This Haggadah was written in 1772 by the scribe Netanel, the son of Aaron Levi, who is identical with the Torah scribe Netanel, the son of Aaron Segal (סג”ל), whose Haggadah, written in 1771, was published last year under the title of “Tel Aviv Haggadah.”
From the 1772 Haggadah we learn that the scribe practiced his craft in the Jewish communities of Altona-Hamburg-Wandsbeck.
Netanel adorned his Haggadah with eleven illustrations, all in color (in our facsimile edition they are reproduced in black and white). The illustrations, in the order of appearance, represent the following: The Seder of the Sages in Bnei Brak, the Four Sons, Abraham destroying the idols of his father, the three angels visiting Abraham, Moses slaying the Egyptian, Pharaoh’s daughter finding Moses in the Nile, Moses and Aaron before Pharaoh, the plague of the frogs, the exodus of the Israelites, the giving of the Law, and finally, the Passover meal in Egypt. All the illustrations, with the exception of the Seder of the Sages at Bnei Brak, are modeled on the copper plate illustrations of the Amsterdam Haggadah of 1695. The Amsterdam Haggadah illustrations were famous throughout the Jewish world and were widely copied by printers and manuscript artists.
The Haggadah contains instructions in Hebrew and in Judeo-German for the observance of the Seder, as well as the Judeo-German versions of the hymns Adir Hu, Ehad Mi Yode’a and Had Gadya as they appear in old Ashkenazi Haggadoth.
Although this is an Ashkenazi Haggadah, it contains both the Sephardi and the Ashkenazi version of the Grace after Meals. Various printers published Haggadoth for the use of both Ashkenazim and Sephardim and such Haggadah editions naturally contain both versions of the Grace. However, the occurrence of both versions in a handwritten Haggadah, which was produced for only one family, calls for an explanation. Perhaps our scribe, while copying the text from a printed Haggadah, inadvertently copied also the Sephardi version of the Grace after Meals, even though his Haggadah was intended for Ashkenazim only. After he realized his mistake, he saw no reason to remove the Sephardi version, but proudly announced on the title page that his Haggadah had the advantage of containing both versions of the Grace. It could also be that the scribe when he was writing the Haggadah had still no prospective patron, and he included the Sephardi version of the Grace after Meals so that in case he would not find an Ashkenazi to buy the book, he would be able to offer it to a Sephardi. Netanel’s hometown of Hamburg had a sizable Sephardi community.
The Haggadah is reproduced here in its actual size. The original is written on parchment and is bound in leather. The script is that of a master craftsman. However, Netanel apparently forgot to vocalize two entire pages of the text, and there are also a few obvious vocalizations and writing errors.
The reader will notice that the word “Rabbi” is vocalized “Ribbi” (Ribbi Eliezer, Ribbi Akiva, etc.). This is not an error of vocalization. The reading Ribbi has a long tradition in Hebrew literature. Rabbi Simon ben Zemach Duran (14th-15th cent.) remarks in his commentary of the Ethics of the Fathers, Magen Avot, that in olden times the reading had been “Ribbi.” The grammarian and student of the Masorah, Elijah Levita (15th-16th cent.) in his dictionary Tishbi, states that the reading “Ribbi” is the correct one. This reading, which is still in vogue in various non-Ashkenazi communities, occurs in some Ashkenazi books as late as the 19th century.
For about a hundred years this Haggadah has been in the possession of descendants of Rabbi Seligmann Baer Bamberger, rabbi of Wuerzburg and pillar of 19th century German-Jewish orthodoxy. Hanna Bamberger (who died in Sweden in 1943 at the age of 93), wife of Rabbi Nathan Bamberger of Wuerzburg and daughter-in-law of Rabbi Seligmann Baer Bamberger, left the Haggadah to her son Moshe Bamberger. His son, Rabbi I. Nathan Bamberger, spiritual leader of the “Young Israel” of Kingsbridge, Bronx, New York, is its present owner.
This is the tenth Haggadah of cultural interest to be published by The Orphan Hospital Ward of Israel for its supporters as a token of gratitude for their continued and benevolent interest in the institution. Its director, Rabbi Munish I. Weintraub, deserves our thanks for the reproduction of this manuscript Haggadah.