If you look long enough at haggadah illustrations, you will notice that when it comes to the four sons, the wicked son has spent several centuries being depicted as a warrior. (The weapons and the uniform change in time and place, but the essence is the same). This shows of course Judaism’s commendable opposition to violence as a solution to the world’s problems. Interestingly enough there appears to have been a shift away from this trend in the 20th century. Perhaps a warrior is no longer as negative since warfare has changed in both purpose and method. Perhaps other things have begin to preoccupy us as “evil” with the decline in warfare the late 20th century has brought about. Or perhaps there’s another reason entirely. In the Szyk haggadah, a beautifully illustrated haggadah done by Marvin Szyk in 1930s Poland, he depicted the wicked son as German, complete with Hitler mustache. Szyk’s original haggadah was very anti-Nazi in many ways (most of which were actually censored by the publisher), and it seems clear that he did not view the warrior-Jew as wicked. Perhaps this is the paradigm change that changed the standard illustration of the wicked son in the haggadah.

This is a brief followup on an older post about my troubles finding a haggadah. What I realized is that there are two main types of haggadah commentary – one is where the author presents new commentaries and thoughts based on the text. The second is where the author quotes previous sources (mishnah, talmud, rishonim, etc.). Due to the nature of the haggadah as a historical work, I have a strong preference for the second – I want the commentary to quote the mishnah, gemarah, tosefta, and occasional rishon to put the haggadah in it’s proper context. When we recite “avadim hayinu” it would be nice if the haggadah explained the talmudic dispute between rav and shmuel on how we should address “disgrace” in the haggadah – is it by talking about slavery (physical disgrace) or how our ancestors were idolaters (spiritual disgrace)? (The answer of course is that we can’t decide so we do both).

I did eventually find a haggadah I liked – the Schocken haggadah. It’s dense enough to be usable at the seder, the English translation is good and readable, and the layout is easy to follow. The pictures are almost entirely artwork taken from classic middle ages haggadahs. (I recognize many of them from Haggadah and History by Yosef Haim Yerushalmi). The commentary is classic, consisting almost entirely of sources from the torah, mishnah, talmud, and the occasional rishon. Where historical context helps explain a passage, Glatzer (the author) does not hesitate to do so. Although it has also been out of print for some time, its use as a textbook by many universities has left enough used copies available on the web that I could quickly order 15 of them from a variety of sources. Interestingly enough, due to both the limited supply and the fact that many used book marketplaces mirror content (for example, people that sell on amazon marketplace also list their books on ebay, alibris, and abebooks), I have singlehandedly created enough demand for the book to triple its current asking price.