Title – Hagadah: Passover Seder Service

Publisher – General Foods Corporation, 1935 (Compliments of Maxwell House Coffee – Good to the Last Drop)

This particular Hagadah is the brainchild of the Joseph Jacobs Advertising in the heart of Manhattan.  It brought Maxwell House Coffee to the Passover Seder in America.  Watch this short video to see the marketing of coffee to the Orthodox Jewish community.  Very, very clever.  Maxwell House Coffee is kosher for Passover as certified by Rabbi Hersch Kohn of New York, and other Rabbis.  Joseph Berger wrote in The New York Times about “Giving a Haggadah a Makeover.”

The Hagadah reads from right to left in Hebraic fashion.  It is the story of God’s deliverance of the Jewish people down through the ages.  Does some of this sound familiar?

1. Parsley or chervil dipped in vinegar or saltwater

“Blessed are thou, O Eternal, our God, King of the Universe, Creator of the earth.”

“This is the bread of affliction which are ancestors ate in the land of Egypt; let all those who are hungry, enter and eat thereof; and all who are in distress, come and celebrate the Passover.  At present we celebrate it here, but next year we hope to celebrate it in the land of Israel.  This year we are servants here, but next year we hope to be freemen in the land of Israel.”

2. The Sages

“And it is related of Rabbi Eliezer, Rabbi Joshua, Rabbi Elazar the son of Azariah, Rabbi Akeebah, and Rabbi Tarphon that they once met (on the night of Passover) in the Bene-Berak and spoke of the departure from Egypt all that night until their disciples came . . . “

3. The Four Sons

“Blessed be He whose law speaketh distinctly of the four different characters of children:  viz: the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who hath no capacity to inquire.”

4. The Plagues

The Ten Plagues – Blood, frogs, vermin, flies, murrain, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and the slaying of the first-born

“Rabbi Eleazar said: From whence can it be deduced, that every plague which the Most Holy, blessed be He, brought upon the Egyptians in Egypt consisted of four different plagues?  Because it is said, He sent forth against them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation and trouble, a band of evil angels.  Wrath is one, Indignation is two, Trouble three, and a band of evil Angels four.  Hence it may be deduced that while in Egypt they were smitten with forty plagues, in the Red Sea they were smitten with two hundred plagues.”

5. The three things

“Rabbi Gamliel saith, that whoever does not make mention of three things at the Passover Feast, has not done his duty, namely, the sacrifice of the Passover, the unleavened bread, and the bitter herbs.”

6. Reciting the following Hallel

Yes indeed!  Psalm 136!  “For his mercy endureth for ever.”

7. The thirteen

“Who knoweth thirteen?  I, saith Israel, know thirteen: there are thirteen divine attributes, twelve tribes, eleven stars, ten commandments, nine months preceding child-birth, eight days preceding circumcision, seven days in the week, six books of the Mishnah, five books of the Law, four matrons, three patriarchs, two tables of the covenant; but One is the Eternal who is above heaven and earth.”

8. Part of the poem

“ Then came the Most Holy, blessed be He, and slew the angel of death, who had slain the slaughterer, who had slaughtered the ox, which had drunk the water, which had extinguished the fire, which had burnt the staff, which had smitten the dog, which had bitten the dog, which had bitten the cat, which had devoured the kid, which my father bought for two zuzim; one only kid, one only kid.”