Fans pick 100 books like Simply Seder

I love this Haggadah and have used it for many of my family seders (especially with there are both adults and children. I especially like the offering of stories, readings, as well as commentaries, and activities that have fueled my dynamic seders with storytelling and discussion, dramatics, and singing. The many illustrations drawn from medieval and modern artists serve as visual commentaries that evoke discussion. One example that allows for discussion is an artistic portrayal of the Four Children in a variety of Haggadahs that helps to encourage comparison and debate. This Haggadah is inclusive, pluralistic, and includes transliterations and contemporary translations that make the traditional Hebrew accessible to all. 

A Family Haggadah is a favorite of mine, and we have used it on many occasions when my children were younger. This Haggadah is a sequel to the successful My Very Own Haggadah that was created for kids 3-7. The author has drawn on her experience as a parent, religious school director, and family educator to create just the right blend of text and commentary, tradition and innovation. It includes interesting questions for discussion as well as Passover facts and games to play. The transliteration is also invaluable in making the traditional Hebrew accessible to all. 

This Haggadah is a product of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, the Union of Conservative Rabbis of which I am a proud member. We have used this Haggadah when our participants at our seder included more adults than children. The Haggadah includes a guide to the requisite rituals, detailing how and why each ritual is performed. There is also ample commentary on the text, explaining passages and provoking questions, in order to engage participants, Finally, alternative readings are included to replace or augment the text. 

This Haggadah is a Haggadah that is ideal when there are younger children at the seder. What makes the Haggadah unique are its puppets (included with the book) which need to be prepared and assembled prior to the seder. Many parts of the seder are set up as a script of a play, where parts can be given out to read. There are also original fun songs to sing. When my children were younger, I used this Haggadah with enormous success, and still have the puppets which I hope to use now with my grandchildren!

The venerable Goldberg Haggadah is a wonderful example of a traditional Haggadah. I led seders using it for many years. The translation is very accessible, easy for all participants to read. The book has a great cover, both front and back, which normally wouldn’t be important in a book recommendation, but there is something almost magical about this cover – it just gives the feeling that you’re going to have a wonderful seder. The interior is nicely designed, with clear delineation of paragraphs, lots of white space, attractive fonts in Hebrew and English, and simple but expressive illustrations, all of which are important for a book that will be recited out loud.

The Steinsaltz Haggadah is a traditional Haggadah with a traditional translation, but what makes it shine are the explanations. The traditional Haggadah is in many respects a difficult book – much of it is hard to understand as is. Rabbi Steinsaltz provides explanations that bring some degree of clarity to these difficult passages. In addition, Rabbi Steinsaltz provides marvelous explanations of the Psalms of Praise recited at the seder and on Jewish holidays. I’ve recited these psalms many times over many years, and Rabbi Steinsaltz explains them in a way that I’ve never seen. When I study Talmud, I use the Steinsaltz translation, because in both the Talmud and the Haggadah, the explanations are spectacularly clear.

One huge reason to recommend the Maxwell House Haggadah is that you can get it at your grocery store for free. It’s small, easy to handle, in a pamphlet binding. The interior layout is beautifully simple, with paragraph blocks of text, uniformly spaced, all in the same font, with no flourishes, not even indentation.  The translation is crisp and clean, notable that it’s non-gendered. But for me the major appeal is that it reminds me of my childhood, when my brother, my cousins, and I found it hilarious that our Haggadah had the Maxwell House logo, “Good To The Last Drop,” the image of the coffee cup with the last drop, and ads for Maxwell House. This was even better because our parents and grandparents saw nothing weird about this.

The Union Haggadah of 1923 was the Haggadah of the American Reform movement. It’s non-traditional. Traditional Haggadahs tell the Passover story by analyzing Deuteronomy 26:5-8 homiletically, word by word or phrase by phrase, which makes for a choppy presentation. And some of the analysis is obscure. The Union Haggadah just quotes the bible in a narrative format, similar to what I have done in my book. In addition, there is an informative discussion of the origins of the Passover holiday that would be considered heresy among Jews who are not in the Reform movement. Since I was not raised Reform, I didn’t know of this important idea until late in my life, and when I did learn it, it made total sense.   

The Scholar’s Haggadah provides Ashkenazik, Sephardic, and Yemenite versions of the Haggadah. The versions for the three groups are shown together for easy comparison. And then more than half of the book is devoted to the examination of these differences. This is a complete Haggadah, but it’s not really suitable for a seder. It is, primarily, an academic work. But it’s fascinating. I did not know, until I read The Scholar’s Haggadah, that the rituals and texts for seders are different between these groups. I used this in my book by including beautiful and highly relevant Yemenite Haggadah text that none of my readers will have ever seen. 

When lighter-than-air matzah balls send Passover guests floating on the ceiling, a remedy is needed to bring them down. The author’s solution is brilliant and hilarious for anyone who has experienced cooking mishaps. There are so many Passover books that dwell on the story of the Jewish people’s escape from tyranny in Egypt and this is undoubtedly an important story to tell. But there’s also a need for holiday books that are just plain fun. This is definitely one of those.