The Haggadah, which is reproduced here, was printed in Amsterdam in 1662. It was modeled on Haggadoth published in Venice several decades earlier.
In 1599 an illustrated Haggadah, reflected the influence of Haggadoth printed earlier in Mantua, was published in Venice. It feature the order of the Seder in Judeo-Italian, Judeo-German and Judeo-Spanish, as well as a commentary by Rabbi Yosef of Padua. Rabbi Yosef of Padua was active as a printer and publisher in Mantua during the second half of the sixteenth century and his commentary first appeared in Haggadoth printed in that city.
The Venice Haggadah was reprinted in Venice two years later with vaiations in typography and format. One important addition was a moralistic interpretation of the order of the Sedr by Rabbi Moshe Alshek, the famous Bible commentator, who for many years was a rabbi and teacher in Safed. The publishers of the Haggadah received the interpretation from Rabbi Hayyim Alshek, the son of Rabbi Moshe, who was then in Venice, reissuing some of his late father’s pulished works and printing those which had remained in manuscript.
The Amsterdam Haggadah, 1662, is an imitation of the 1601 edition of the Venice Haggadah, though the layout is different and there are differences in typography. The Amsterdam Haggadah contains the illustrations and all the features of the Venice Haggadah: The order of the Seder in Judeo-Italian, Jeudeo-German and Judeo-Spanish, the commentary by Yosef of Padua, the Hebrew Seder instructions and, finally, Rabbi Moshe Alshek’s interpretation (with the introduction of the Venice publishers!). Some of the illustrations appear here reversed. This is due to the copyer’s failure to reverse the illustrations as he transferred them to the wood blocks from which they wre printed. (Note that the two figures, each holding a cup, printed in the margins of the Kiddush and Havdala, respectively, are left handed. In the Venice Haggadah, each holds the cup in the right hand).
The title page of the Amsterdam Haggadah is altogether different from that of the Venice Haggadah. In addition to the hymn “Adir Hu” and its Judeo-German version, the Amsterdam Haggadah contains the songs “Ehad Mi Yode’a” and “Had Gadya” and their Judeo-German versions. These two songs do not appear at all in the Haggadoth printed in Venice in 1599 and 1601. The Grace after Meals in the Amsterdam Haggadah follows the Ashkenazi ritual.*
During the second half of the seventeenth century when this Haggadah was printed, Amsterdam, which had both a Sefardi and Ashkenazi community, was a center of Hebrew printing, boasting several printshops. This Haggadah was printed by Uri Phoebus ben Aaron Halevi, who after working for other Hebrew printers in the city, opened his own press in 1657. His firm was active in Amsterdam for more than three decades until he moved to Zolkiev, Poland.
The Amsterdam Haggadah, 1662, is very rare. It was kindly made available for reproduction by the Moldovan Family Collection of Jewish Art, which includes a rich assortment of old Haggadoth.
This is another Haggadah of historical and artistic interest reproduced by the Diskin Orphan Home of Isrtael, which this year marks one hundred years of devoted care given to orphaned and homeless children.
We are indebted to Rabbi Munish Weintraub, the director of the institution, for his efforts to have this interesting Haggadah reproduced.
Tovia Preschel, 1981
* Abraham Yaari in his “Bibliography of the Passover Haggadah” (Jerusalem, 1960) lists only one edition of the Venice Haggadah, 1601 (p. 4, no. 29). However there seem to have tw editions. One contained the grace after Meals according to the Sefardi ritual. The other featured the Ashkenazi Grace after Meals (printed as the very end of the Haggadah). The Ashkenazi edition, apparently, did not contain Rabbi Alshek’s above mentioned interpretation of the order of the Seder. The Venice Haggadah, 1601, was reprinted with modification, in 1603 and 1604. Yaari mentions only one edition of the 1602 Haggadah (p. 4, no. 30). Of this Haggadah, too, two editions appeared. IN one of these the Ashkenazi Grace after Meals was printed in the margins of Shfokh Hamatkha and following parts of the text.