Non-traditional Haggadah for children – Hulda. The 25th year of the State of Israel – 1973

Non-traditional Haggadah for children – Hulda. The 25th year of the State of Israel – 1973

Non-traditional Haggadah for children with passages referring to the miracle of the existence of the State of Israel in its 25th year – Kibbutz Hulda – “The 25th year of the State of Israel” – 1973. Typewritten with illustrations by Milka Cohen.

The Haggadah opens with spring songs, the ritual of the Omer harvest, communal singing, Tal, grant favor to Your land, the first cup for freedom. This is followed by a special reading section: "We shall sanctify this Passover in the 25th year of the State of Israel – we shall bless the heroes among our people, the defenders of the homeland, those who risk their lives on the battlefields, the soldiers of the redemption of the State of Israel..."; a blessing for the pioneers of Israel "who transformed malaria-ridden swamps into grain fields... who planted forests and built up the desolate land", a blessing for the multitudes of the House of Israel "from the exiles of East and West", and a blessing for "our sons and daughters and our comrades in the army." The Haggadah then includes passages from the traditional text – Ha Lachma Anya, the second cup for the blessing of the land, kindergarten children asking Ma Nishtana, Avadim Hayinu, The Four Sons, Vehi She'amda, etc. A new version of Chad Gadya appears, and finally, the fourth cup for peace: "We raise a cup of blessing for peace – and not for war, for the plow and not the sword, for planting and not for uprooting, for the land is vast and open, and all human beings are its children." 

At the end of the Haggadah appears a passage exalting the rebirth of the State of Israel: "שהחיינו וקיימנו והגיענו לזמן הזה. The longing of every prophet and the yearning of every visionary. That this is no dream I am dreaming and no illusion I am imagining – but that the vision is real. That I saw with my own eyes the fall of seed in Jezreel by the hand of a few starving, shadowless unknowns, and behold their sheaf rises and grows into the State of Israel. Next year in rebuilt Jerusalem."

Hulda, a kibbutz in the Shfela region within the Gezer Regional Council, located near the Hulda Forest. Near this forest, the Burma Road was paved, which opened the way to Jerusalem when it was under siege during the War of Independence. The kibbutz was established as a group in 1930 by the Gordonia movement.

21 pages. The Haggadah begins on page 2 with an "Opening, " with no indication of a missing leaf. However, a second title page may be missing. Some pages include emphases, "instructions, " and handwritten names of the children designated to read the various sections of the Haggadah. Good condition.