A remarkable Haggadah created by Jewish Brigade fighters for Passover, just weeks before Israel's declaration of independence, has recently come to light and will be auctioned today (Thursday) at the Brand auction house in Bnei Brak, alongside several other historically significant Haggadahs.
The Haggadah, printed in Germany, features powerful messages about the Holocaust and revival, uniquely combining comfort prophecies typically recited after the Ninth of Av with articles reinforcing Zionist ideals.
"We are heroes! The last generation of slavery and the first of redemption," they write. "Into swords, into spears, the mountains will disintegrate, the hills will break. But heaps upon heaps will rise from our granaries – beware," the text states. "Rise, desert wanderers, come out from the desolation. The journey is still long, the battle still great. Let us not be stopped by the corpses of the stragglers who perished in their work – we shall pass over the fallen."
"Remember this day when you came out of Egypt, from the house of slavery," is quoted from the Haggadah, followed by clarification – "From slavery to freedom, this first cup that we raise – what is it for? Because we were commanded to remember this day, the day of going from slavery to freedom, the day of the beginning and birth of a nation. And today – when we stand in the midst of it."
Another significant Haggadah at the auction is among the first to explicitly reference the Holocaust of the Jewish people. Published in 1940 at Kibbutz Shefayim, it contains a rare and early mention of the Holocaust. "Wherever I go I hear the voices of my brothers dragged like herds to slaughter, from burning pyres, from ruins, from cities and towns – altars for burnt offerings. The groaning of their destruction terrifies my nights and my eyes will never cease to see them and my heart will never stop crying abomination."
"Do you know what is happening today?" the writer asks and answers, "In Poland our people are slaughtered like sheep. Do you hear the knocking in the mountains in the silvery air? They are standing in the frost and digging graves for each other," it says. The following page shows a person tearing under a swastika while a town burns in the background.
A third Haggadah being offered for sale is the Haganah Haggadah, also published for Passover 5708 (1948), mere weeks before Israel's declaration of independence. Even then, it appears the fighters anticipated the coming independence, as the Haggadah features distinctly celebratory and Zionist themes. "Today you are going out in the month of spring – we raise the first cup to the king of the Seder, the Hebrew state."
