This book can help make order out of our Seders

It is that time of the year. With the sound of the gragger still fresh in our ears we now contemplate the next Jewish holiday, Pesach, with all its rituals and, of course, the foods of holiday distinction.

At the ritual centerpiece of this festival is the Haggadah, the literary work almost as old as the Mishnah itself — and that is old. Yet each year we witness a spree of new commentaries on an ancient text that commemorates the most memorable of historical events, the Exodus.

This year is no different, as we note this week the publication of an interesting and most literate Haggadah commentary, “The Haggadah Experience” (Mosaica Press) by Rabbi Immanuel Bernstein which draws its commentary from a wide range of sources. It’s goal is to further enhance our understanding and provide a broader insight into the events of the Exodus and its sacred and practical meaning for us today.

In an email interview with this writer, in answer to my main question, “Why Another Haggadah?” Rabbi Bernstein delivered a tour de force response that deserves your reading it in full.

“Over the years within the context of pre-Pesach shiurim I have had occasion to see a great many commentaries on the Haggadah. The classics are classics, but with many of the more recent ones, I felt that the focus of the commentary was not what Seder night is meant to be about.

“There are many ways to approach words of Torah — and within the context of learning Torah there is room for all of them. Yet for the Seder night the goal is to tap into the meaning of our experience in Egypt — both the slavery and the Exodus — to re-experirnce Yetziat Mitzrayim with a view to reinvigorating our connection to Judaism, and one should focus on the elements of the Haggadah which are conducive to that. This is what guided my selection, drawn from a wide variety of sources, for what would constitute the commentary.’’