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Thursday, March 30, 2023

Don't forget to download the Elder of Ziyon Haggadah!




Back in 2009, I (very quickly) wrote a Zionist Haggadah.

It is a complete, traditional Haggadah, with added commentary based on religious Zionist divrei Torah I found online.

The theme is simple. The Haggadah tells a story of the Jewish people moving from slavery to freedom. This is also the story of modern Israel. 

Passover is as Zionist a holiday as one can imagine - the beginning of freedom for the Jewish people. And freedom is not complete without having a physical land where people can be authentically and wholeheartedly Jewish.

The main part of the Haggadah starts with הָשַּׁתָּא הָכָא, לְשָׁנָה הַבָּאָה בְּאַרְעָא דְיִשְׂרָאֵל - Now we are here, next year we will be in the Land of Israel.

The penultimate praise of Dayenu thanks God for bringing us to the Land of Israel, הִכְנִיסָנוּ לְאֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל.

The end of the Seder includes בְּקָרוֹב נַהֵל נִטְעֵי כַנָּה פְּדוּיִם לְצִיּוֹן בְּרִנָּה, "Bring close, lead the plantings of the sapling, redeemed, to Zion in joy," followed by the celebratory "Next Year in Jerusalem."

Anti-Zionists have been trying to hijack Judaism (and the Passover seder itself!)  to justify their hate and attract disenfranchised Jews. They don't want them to experience the real thing. The real Judaism is authentic and rooted in the Land of Israel - not in celebrating "diasporism" as a core Jewish value. 

This is the real thing.

Every year I plan to update this Haggadah so I can publish a print edition, but I never get around to it.  This version uses copyrighted material so I cannot publish it or sell it. I need to get new illustrations, to paraphrase and update the commentaries, and to re-format it (although the two columns on a single page format is surprisingly good.) 

But I have printed it and had it bound, and used it at my own Seder some years, and it is really quite good and usable. 

You can download it here (if you prefer not to use Scribd, you can use this link.)

I also made a version that adds some English transliterations of the most important parts; you can download that here (without the cover art, alas.)

I hope you use it and enjoy it!



Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!