A New Version of the Ereṣ Israel Haggadah Liturgy and the Evolution of the Ereṣ Israel Miqraʾ Bikkurim Midrash

Abstract

Nicholas de Lange published four fragmentary Haggadah manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah containing Greek rubrics and Babylonian-style blessing formulas, two of which share further intriguing features. First, those Babylonian blessings have been grafted onto a Haggadah text that resembles the Ereṣ-Israel Seder liturgy in both contents and formulation. Secondly, the midrash on Deut 26:5-8 is slightly more elaborated in those fragments than in the more widely known EI versions. A Babylonized EI form is known from another Genizah fragment, in which, inter alia , the original EI blessing formulas were also eclipsed by Babylonian texts. Moreover, the elaborated midrash may also be found in a distinctively EI Haggadah, MS JTS ENA 2856.2-4 + ENA 3222:2. This Haggadah is undoubtedly the form of exemplar that was subsequently Babylonized and ultimately appeared with Greek rubrics in de Lange's fragments. The EI text is of unusual interest because it documents the progressive elaboration of the midrash to Deut 26:5-8. The nature and evolution of the passage are explored in this paper and in an appendix.