For New Haggadah, San Mateo Rabbi Gets Traditional

Remember the old joke about the world’s shortest haggadah? The text reads in its entirety: “They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat.”

Rabbi Yosef Marcus prefers a different sort of haggadah. Just in time for Pesach, the rabbi of Chabad of the North Peninsula in San Mateo has just compiled an exhaustive revised version that clocks in at a hefty 224 pages.

Come seder night, readers will have to wait patiently before tasting that brisket.

“What I wanted to do was bring it all together,” Marcus says, “give you a smorgasbord on one plate, and a feel for the whole breadth of Jewish scholarship on the haggadah throughout the ages.”

Packed with commentary, midrash and fun facts, the new haggadah incorporates material for both novice and Jewishly knowledgeable readers.

The layout is easy on the eye, with every two-page spread a self-contained nugget of Pesach knowledge. It can double as a table haggadah or as a study guide for seder planners.

Marcus included kabbalistic interpretations, notes from the late Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and pithy insights from sages down through the ages.

Did you know the word afikomen means “to bring out food,” or that the Cup of Elijah is a relatively recent development (it started in the 15th century) and one of the rare traditions that passed from Ashkenazi to Sephardic Jews? Or Chabad seders use potatoes or onions as the vegetable on the seder plate.

(Marcus figures that last one is a holdover from shtetl days, when parsley was hard to come by.)

“It’s a serious work, but it’s written for the person who may not know anything,” he says. “In other serious haggadahs I’ve seen, the beginning reader is overlooked. This is a book where, if you don’t know much, I’m going to address those questions.”

This isn’t Marcus’ first pass at re-envisioning and explicating a classic Jewish text. He compiled a sumptuous version of the Pirke Avot two years ago, employing the same kind of “pull-down menu” style that graces the new haggadah.

He says the research for his latest project took several years, starting with a survey of haggadahs already out there. Using a 1984 haggadah by Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet as his basic translation, Marcus culled midrashic tales, quotes from Talmud and more.

“I just worked at it one piece at a time,” he says. “I tried to give each paragraph its own space. There’s no overflow from one [two-page] spread to the next. Each is its own world.”

Growing up in a Chabad home in Southern California, Marcus had at his fingertips his father’s large collection of haggadahs. He remembers his fascination with them, especially the Hebrew language haggadahs, as he got older.

Even for the unobservant, Passover is the one Jewish holiday most Jews celebrate (by attending a seder). As long as it contains the 14 essential steps, the haggadah has proven to be a very flexible document. Haggadahs with feminist, gay, social justice and other specific themes crowd the bookshelves.

Marcus says innovation like that is fine, but “sometimes there’s a lack of appreciation for tradition. It’s easy to say ‘Let’s do something else.’ I’m trying to give people the appreciation.”

With his busy schedule as a rabbi, husband and father, finding time to work on the haggadah wasn’t easy, and took up much of whatever free time Marcus had. That’s why he thanks his wife, Esty Marcus, and his children for understanding why he missed out on so much family fun time.

“When I finally finished, it was a Sunday,” he recalls. “I looked up and said, ‘So, where are we going today?’”

“The Passover Haggadah” compiled and edited by Rabbi Yosef Marcus (224 pages, Kehot Publication Society, $29.95)