Haggadah for the Curious – 3, Perfect Addition to Our Collection

Haggadah for the Curious – Volume 3 by Rabbi A Levin will be very welcome at our Seder. Rabbi Levin has miraculously managed to compile a variety of commentary, comments and questions that will interest all ages and all levels of Jewish knowledge and observance. Call it your "ONE SIZE FITS ALL" Haggadah.

Besides the fascinating content, I really enjoy the simple graphics and large, legible print. That's especially good for those of us whose eyesight isn't what it used to be and for the young children and grandchildren new to reading. Of course, in a few years it'll probably be stained with wine as all well-used family Haggadot are.

Here's a sample page.
Instructions are clear, even to those not experienced with the Passover Seder or forget details from year to year.

Commentary is in the form of questions and answers which guides the Seder leader in helping others at the table to think and ask even more. Of course, anyone at the Passover Seder may ask questions and add his/her two cents, inspired by the commentary in Haggadah for the Curious – 3. A Passover Seder is not supposed to be a performance; it's more like a Beit Medrash, Jewish Study Hall where people discuss and even argue. We're commanded to think and talk about what happened to the Jewish People thousands of years ago when leaving Egypt and not doze off as "head of the house" drones on. The lessons learned are valuable for all time, meaning today, too.

As I was reading through Haggadah for the Curious – 3, I almost immediately learned something new. Growing up in a minimally traditionally Jewish home, we never leaned over when drinking the seder wine or eating the ceremonial matzah. We read the narrative up to the meal and not all of the instructions. Actually we only drank two cups, since we didn't continue the seder after the meal. Early in the Haggadah Rabbi Levin gives a lot of detail about the "leaning" while drinking the wine and eating the matzah. After saying that 45 degrees is important, he then reminds us that being in pain cancels that out. I like the common sense in that. One surprise is that the one who will lead the Seder should be the one setting up the Seder Plate, which should be done when standing and as a "ceremony" announcing the items as he places them down. I had never heard that before.

In Haggadah for the Curious – 3, I also discovered a couple of completely new things to do with the wine poured for Eliyahu Hanavi. We have always kept it out and then poured it in the sink, forbidden for shmitta- kedushat shvi'it. According to Rabbi Levin, the Zachor L'Avraham 40:66 says to pour a little into the cups of all the seder participants, since it's segulah for health and healing. Suggestion #2 is to cover it overnight and then pour it back into the bottle and then use it for morning kiddush, according to Vayeged Moshe 30:5. What do you do with Eliyahu's wine? Where did you get your custom?

No doubt it's clear that I highly recommend buying In Haggadah for the Curious – 3 as a gift for yourself and/or others. It can be found in Judaica book stores or ordered from Mosaica Press or Feldheim.

US Ambassador to Israel Nides Supports Apartheid

Apartheid-

a system of keeping groups of people separate and treating them differently, especially when this results in disadvantage for one group

Read this Jerusalem Post article, if you don't believe me.

Nides: Israeli settlement growth infuriates me, calls it 'stupid things'

It's clear that Tom Nides want Jews to be separate from Arabs and treat them differently, putting them, the Jews, at a terrible disadvantage. 

That's called APARTHEID.

Arabs can live and build wherever they want, but Jews are completely restricted.

That's called APARTHEID.

Over half a century ago in 1967, Israel defeated three armies which had coordinated attacks against Israel to destroy it completely, and they weren't shy about stating their aim. Egypt attacked from the south, Jordan from the east and Syria from the north. Egypt's Nasser proudly boasted that they were going to shove us into the sea, our western border.

Thanks to Gd, Israel did the impossible and won resoundingly on all three fronts. In the process our borders changed for the better, giving us the Golan Heights in the north--so the Syrians could no longer use it as a base for attacking Israel. Our squiggly impossible to defend eastern border moved to the Jordan River, and the Sinai Peninsula* to the south fell into Israeli hands, too. International Law and precedent always accepts such border changes, however for some strange reason the international community still insists that Israel has no rights to any of the land.

I'd call that ANTISEMITISM.

What do you think?

Jewish Communities like Shiloh "infuriate" Tom Nides

*Rather inexplicably Menachem Begin, when Prime Minister, offered Nasser's successor Anwar Sadaat the Sinai and destroyed all the Jewish communities, towns and farms which had been established after our victory.