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A DIFFERENT NIGHT        
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Reviewed by
Andrew Silow-Carroll

Did Maxwell House kill the American Passover Seder?

It seems like a heavy charge to pin on a coffee company. But who knows how many Jewish children, numbly and obediently flipping through the pages of the blue and white Maxwell House, came to regard the seder as a stultifying arcane ritual, a regimented recitation of thees and thous, an endurance test as lacking in levity as leaven? Is it only a coincidence that in the 70 years since Maxwell House began distributing tens of thousands of haggadot as promotional items, the intermarriage rate among Jews has soared?

The rabbis never intended that the Exodus From Egypt be recited rote out of a paperback book. In the Mishna they specified that families expound the whole section, "My father was a wandering Aramean" (Pesachim 10:4), improvising, embellishing, and expanding upon the verse from Deuteronomy that introduces the central drama of the Passover seder. Their role model was the teacher Rabbah, who shocked his pupil Abaye by having the dishes cleared off the seder table before the meal. When Abaye asked why, Rabbah answered, "Your question has served the same function as the usual four questions of Ma nishtana. Let's dispense with those set questions and proceed directly to the telling of the story." (Pesachim 115b).

Noam Zion and David Dishon have written a Passover haggadah for families eager to "dispense with those set questions" and answers but intimidated by the prospect as well. Careful to retain the traditional core of the haggadah — the 15 steps beginning with the first cup of wine and kiddush and concluding with the hallel, nirtza prayer and folk songs — they weave around the text a tapestry of ancient midrash, contemporary commentary, provocative questions, and unexpected answers. They involve the children, with skits, games, and gentle horseplay. Some are silly like the Afghani Jewish custom of striking your neighbor with a stalk of green onion during the chanting of Dayenu. Others encourage introspection, like asking children to name the one object they would carry with them out of Egypt.

At the same time, adults are urged to consider the mature themes of what Zion and Dishon call a "leap of solidarity back into the founding event of Jewish nationhood." The heart of this effort is the section they call "maggid" or storytelling. The section takes the form of six suggested "symposia" on timeless themes: assimilation, anti-Semitism, ancient Egyptian oppression, resistance to tyranny, sexual oppression and the lessons of suffering. The sources brought to bear are as varied as Reb Nachman of Braslav, Abraham Lincoln, Zora Neale Hurston and Victor Frankl.

Because the authors are superb Jewish educators and scholars on the staff of Jerusalem's Shalom Hartman Institute (founded by Orthodox philosopher Rabbi David Hartman to create a common language among the most and least traditional Jews), their Haggadah avoids the easy "relevance" that has reduced recent haggadot to public service announcements on nuclear war or women's rights. When the authors urge a discussion, they offer appropriate texts on Jewish tradition, contradictory views, that invites the opinions of guests across the range of religious, ideological and generational perspectives.

A few warnings for those who undertake to host a post-Maxwell House seder. As the authors point out, their haggadah contains enough material for a few years of seders and some preparation is advised to select themes, pull out readings, and assign roles. The other risk is that a long session of discussion and storytelling, however stimulating, can't compete with the smells emanating from the kitchen. Zion and Dishon suggest you revive the original rabbinic custom (forbidden by some, although not all, spoilsport halachic authorities): Along with the vegetable that is dipped into saltwater near the beginning of the seder, offer substantive appetizers with dips of their own.

And if intelligent conversation, imaginative role-playing, and probing questions aren't enough to keep some guests awake? There's always coffee.