You have no items in your shopping cart.
Close
Search
Filters

In Every Generation

Studies in the Evolution and Formation of the Passover Haggadah


The Passover Haggadah, the quintessential Jewish book, began taking shape in the period of the Mishnah and the Talmud (ca. 100-600 CE). Even by 600, it did not look like it does today. Major portions were wanting, e.g., the story of eminent sages at a seder in Bene Beraq; the typology of the four sons; the midrashic expansion of the story of the exodus; the song Dayyenu. Those compositions (mostly) or borrowings were incorporated into the Haggadah between ca. 600-900 (the Geonic period). Such selections completed the Haggadah, producing the book used at Passover Seders to the present day. This study shows how the section of the Passover Haggdah known as maggid (“recounting”) achieved its comprehensive structure and contents between ca. 600 and 900 CE (the geonic period).
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-4376-0
  • *
Publication Status: Forthcoming
Interior Color: Black with Color Inserts
Trim Size: 7 x 10
Page Count: 350
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-4376-0
$115.00
Ship to
*
*
Shipping Method
Name
Estimated Delivery
Price
No shipping options

Before you is an examination of significant moments in the evolution and formation of the Passover Haggadah. Traditional oral texts – literary, legal, liturgical – can take form and endure for centuries, continuing into their preservation in writing. Some formulators will independently create unique versions of those foundational texts which then persist in their communities. When, over time, these varied original forms come into contact, they may influence each other. In addition, creative tradents will embellish and augment their material, which would then be preserved anew for their own liturgical context. The Passover Haggadah is one such traditional text, better, a collection of texts, each with its own tradental development and history.

Manuscript fragments of Haggadahs from the Cairo Genizah and other early textual witnesses attest to various phases of those developmental processes. Whether copied in the tenth century or the thirteenth, they present a variety of pristine, modified, augmented and innovated versions of textual components all of which had developed by the ninth century when they were documented in writings of Babylonian Geonim. This book analyzes the preserved elements of that varied textual evidence to “connect the dots,” whether as pieces of a puzzle to be assembled, or as a series of time-lapse snapshots revealing the process of evolutionary development and flowering of different components of this unique and treasured classic.

Before you is an examination of significant moments in the evolution and formation of the Passover Haggadah. Traditional oral texts – literary, legal, liturgical – can take form and endure for centuries, continuing into their preservation in writing. Some formulators will independently create unique versions of those foundational texts which then persist in their communities. When, over time, these varied original forms come into contact, they may influence each other. In addition, creative tradents will embellish and augment their material, which would then be preserved anew for their own liturgical context. The Passover Haggadah is one such traditional text, better, a collection of texts, each with its own tradental development and history.

Manuscript fragments of Haggadahs from the Cairo Genizah and other early textual witnesses attest to various phases of those developmental processes. Whether copied in the tenth century or the thirteenth, they present a variety of pristine, modified, augmented and innovated versions of textual components all of which had developed by the ninth century when they were documented in writings of Babylonian Geonim. This book analyzes the preserved elements of that varied textual evidence to “connect the dots,” whether as pieces of a puzzle to be assembled, or as a series of time-lapse snapshots revealing the process of evolutionary development and flowering of different components of this unique and treasured classic.

Write your own review
  • Only registered users can write reviews
*
*
Bad
Excellent
*
*
*
*
ContributorBiography

JayRovner

Jay Rovner is the Manuscript Bibliographer Emeritus of The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, where he also taught Talmud. He has published a book on income tithing; and studies of talmudic sugyas, aggadic narratives, and liturgical texts from the Cairo Genizah.

Customers who bought this item also bought
Picture of Literary Snippets (Reader)

Literary Snippets (Reader)

The colophon, the ultimate or “crowing touch” paragraphs of a manuscript or a book, provides readers with a the historical context in which the scribe produced the manuscript (or the publisher, a book). At its most fundamental level, the colophon gives us the “metadata” of the manuscript: who was the scribe? When and where was the manuscript produced? For whom was it produced and who paid for it? But colophons are far more rich. They are literary works in their own right, having a style and rhetoric independent of the main literary text of the manuscript. Some are assertive, providing contextual data about the scribe/publisher and manuscript/book; others are expressive, demonstrating the scribe’s feelings and wishes. Some are directive, asking the reader for an action; others declarative, providing all sorts of statements about the scribe/publisher or even the reader. The latter sometimes provide historical facts otherwise lost to histories: wars, earthquakes, religious events, legal agreements, etc. This volume introduces the colophon as a genre, with examples from different traditions.
$114.95 $68.97
Picture of Investigating the Text-Hierarchical Structures and Composition of Numbers

Investigating the Text-Hierarchical Structures and Composition of Numbers

The structure of the Book of Numbers and its division into textual units has long been of interest to scholars, and various theories have been put forward based on criteria such as time, location or theme. The present volume offers a syntactic-hierarchical analysis of the Book of Numbers, giving priority to syntax and secondary priority to participants and their roles.
$114.95 $68.97
Picture of The Book of Samuel

The Book of Samuel

An inter-disciplinary study of the story and history of Israel's transition from tribal federation to monarchy, covering the events described in 1 Samuel 1-16; 2 Samuel 21-24; and 1 Kings 1-4. It follows the 2018 publication of The Book of Samuel: Part One, Studies in History, Hisoriography, Theology, and Poetics Combined (Jerusalem: Rubin Mass).
$95.00 $76.00
Picture of Šalmūtā Šapīrtā

Šalmūtā Šapīrtā

A Festschrift for Rifaat Ebied celebrating a lifetime of work in the field of Semitic Studies, in particular Syriac, Christian Arabic, and Mandaic.
$140.00 $84.00