At this time of the year, Jews around the world prepare for the Passover celebration, and the accompanying Seder dinner. For anyone who has never attended an orthodox Jewish Seder (or any Seder, for that matter), it is essentially a half-hour meal celebrating the Jews release from Egypt, that is sandwiched inside of 3 hours of prayers, which are (mostly) read in Hebrew. Not only that, but the meal consists of a specific menu, prepared in a specific fashion, and served in a specific order. This meal (the Seder), is what Christians call The Last Supper.
Prayers for the Seder, as well as the order of the meal, are contained in a special book called a Haggadah, which means “The Telling.” The practice of celebrating Passover in story form was probably first told just as soon as the Jews were out of Egypt. According to Jewish tradition, the Haggadah itself was compiled during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, however, the exact date is unknown. Over the millennia, many elements were added to the original Torah (the first five books of the Bible) story.
History of the Haggadah
The oldest complete manuscript of the Haggadah dates to the 10th century, with the first printed manuscripts of the Haggadah appearing at some point in the late 14th century in Spain. Shortly after the invention of the printing press more Haggadahs began to appear. However, even though the Jewish community was quick to adopt the printing press as a means of producing texts, printed Haggadot were slow to catch on with many Jews.
The Prague Haggadah – published in 1526 – is well-known for its meticulous attention to detail in lettering as well as introducing many of the themes that are still found in modern-day texts. Even though illustrations had often been a part of Haggadahs, it wasn’t until the appearance of the Prague Haggadah that illustrations were extensively used in the printed text. That Haggadah features over 60 woodcut illustrations picturing both scenes and symbols of the Passover ritual.
Richard Codor’s Joyous Haggadah
For his own part, Richard Codor’s Joyous Haggadah continues this tradition of extensively illustrating the Haggadah. Needless to say, Codor’s illustrations are, admittedly more fanciful than those of the Prague Haggadah. Codor’s humorous cartoons have appeared regularly in Hadassah Magazine and featured in books The Big Book of Jewish Humor (Collins), All You Want To Know About Sabbath Service (Behrman House). He even produced storyboards for movies, TV, and Internet including Doug, Lizzie McGuire, Robots, and Queer Duck.
His wife, Liora Codor, is a senior staff photographer for Macy’s. Together they have researched and produced this traditional Haggadah with its non-traditional cartoon-style illustrations making sure that it covers all the standard Seder steps. It’s written in a light, concise, contemporary manner, in English, Hebrew and transliterated Hebrew. It also includes songs, games and recipes.
The overall tone of the book is to make the Passover Seder enjoyable and meaningful rather than a long, drawn-out meal that is barely tolerable. The book itself contains not only Jewish and English text, but transliterations for easy reading.
According to Codor, he wanted to produce a book that was not only usable, but enjoyable for not only interfaith and Jewish families, but both old and young readers, as well. According to the release notes,The Joyous Haggadah is a soft cover paperback, measuring 8.5"x11", is 48 pages, is printed in full color throughout on sturdy 80# matte paper, and will be a delight for years to come. The Joyous Haggadah is available on the Codor’s website.
Source:
- Condor, Richard and Liora. The Joyous Haggadah. Loose Line Productions, 2008.
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