home

=Introduction to a Wiki Haggadah=

I edit and print a Haggadah nearly every year (and have done this for the past 30 or so). In 1996 (!) I posted the text of the then-current Haggadah "[|A Growing Haggadah]" on my Web site with graphics and hyperlinks. This year (5771), for the ninth year, I have updated that and, in addition, taken most (if not all) of the printed version and posted it here. This version differs from the printed version in a variety of ways. The electronic version can change at any time. You can read it both linearly and hypertextually. The hypertext links connect various parts of the Haggadah and they also lead out from the Haggadah to the rest of the WWW.

Most importantly, //you// can edit this Haggadah.
The printed version is static and only changes (at most) annually. I designed it for linear reading at the Seder and includes songs activities and pages for drawing (or visualizations). The the most recent publicly-available printed version of the Haggadah (5762/2002) is no longer available. A private edition was produced (but in insufficient numbers to allow for distribution) in 2005. However, our family is working on a new edition which may become available before Pesach. I have received orders from across the US and Canada, Israel, Australia and someone from South Africa even wrote to ask permission to download portions to use at his Seder. Friends have "subscribed" to the Haggadah, receiving a printed update each year a few weeks before Pesach.

Wiki and Open
I am not the first to attempt this. Beginning in 2001, [|Douglas Rushkoff] initiated a project he called an "Open Source Haggadah". At the time I (jealously) thought it was rather pretentious. It appears that [|others did] as well. The [|Open Source Haggadah site itself] seems more than moribund at this time. An interesting discussion "open source religion" and Rushkoff's attempt appears on [|Researching, documenting and promoting peer to peer practices]. I look forward to seeing how this document changes. Users are, of course, welcome to download and/or print any portion they want for their own use.

`//rite On! ,\\ark Hurvitz http://www.davka.org