Haggadah & History by Jewish Publication Society, Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi (2005, Hardcover, Reissue)

Yerushalmi's erudition, which informs every inch of Haggadah and History, is apparent the minute you open the book. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize when it was first published in 1975, Haggadah & History is much more than a history of the Passover story. It is also a mirror of the last five centuries in Jewish history as reflected in the haggadah itself. In an updated preface to the book, Yerushalmi recounts the story of the discovery of the Sarajevo Haggadah, which he says is "arguably the most renowned illuminated haggadah manuscript from the Middle Ages to have survived." Two hundred facsimile plates reproduce representative pages from rare printed haggadot in two of the world's outstanding Judaica collections: the libraries of Harvard University and The Jewish Theological Seminary. This visual history is complemented by Professor Yerushalmi's fascinating historical introduction and richly detailed place descriptions. The result is a rare blend of scholarship and art. The history chronicled in this voluminous work, which has both intellectual and aesthetic appeal, stretches from the 15th century - the dawn of Hebrew printing - to the present day. But the story is not just confined to the Haggadah. What is also suggested is the ebb and flow of Jewish history over the course of five centuries, as reflected in the various permutations that this most beloved of Jewish religious texts has gone through, whether in Barcelona, Baghdad, a concentration camp in southern France or an Israeli kibbutz. We watch as the geographical shifts the Jewish people often suffered came to eventually affect the look and language of the Haggadah.