The Passover Haggadah was written thousands of years ago, but some find it to have contemporary significance even today: On the eve of the holiday, ultra-Orthodox bookstores sold a Haggadah with the noncommittal title: "Labor to Freedom - With Eli and Ruth." However, a quick flick through the pages of the Haggadah reveals that, surprisingly, the evil Egyptian receives texts in the spirit of the times.
In the dialogue between the figure with the 'weapon', which symbolizes the Egyptian reaching out to the groaning Jew, the Egyptian calls for 'equality of burden' and emphasizes that "Jews must also contribute to the state, and not just study Torah all day long." The Jews, naturally, want to study Torah, and this, it turns out, is a burden to the Egyptian.
Did the authors of the Haggadah intend to compare historical Egyptians to the secular ones of the twenty-first century?
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View the photos - and decide for yourself: a Haggadah with an educational message or a slightly jarring comparison?
