Jewish tradition has it or is that during the Passover Seder meal, the Haggadah is read. The Haggadah—literally “the telling”– is the book which maps out the story and retells the Israelite liberation from Egypt so that it can be understood and experienced on a personal level. There are many different versions of the Haggadah. Some were written by rabbis and theologians under the auspices of major Jewish conferences. Some were written by laypeople representing a variety of ideologies: black Jewish tradition, interfaith dialogue, and modern feminism, just to name a few. All have one coming feature – reconciling traditional Jewish practice with those features of the modern landscape.
Choosing the right Haggadah for the Seder meal is like pairing the right wine for an entrée! Know the audience and the participants; recognize their level of tradition, keep sacred family rituals. This is what makes the Seder experience both an appealing and an effective tradition. One of my colleagues likes to collect Haggadot—a pile will greet the participants. Everyone takes one and shares the experience as it unfolds by comparing the different variations.
The origin of the Maxwell House Haggadah is fascinating. According to the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of American Jewish Archives (headed by Rabbi Gary Zola), this giveaway was an advertising and marketing tool to promote sales. In the 1920s, Joseph Jacobs was an advertising executive in New York. He sought to have big companies market more aggressively in the Jewish community. He approached Maxwell House coffee about advertising in the Jewish press. At this time, the coffee company is trying to expanded cells in major metropolitan areas that had large Jewish population. But each Passover season, Jews stop buying coffee. Most Jews in the 1920s were recent immigrants from European nations and these Ashkenazic based Jews believed that coffee was a “bean”, like other legumes which were not considered kosher for Passover. Jacob’s firm began consulting with several rabbinic authorities who agreed that coffee beans were technically berries that were roasted. Therefore they were kosher for Passover. To get this message out, Jacobs began an aggressive campaign during Passover season. The Haggadah was given out to customers in supermarkets by the Maxwell House display—for no charge. As a flier from the American Jewish Archives read: “Thus a mainstay of American Jewish culture was born in the fusion of two vital instincts: Jewish traditional observance and the desire to succeed financially in the competitive world of American commerce.”
And it was good to the last drop!