My People's Passover Haggadah

Should the translator stay invisible or not? Although Venuti (1995) discusses this question and claims that the translator's voice should be heard, most people will intuitively state that a good translation is one that flows so seamlessly as if the text was written in the target language in other words, the translator should stay invisible and not reveal him/herself through footnotes, metadata, etc. It is therefore very rare to learn more about, and even less FROM the translator. In most cases, we find only the name of the translator. It seems the most one can hope for is an explanatory introduction, frequently limited even further to one paragraph in the general introduction through which we get a glimpse of the translator and his motives.

If any translational metadata is present it is generally a note by the translator explaining why a new translation was necessary (in his/ her view) e.g. the title page of the Haggadah printed by Barnet/ I. Levi in 1808 (Yudlov #516) which declares: "translated from Hebrew to English, well-explained in proper English, not in broken English as people had become accustomed to earlier" or Hampstead Synagogue Rabbi A. A. Green in his introduction to the Revised Hagadah stating that his new translation was necessary so that it would be "more in accordance with our modern ideas of what is adapted for the perusal of children." (Yudlov #2067)

Translators who go beyond and provide a deeper explanation of translational dilemmas and decisions are few and far between. The second English Haggadah translator, David Levi, adds interesting end-notes to his 1794 Haggadah translation (Yudlov #371) and Aaron Greenbaum, the translator of the 1951 Israel Passover Haggadah by Kasher writes a long detailed introduction doing some comparative analysis of former English translations (Yudlov #4187) to mention two.

It was therefore a real treat to find the My People's Passover Haggadah, a project by Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman and David Arnow (2008, Jewish Lights Publishing). This 2-volume wonderful Haggadah has next to its varied commentary by eleven different academics a running commentary from the translator Dr. Joel M. Hoffman . My People's Passover Haggadah is part of the award winning 10 volume My People's Prayer Book, also translated and annotated by J. Hoffman.

In this Haggadah, Hoffman explains for almost every translated word which problems were considered, which decisions were made, and why. For example, in the "Mah Nishtana", the 4 Questions (called a "misnomer" by Hoffman because it is actually one question with four parts) the child asks about the number of times food is dipped. "On all other nights, we dip things even one time, this night, two times" translates Hoffman. I have seen many different translations for this sentence but Hoffman explains his translation as follows:

"Two times" Or "twice", but we prefer to follow the Hebrew more literally here. In Hebrew, as in English, "twice" is usually greatly preferred to "two times". we translate somewhat odd Hebrew with somewhat odd English. Probably the number "two" was meant to be emphasized.

Although I might not always agree with decisions made by Hoffman, this Haggadah is my continual companion throughout my research guiding me along and highlighting points I had never thought to delve into. A highly recommended piece of work!

This Haggadah can be purchased from Jewish Lights Publishing for $39.99.