The Kosher Bookworm: Last Minute Haggadah Picks

With Pesach literally just around the corner, I would like to take this opportunity to suggest several Haggadah selections, as well some other learning resources, that, hopefully, will serve to further enhance your holiday.

“A Song of Ascents” [Bnei David Institutions, 2011] by Rabbi Eliezer Sadan, is an interesting history-based commentary. It reflects the religious Zionist and nationalist viewpoint of its author, and its sponsor, Bnei David, a preparatory mechina program whose goal is to instill in Jewish youth in the IDF a Torah centered ideology promoting Jewish and Zionist ideals with service in the IDF as a central value in Israeli society.

Included in this effort is the yeshiva for post-army students designed for them to continue their studies. Among the inspirational personalities whose ideologies helped form Bnei David was Rav Zvi Yehuda Kook, zt”l and Rav Zvi Tau, sh’lita.

This Haggadah’s history-oriented commentary is evident in an excerpt from Rabbi Sadan’s teachings entitled, “Themes of the Seder Night” putting the Exodus in its proper Jewish religious and liturgical perspective:

“The Exodus is one of the pillars of the Jewish faith. No subject is mentioned in the Torah as often as the Exodus. We commemorate the Exodus mainly on the Seder night during Pesach. Throughout the year the Exodus is the subject of a range of mitzvoth de’oraita. The Torah commands us to mention the Exodus from Egypt morning and night, as it says, ‘So that you should recall the day you left Egypt all the days of your life.’

“The mitzvah of putting on Tefillin commemorates the Exodus, the mitzvah of wearing Tzizit commemorates the Exodus, and the festivals commemorate the Exodus.

“Shabbat commemorates Creation, yet at the same time is also ‘the first of the appointed sacred times, a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt.’