300 Ways to Ask the Four Questions
by Murray Spiegel and Rickey Stein
11x8.5, 400p softcover, full color, WOW!
single copy $39.95 3 or more $34.95
This is a crazy, huge coffee-table book — people either love it or they hate it. It’s exactly what the title says: the Four Questions in 300 languages.
But oy, the languages! Start with the ones you'd expect: Yiddish, Ladino, English, French, Russian, Spanish, Polish . . . ; then add ones you'd maybe not expect: Chinese, Zulu, Latin, Old English, Navajo . . . ; and then there are the “constructed” languages like Lawyerese, Valley Girl, Shakespearian, Klingon, Jamaican Reggae, Pig Latin . . . .
Also included are a CD and a DVD, containing highlights recordings, games, and more. You can hear the questions asked in Klingon, by the world's most accomplished speaker of that language (an Orthodox Jew; what else were you expecting?) or in the click languages of southern Africa. The authors provide information about every language they use: number of speakers, where it is spoken, and more.
This is not a casual compilation. The authors spent over 20 years collecting, and they’ve done a painstaking and fine job.
Personal testimony: my mother-in-law, who is very quiet and seldom speaks up at the seder, got to ask the questions last year in Polish, her first language. For that alone, the book is worth the price. read more
Plagues Bag
Ten toys for ten plagues. Red dye (kosher l'Pesach) for blood; a hopping frog; blindfold for darkness — you get the idea. All in a very cute burlap sack.
one bag $11.95 3 or more $9.95
“After the ten plagues, Pharaoh never learns! But after the Plagues Bag, our children will never forget a special seder. What more can we give them, and ourselves, than Jewish memories for a lifetime?” — Noam Zion, author, A Different Night, the Family Participation Haggadah
Leader's Guide
by Noam Zion and David Dishon
9.5x8.75, 96p softcover
single copy $7.95 5 or more $6.00
The Leader’s Guide is NOT a leader's version of a haggadah. But it's much more valuable. It is a set of essays on Passover and the seder, full of insight into what we are doing and why.
It’s worth the purchase price just for the first essay, “A Guide for the Perplexed,&rdquo &mdash Noam Zion's eloquent explanation of the three contradictory tasks of the seder leader. The subtitle should perhaps be “Why It's So Hard To Run A Seder” &mdash but forewarned is forearmed, and this essay is a huge help in surmounting those obstacles.
My family has also used “Great Seders of the Past” for readings and general inspiration about what a seder can be.
Passover Button Set
by Richard Codor
Set of seven 1.5" circular buttons.
$7.00
Very cute Passover buttons by Richard Codor, author of Richard Codor's Joyous Haggadah. Grouch Marx as Wise Child, Harpo as Simple Child, Moses, Frogs, Bread (in chains), Dustpan with feather, Lion with wine cup. Great afikomen presents!
Poster: Next Year in Jerusalem
18x22, full color, laminated
$8.95
bulk rates available — call 877-308-4175
Jerusalem through the eyes of Brooklyn artist Rich Codor. Think fun! Think zany! Think Mad Magazine: look in any corner and you'll discover something new! Maybe . . . kind of like the real Jerusalem. A picture of a place that you'd like to find yourself in next year.
Rich Codor is the author of Richard Codor's Joyous Haggadah, and the first cartoonist to envision the Marx Brothers as the four children of the Passover seder.
Sedra Scenes:
Skits for Every Torah Portion
by Stan Beiner
5.5x8.5, 256p, softcover
$13.95
Why this book at the seder?
Because there are four torah portions that tell the story of the Exodus: Shemot, Va-era, Bo, and Beshallach. This book includes each of these as a skit of about 10 minutes. The skits are very high quality, and for years they have given my kids a major role at the seder, one they look forward to.
The kids go upstairs during the part of the seder that is really more adult, rummage through the costume bin, pick out parts and practice, and come downstairs just before the plagues and Dayenu. Then they are the center of attention, and they love it. There are small roles for pre-readers, and big roles for kids who can read well and even act a bit! It’s OK to use grownups for ringers too.
Read more, including a sample narrative
Jewish Publication Society
Haggadah Commentary
by Joseph Tabory
8x10, 174p, hardcover
single copy $31.95
An excellent historical seder resource.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to learn where the seder comes from — what it looked like 2000 years ago, and how it has evolved since. It's a book to read BEFORE the seder, not AT the seder. The author, Rabbi Joseph Tabory, is a professor at Bar Ilan University. Also includes complete text of the haggadah with clear English translation.
Passover Haggadah and Commentary: Go Forth and Learn
by Rabbi David Silber with Rachel Furst
7x10, 230p soft cover
single copy $17.95 2 or more $15.95
Two books in one: the Haggadah itself, in English and Hebrew, with his seder commentary and a collection of essays that provide close readings of the classic biblical and rabbinic texts that inform Seder-night ritual and narration. Both parts work beautifully together to illuminate the central themes of Passover: peoplehood, Covenant, our relationship to ritual, God's presence in history, and other important issues that resonate with us all.
“Silber's format engages people in the study of the Haggadah before and during the Passover holiday, at their leisure; and it provides a useful resource right at the seder table.” — Rabbi Nathaniel Helfgot, Chair, Departments of Bible and Jewish Thought, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah
“Silber's scholarship is solid and accessible, and will appeal to a range of Jewishly literate readers seeking to better understand and appreciate the richness of the Haggadah text.” — Rabbi Sue Levi Elwell, Worship Specialist, Union for Reform Judaism