Keeping Passover : Everything You Need to Know to Bring the Ancient Tradition to Life and Create Yo

Rating:
Summary: A Must For Passover
Review: Steingroot approaches Passover customs with the attitude of "you may" replacing "you must." Further, his research into the history of Passover traditions is extensive, which provided me (one of the Goyim) with the ability to amaze my Jewish friends. Even my partner wasn't sure why his family ate potatoes as a "green vegetable." Steingroot knew why. I adopted Steingroot's attitude of "you may," and as a result, our first seder as hosts was a great success.

Rating:
Summary: An Important Beginer's Handbook
Review: Steingroot does a fairly good job with this offering. He approaches the holiday not from the perspective of a scholar, but of a layman interested in giving others the "key" to the mystical gate of Passover. He weaves his way through customs that seem strange, but later it turns out a laden heavy with meaning, though only to the initiated. Overall, the book is quite acceptable, for beginners. There is only a limited discussion of the Halakhah behind much of the Seder. Additionally, some of the historical details or either wrong or are of such debate by scholars that multiple views should have been given treatment. Additionally, the "Christian Haggadot" in Chapter 5 are not haggadot at all. At least three of them are historical surveys and scholarly research, not traditional haggadot. Also, in a move of extremely bad taste, Steingroot takes an opportunity to strike out at the "Jews for Jesus." Really, it would have been better (and less biased) had he left the whole Christian aspect out all together. Still, Jew or Christian, or whatever, it is a good oppertunity to see and understand the Haggadah more or less inside and out in a relatively introductory tone.

Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Meditation and Explication of Passover
Review: Steingroot has written a beautiful, thoughtful, and highly erudite book on Passover, one that enables the reader to delve deeply into its mysteries, and to love its idiosyncrasies. I reccomend this book to anyone interested in writing their own Haggadah, or tweaking the one they already use. The section titled "The Mute Book", where Steingroot explores the esoteric symbolism underlying the structure and ritual of the seder, is especially gripping (strange word to use of such a topic, but true).