From: Jewish Media Review.
The Holistic Haggadah. Traditional Haggadah with Original Commentary by Michael L. Kagan.
Urim Publications.
Orders@UrimPublications.com.
Cloth. 239 Pages. $24.95. ISBN 965-7108-49- 7.
Each year I
try to find a few new Haggadot to make my s’darim more creative, interesting
and fresh. Fortunately, I have not failed to find what I seek. It seems that
each year the publishers are able to find new or old authors whose words
inspire, are different, and bring something new to the ancient words of the
Pesah ritual. These two books certainly
fit into that category, as they are both creative, unusual and reflect thinking
out of the box.
The
Holistic Haggadah is put together by Michael Kagan, who made aliyah in
1977, and has a Ph.D. in chemistry (that alone should tell you that this is no
ordinary Haggadah). Kagan is married, has five children, and describes himself
as an ortho-practicing, but unorthodox Jew. He finds unusual ways to make the
Haggadah become personal. Influenced by
Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, he brings the perspective of Reb Zalman, Reb
Shlomo Carlebach, and other joyous, spiritual teachers. In the early part of
his Haggadah, Michael tells his readers that at the beginning of Nisan one
should begin making a list of ways in which we are slaves to the physical,
emotional, psychological and spiritual planes of our lives. “Food, sex, money, time, car, house…looking
good, clothes, etc.” He explains Reb
Zalman’s preference for the use of the word “Yah” instead of Lord or
HaShem. People are familiar with “Yah”
since it appears in “HalleluYAH – Praise God. “Furthermore, YAH is the name
associated with the Godly attribute of Hokhmah, which is the level of greatest
expansion and is thus fitting for the Pesah theme of ‘from the narrow straits I
cried to YAH, from the great expansion YAH answered.’ (Psalm 118). To support
this the Talmud states (Eruvin 18b) that: Since the Sanctuary was destroyed it
is enough for the world to use only two letters [of the Tetragrammaton]”. -
Later he gives an interpretation from his 8-year-old daughter. For the blessing “al netilat yadayim,” which
we recite before the motzee, Ayelet Kagan explains that the Hebrew “netilah” also
means to “cut off.” We should detach
the hands from the selfish mind and hand them back to their Master.
Dov Peretz
Elkins