· Original core - "Hallel Mitzri" - Psalms 113 and 114 - Psalm 114 addresses slavery in Egypt. The recitation of Hallel before and after the Passover meal.

· Early selections - are they Hellenistic? - Avadim hayinu and Bat'hila avoteinu; midrash on Deut. 26:5-8 "Tse Ulmad"; Dayenu - Professor Finkelstein's theory is that the Haggadah as reaction to Ptolemaic domination during Hellenistic period; Laban was more cruel than Pharaoh - is this to appease Ptolemies who controlled the land of Israel at the time?- G-d as the sole redeemer, no angels present - pre-Pharisaic - G-d makes an appearance as a Redeemer, troubling to Pharisaic doctrine.

· The Four Questions from the Mishnah - different question about roasted meat replaced with question about leaning; bitter herb question added later; Mishnah contains Rabban Gamliel's three pillars of Passover - the offering, the matzah, and the bitter herbs; "Every person redeemed from Egypt" - also mishnaic

· Talmudic additions - Begin in degradation, conclude in redemption - "Avadim hayinu" and "bat'hila avoteinu" - both formulas of degradation included.

· The Four Sons - added in early medieval period - found in Jerusalem Talmud

· Shfoch Hamatcha - Response to persecutions of Medieval world - the Prague Haggadah of 1526 - images of Jewish power - Samson, Judith, the lion of Judah beating on wild men

· Poems - Hasal Siddur Pesach - Yosef Tov Elam; Vayehi BeHatzi Halailah - Yanai; Zevach Pesach - Kalir; Adir Hu - fourteenth century

· More editions of Haggadah than any other text - 3500 editions - only 25 editions in sixteenth century, 1269 in nineteenth, 1200 editions by 1960s - Augsburg (city of Martin Luther) - Jagenhas - "The Hunting of the Hare" - Yayin, Kiddush, Ner, Havdalah, Zman; the Mantua Haggadah of 1560 - the Wise Son is a copy of Jeremiah from the Sistine Chapel - later on Jeremiah became Elazar ben Azariah in a Venetian Haggadah from 1599, the Mantua Haggadah also has Abraham wandering in a gondola in his voyage to Canaan, Mantua Haggadah of 1568 has the gods Mars and Minerva - nudity in the Haggadah - Prague and Mantua Haggadah have a nude woman to illustrate the Ezekiel text "your breasts were fashioned" - the Venice Haggadah of 1601 turns that nude woman into a man; Venice Haggadah of 1629 - Israelites sleep in twin beds so they will not conceive a child; a beautiful Haggadah made by a convert to Judaism who borrowed engravings from Christianity

· Reform, Reconstructionist, Kibbutz haggadah - spring, peace, redemption; parodies - Purim Haggadah, teachers' Haggadah (teachers are slaves), "The Ten Plagues of Tammany Hall", Christian missionary haggadah, Haggadah far Bloiber un Apikosim (atheist Haggadah), Komsomolishe Haggadah (Communist youth Haggadah); World War Two Haggadot,

· The law of the kibbutz was intended for Four Sons: one is wise and loyal, one is wicked and pessimistic, one is simple, and one is not even able to ask a question. What does the wise son say? "What are these obligations and duties which our kibbutz places upon us?" You will explain to him the laws of our movement. "Go forth to the road and stand watch. Do not be satisfied with opinions!"

· What does the wicked son say? "What is this drudgery of yours?" Since he has removed himself from the group, he has denied a basic principle and sought the illusions of the crumbling city. You should set his teeth on edge and answer him thus: It is because we have been redeemed for a life of cooperativeness and equality; but he has not been redeemed."

· Recent ideas - Cup of Miriam, the orange on the Seder Plate, a bowl of beans to show Jewish unity, "bread" to represent gay Jewish community

· The Haggadah speaks to us