Bring me to your community to prepare for Pesach!

I teach in many venues on Jewish Liturgy and Prayer with special expertise in the Haggadah. I will help participants rediscover the richness and complexity of the Haggadah as a text, and to imagine new ways they can use it to craft meaningful and personal Seders.

I offer stand-alone lectures or lecture series over Zoom, or can come to your community for Shabbat. For cost and other details, contact me at joshcahan@gmail.com

1.      The Missing Story of the Haggadah

We will explore why the Haggadah never actually “Tells the Story” and reassess how the crafters of this text actually understood the mitzvah of “You shall tell your children”.

See the article: Storytelling at the Seder: Lesaper, Lehaggid, and the Purpose of the Haggadah, from Sources Spring 2023

2.      A Road Map through Maggid: Fitting the dots into a picture

Magid can be seen as a series of Four Answers, each reflecting a different framing of the commandment of lehagid, to tell of God’s wonders. Seeing that structure brings tremendous clarity to this often confusing text and reveals how its seemingly disparate pieces fit together into a coherent whole. Introduction to the Four Answers from Haggadah

3.      The art of crafting a book of liturgy, or Why is finding “the right Haggadah” so hard? 

A chance to look at the Haggadah through eyes of design and structure, identifying how a book can enhance or hinder our rituals. We will compare the styles of a range of widely used Haggadot and explore in detail some of the features and design choices reflected in The Yedid Nefesh Haggadah.