Window on Israel: The Haggadah versions

On the verge of Passover I hear about Christian churches that celebrate a Seder.

Ecumenicalism is welcome. The story of the Exodus is one of the great themes of literature. It emphasizes freedom from slavery, which we can revise to be a release from all kinds of oppression or limited opportunities.

The Haggadah (loosely translated as "story") used to guide the Seder tells the story of the Exodus. It includes rabbinical teaching about the holiday, as well as instructions on how to work toward the festive meal (blessings, hand washing, ceremonial glasses of wine and food meant to symbolize slavery and freedom), as well as prayers and songs to be done after the meal.

There are no Haggadah police to insure that each family does it all, and properly. There are different versions of the Haggadah, and families vary in how much they read, in what language, what songs they sing, what food they eat, and how the more well-informed explain the ritual to the less well-informed. The kibbutzim of Israel, feminists, Reform and Conservative Jews, humanists and others have produced their own Haggadot (the plural of Haggadah) to emphasize, add, or eliminate what serves their perspectives.

Given the wide tent that has been constructed over the themes of Exodus, Passover, and the Seder, we should not be surprised that some Christians add Jesus to the ceremony. In one version he comes into the celebration along with the prophet Elijah. For Jews, this is bizarre and goes against more than 2,000 years of tradition. For Christians, it fits with the notion that Elijah has a role in bringing forth the Messiah.

Reform Jews have also laid a hand on the Seder. After the meal, conventional Haggadot include a passage that asks God to pour out his fury against the goyim that do not know him.
 
The Reform Haggadah rejects that perspective. "In . . . times of terror, some (Jews) shouted defiant words into the night. . . . Other voices call for a different response to hatred and prejudice, for the Jewish spirit burns with a passion for peace. In every generation, courageous souls seek understanding with those who oppose us . . . "

No doubt this is more politically correct than the conventional Haggadah, especially for Jews living in a Diaspora. Reform rabbis describe their Haggadah as suitable for all those sitting around the table. Consistent with other features of the Reform ritual, its language is gender-neutral.

One can view the request to curse the goyim as an anachronism or current. That depends on whether the goyim in mind are the Christians who slaughtered Jews in the Middle Ages, those who carried out the Holocaust, or Arabs who aspire to kill Jews today.

If a Jewish passion for peace clashes with Jewish defiance, Israel's morning headlines encourage defiance. Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has decided to award the highest decoration for bravery for two women in Israeli prisons. One of them drove the bomber to Jerusalem's Sbarro restaurant in August, 2001 who took 15 lives and injured more than one hundred. Another used the internet to seduce a teenager to meet her in Ramallah, where her friends killed him. Other headlines report on IDF casualties in Gaza, and rockets falling on Sderot.

For those unfamiliar with Hebrew, "goyim" is not necessarily a negative term. It appears in traditional writing from the Bible onward, and means nations or people who are not Jews.

Religious ritual is an open code, subject to change according to one's circumstances.

Jewish men who follow the Reform ritual do not thank God for making them men, and the Reform prayer for the end of the Sabbath does not thank God for separating the Jews from the goyim.

Some of the more curious elements in Christian traditions include

• Joseph Smith's translation of Genesis that begins with a conversation between God and Moses about Jesus. (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Moses, Chapter 1) My reading of Mormon texts has not uncovered the language from which Smith translated Genesis.
• Christians translations of Isaiah add explicit predictions of the stories told in the New Testament. Chapter 7:14 has been read as, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel." The conventional Jewish translation of "almah" is young woman or maiden, not necessarily a virgin.
• A Christian translation of Isaiah Chapters 52-53, about a suffering servant, says that the Lord revealed his power to a man who was "pierced." This fits the story of the Crucifixion but is not supported by the Hebrew "mokeh," usually translated as "struck." Traditional Jewish commentators view the suffering servant as a symbol for the Israelite nation or as Isaiah's view of himself.

Alterations of conventional rituals or aged text should not surprise anyone familiar with the varieties of religious experience. We should guard against an emotional response to spiritual oddities.

However you practice (or do not practice) the Seder, may you have a pleasant Passover, as kosher (or not) as you desire. And may we all be liberated from everything unpleasant.