BOOK REVIEW: Review of Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah

Review of Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah

Ariel Evan Mayse is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, the senior scholar-in-residence at the Institute of Jewish Spirituality and Society, and an ordained rabbi. He is the author of Laws of the Spirit: Ritual, Mysticism, and the Commandments in Early Hasidism (2024), Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (2020), and Guest Editor for JCS Special Issue #03: Contemplative Ecology.

Review of Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah

“Review of Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah“, Ariel Evan Mayse, Stanford University

Reviewed by Ariel Evan Mayse, this review discusses Marcia Falk’s Night of Beginnings, a reimagined Passover Haggadah designed to inspire contemplative practice. Falk combines poetic liturgy, gender-inclusive language, and mystical reflections to offer new interpretations of traditional Jewish texts. She emphasizes the importance of personal and communal transformation, focusing on connection, humility, and compassion rather than power and exclusion. Through her creative blessings, storytelling, and visual art, Falk invites readers to experience the Passover Seder as a dynamic ritual filled with beauty, renewal, and spiritual depth.

Keywords: Jewish mysticism, the Haggadah, poetry, storytelling, Passover, liturgy, ritual

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.57010/XIKB3576

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Book Review

Review of Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah

Book Review

Review of Night of Beginnings: A Passover Haggadah

Read the Review

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