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| Wednesday, September 10, 2003 |
The case of the kidnapped Haggadah: It took us almost half of a millenium to do it, but by golly we did it. What, you ask? We rescued a kidnapped Haggadah. Actually, David Stern, the director of the University of Pennsylvania's Jewish Studies program did. The long-lost book was apparently commissioned by a wealthy Jew around 1450, but it eventually ended up in the hands of a particularly anti-Semitic monk.
The apparently very well educated monk, fluent in Hebrew, took the book and wrote a treatise on the text, which was then added as the Haggadah's prologue. The problem with this Christian's attempt at commentary is that it's filled with typical anti-Semitic nonsense, such as a discussion of how Jews prepare "six matzahs before the rest in a very special way with the blood of Christian infants." The book is in the progress of being fully translated and explored now, but honestly, who ever heard of kidnapping a book? Don't monks have anything better to do with their time?
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