Great Regulars: This concrete evidence of the way the Seder

has been performed for centuries is a powerful lesson in what is dryly called "Jewish continuity." More powerful still, however, are the illustrations that Joel ben Simeon added to the margins of the text (usefully, The Washington Haggadah includes a descriptive catalog of all these illustrations). On the first page of the manuscript, for instance, underneath the blessing for getting rid of chametz, there is a picture of a man peering into a cupboard, holding a candle for better light and a feather for sweeping stray crumbs. Behind him, another man, wearing red tights, a blue singlet, and a green cap, uses a bellows to fan a fire where the collected chametz is being burned. This kind of charming, lifelike, instantly legible drawing will be familiar to anyone who has looked at medieval Latin manuscripts; but here they are translated to a Jewish context, offering glimpses of how our ancestors lived before Columbus discovered America.

from Adam Kirsch: Tablet: National Treasure

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