Schlesinger 1904 - A Special Haggadah
Post date: Oct 20, 2019 2:01:45 PM
Today I was sent by my Facebook friend Shoshana Michael Zucker, a scanned copy of a 1904 Haggadah with English translation. It is one by Jos. Schlesinger printed in Vienna and given by "Grandma to Albert on April 18, 1905" as a handwritten inscription attests.
This 1904 Haggadah is special for 3 different reasons; 1. It doesn't appear in Yudlov's catalog, 2. It has some interesting translations, 3. A special handwritten note is attached to it.
In 1997 the Magnes Press/ Hebrew University published "The Haggadah Thesaurus - A Bibliography of Passover Haggadot From the Beginning of Hebrew Printing until 1960", edited by Isaac Yudlov. Basing himself on previous Haggadah bibliographies (such as Yaari, Wiener, Lehman and Hirschhorn), Yudlov created the most comprehensive, and therefore most authoritative, Haggadah bibliography. Almost all Haggadot printed from the mid-15th century until 1960 in all countries and in all languages are included in this catalog which counts 4715 Haggadot. It is very rare to find a Haggadah Yudlov "missed".
However, Yudlov #2218 is Schlesinger's 1903 Haggadah with English translation while Yudlov #2296 is Schlesinger's Haggadah with English translation from 1905. In between, Yudlov mentions several other Schlesinger Haggadot published in 1904 but none with English translation. Other English Haggadot are listed for 1904 but none by Schlesinger so it seems Yudlov did not include my newest 1904 Haggadah - making it a real treat for my collection.
Furthermore, when going through the translation of this Haggadah, I found it includes an English translation for Echad Mi Yodeah. At the end of the 19th century/ beginning of the 20th century, an English translation for this was still only sporadically included. Most Haggadot either did not translate this hymn or added the age-old Yiddish translation. Schlesinger was definitely not the first to add an English translation for it (Schlesinger was almost never the first to do anything as they just reprinted existing books). The first to add a complete English translation with both Echad Mi Yodea and Had Gadya was Mendes as early as 1862. But I was surprised to find in this 1904 Schlesinger Haggadah a translation for the "nine books of the Mishna" as "Nine tomes of the Mishnah". A tome is an ancient book, a manuscript, a folio or a large heavy scholarly book (usually one in a series). As such it is a perfect translation for סדרי משנה but where did they get this translation from? I have yet to identify the source for this translation. Quite interesting.
Still, the cherry on the cake was a handwritten note added to the Haggadah with a prayer, based on Ha Lachma for the White Paper to be lifted.
The prayer reads:
As we celebrate it here, our brethren celebrate it in all parts of the world. Next year may more be able to celebrate in Palestine due to the repeal of the White Paper. By that time may the war be over & everyone Jew & non-Jew be a free man, Blessed be the Lord that freed the Jews from Egypt.
The mention of the war and the White Paper dates this note. The first White Paper connected to Palestine was the 1922 Churchill White Paper limiting the number of immigrants. In 1930 this number was again adjusted by two different White Papers and in 1939 the MacDonald White Paper limited the Jewish immigration even more "for the duration of five years". This is, therefore, the White Paper mentioned in this note which was written either by a Jew already living in Palestine or a Zionist living abroad, most probably not in Nazi-occupied territory between 1940-1945.
The fact that the author of this note composed his/ her own text to be added to the Haggadah makes one wonder who the owner of this Haggadah was. On the one hand, by the time this note was written, many Reform Haggadot were already in circulation, which often used the original Haggadah text as inspiration for "modernized" additions. On the other hand, the owner did apparently use this traditional Haggadah instead of a Reform one.
On the whole, as I said, quite an interesting Haggadah. Thank you Shoshana!