How to Create Your Own Haggadah

The standard version of the haggadah--the book Jews read at Passover Seders--was developed over time by rabbis looking to provide a guide for fulfilling the commandment to tell your children about the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 13:8). However, the haggadah can be a living document. You can tell the story of the exodus in your own words, pick and choose translations, add in your own images, and make a book that your family and guests will treasure.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Printer Personal photos and illustrations

1. Decide what type of content you want in your haggadah. For instance, you can use a traditional Hebrew text, but opt for a Reform translation.

2. Choose an online service to help you prepare your haggadah. The Open Source Haggadah Project allows you to compile your text online, choosing only the sections, translations, commentary and songs in which you are interested. Jewishfreeware.org takes a different approach, offering free downloadable PDFs with complete Hebrew text and English translations that you can print. You can then manually remove pages and insert supplementary material from their free songbooks and additional readings.

3. Work with your text until you are satisfied with the content and length of your haggadah.

4. Print your text. Be careful to keep the pages in the correct order.

5. Add illustrations or personal photos to your text, either by cutting and pasting them onto pages that already have text, or by interleaving them in the appropriate sections. Use photos or pictures to create a cover as well.

6. Bring the stack of pages to a copy shop. Have them copy and bind the haggadahs for you; they will look nicer and be easier to use if they are double-sided and spiral- or coil-bound rather than single-sided and stapled.

Tips & Warnings

• Consider your Seder guests when compiling the texts; if there will be more children than adults, try a shorter text with more songs. For a table full of highly educated adults, add more commentary to spark discussions. If you have children, ask them to illustrate some of the sections of the Seder, and then include their drawings in your haggadah.
• People tend to spill on haggadahs because of the nature of the Seder, so keep your original packed away in an envelope. That way, you can make more copies next year if the wine splotches and horseradish stains have made the books unreadable.

References

• The Open Source Haggadah Project
• Jewishfreeware.org: Passover