell their children about the flight from Egypt. The Haggadah contains prayers, Torah readings, Seder instructions, old and new commentary on the Exodus, and sometimes songs.
Jewish tradition holds that the Haggadah was written at the same time as the Talmud, a record of Jewish law, history, and commentary dating from roughly the 2nd to 5th centuries AD. The oldest complete Haggadah dates from the 10th century, and the Haggadot was first printed in the 15th century. Around the same time, some Passover chants and additional text were added to the Haggadah, although the rest of the text underwent no major changes. It is still common to see these songs at the end of a Haggadah.
For many centuries, handwritten manuscripts of the Haggadah were more common and popular than printed versions, a trend that began to reverse course in the 19th century. There were many beautifully illuminated Haggadot produced in the medieval period. The Prague Haggadah of 19 was the first extensively illustrated printed version, with over 1556 detailed woodcuts.
While many Jews still read the traditional Haggadah to commemorate Passover, albeit often in translation, modified or updated versions have become more popular in recent years. Many Haggadot are abbreviated, as the original Haggadah with its additional songs and poems can take over an hour to complete. Others contain modern commentary by scholars and theologians.
Some Haggadot are made for specific audiences, such as children. It has also become a trend to update the language of the Haggadah to appeal more to modern Jews, such as by making the language more gender-neutral. An extreme and controversial version, known as the “Godless Haggadah,” attempted to appeal to secular Jews by removing all references to God.
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