Get rid of your Maxwell House Haggadah!
I thought I was finished reminding folks that the Maxwell House Haggadah was a thing better left in the past, but only recently someone told me that their family is still using it. We are creatures of habit and it’s hard to let go of the things that give us so much comfort or are easily familiar. However, when it comes to Passover, innovation and renewal have been at the center since the Biblical origins.
The story we tell on Passover is clearly ancient. It’s been told for thousands of years and its origins as an oral story antedate the Torah itself. A careful reading of the Torah actually reveals that there was a time when there were separate holidays devoted to matzah (simple unleavened bread) and Pesach (the ancient animal sacrifice). Over time, these two holidays of spring became one and the Exodus story was embellished to link them.
However, innovation didn’t end there. The principle mode of observing the holiday, the Seder, appears nowhere in the entire Bible! It was only hundreds of years after the Bible’s writing that the rabbis created the masterful and engaging (and long) lesson plan that is at the core of the Seder. Then those astute rabbis did something even more radical: they decreed that the Seder should be observed in Jewish homes, around the family table. They essentially let go of the reigns and gave control to individual households. Like no other Jewish ritual, this has allowed for variations and innovations and modifications and creativity. Unlike any other text, the Haggadah and the Seder it facilitates vary from home to home, from generation to generation. So, have fun, take control, buy a new Haggadah, or make one online at Haggadot.com—it is truly in your hands!
— Rabbi Ron Stern