The Rhyme and Reason Haggadah Featured on JM in the AM

We're getting closer and closer to the holiday of Pesak. One of our favorite activities is checking out some of the brand new hagas. Our friends of Mosaic Press, Felheim, our um it's a Mosaic Press public publish um publication. Felheim distributes it. Uh have released the brand new Hagada Pesak entitled The Rhyme and Reason Hagada. A poetic translation with rhyming explanation. It is wi written by Rabbi Ruvane Loey who um I must say has some uh has some poetic talent to say the least. I enjoyed reading this as I sit over Shabas and checking out how he tells the story and how he offers some of the reviews and explanations about the Hagada in poetic form. from Rabbi Ruvane Loey. A pleasure to welcome you to JM in the AM. >> Thank you. It's a pleasure to be on the show. >> So tell me about the concept. How did you come up? I mean, there's so many Hagas out there. I'm sure you know that. How'd you come up with this unique idea of examining the Haga, telling the story of the Haga, transmitting the information of the Auda in a rhyme and poetic fashion. So, um I actually talk about where I got the idea in the preface. Uh you could read it or I could spoil it for you now. >> Yeah, please. >> All right. So, um it says um in the preface that pretty simple actually. Um one pes a couple years ago I was um just uh looking at a translation of the Hagata, standard translation, and I happened to notice, hey, there's something here that rhymes. And you know, some people might have just moved on from there and not thought too much more about it. But since I've been, you know, writing uh poems ever since I was young and it's a big hobby of mine, I said, "Hey, maybe I'm on to something." And uh so the rhyme and reason Hagata was born. >> Do you remember what it was? Is that original rhyme that you uh took notice of? >> Um not the exact words, but it was something like um they needed to um about the about the carbon pes or about the about the matzah um why they why they had to have matzah not not bread. They had no time for delay something about provisions for the way something like that. Rabbi Ruain Lo is with us live via telephone. Is this How long does it take to do this? I mean, you you just said you're proficient at writing poetry since you're young. That obviously gives you a big advantage. I mean, is this something that just comes to you that you could sit down and within minutes have a beautiful poem? >> Um, as long as I'm in the right mood, uh, it can come pretty fast. Yeah. >> Well, that's pretty cool, actually. It's a great, uh, it's a great skill to have. It's a wonderful talent to have. And here you go. applying it to the Hagada Pesak. How did you decide which parts of the Hagada deserve a rhyming poem and which ones you're just going to include as you know a piece of the Hagoda? >> That's a good question. Well, most of um almost all of Mid um has a Ramy accompaniment. you know, even even like, you know, the nice thing is that even like pages of drushas and and stuff like that that people might just gloss over, all of that uh has a rhyme for it. So, it's something that would make parts that otherwise people wouldn't think about um more interesting and uh that they'll actually look at, >> right? When there's a story or there's some uh some type of, you know, if there's action, it's easier to come up with a rhyming poem, right? I mean, it has different components to it. It's obviously easier to do that, right? Would that be accurate? >> Um, sorry, I missed that. >> If there's actually some activity in the paragraph, I'll give you an example. Rao, would you mind if I recited one of your poems to give our audience an idea of what you did here? >> It would be my pleasure. Yeah. >> All right. Here we go. So, this is the rhyme and reason Hagada, a poetic translation with rhyming explanation by Ruvane Loey. The author is with us live via telephone. Many of you are familiar with the passage uh that we say in the hagada about the great rabbis who are sitting in bedrock and they're talking about mit which is of course the requirement all through seder night and then these students come and tell them it's time for keshma. Here is how Rabbi Loey transmits the message of that paragraph. He writes it happened once on Pesak night. Five sages chose to come unite in Bay Brock. They all reclined at a seder where they dined. And our story they did tell. They really told it very well. Keeping at it all night long until their students came along. The message that they came to share was about the daily prayer. They wished to give them all a warning. The time had come for schma of mourning. And that's pretty cool, Rabbi. That's a good one. >> You wouldn't believe it. I'm actually open to that page right now. And you have excellent taste. That is my favorite poem in Hagada. >> It's a good one. It's a really good one. And I'll tell you, you know, it's funny because we I mean, what what what do we as adults always get concerned about as we approach sader night? We get concerned that the the younger people, the teenagers, and everybody uh will take an interest in the seder and won't mind or will or will be enthusiastic about sitting through whatever length of time it takes to go through mag and all the different parts of the seder and the requirements of what needs to be said. And I think the the poetry just like people come up with games and questions and you know different things to keep to keep the kids and the teenagers interested. I think poetry could do that. I think if people would read some of these during the hagler during the seder I think they'll get the attention of a lot of people around the table. Did you feel that it's a great educational tool in that way? >> Um yeah I defin I definitely think so. you know, rhymes have a way of sticking with people that other types of um uh words, you know, standard translation would not necessarily have the power to do, >> right? And um I think it just makes it a lot more fun, a lot more interesting and really keeps everybody's attention to say the least. I'll do one more for you, Rabbi Loey, if I may. You ready for this one? >> Sure. Uh everybody out there is familiar with the fact that the that during the seder we quote Rabad Guml that there are three things that must be said at the seder. Uh and one of them of course is of the pesak meaning the carbon pesak the sacrifice. Matzah is the second and Mr. the bitter herbs is the third and Rabbi Loi writes as follows. Rabbi Guml used to say that if three things have not been said then you haven't done the mitzvah even if all else was read. The things that he declares are ones that all of us must mention are pesak matzah mur. Yes, they must have our attention. I'm telling you, I like this. It's a lot of fun. >> Yeah. You know, if you want you could even like for parts of it, you could even like sing it in a groman tune or something like that if that makes you happy. >> It's a good point. Yeah. people if you're gonna if you're going to head out and purchase this hag that it's actually a great thing to do of Pesak is to point out to yourself some of the uh the poems that are here and the fun ones that you think would really wake up the family and get them to pay even more attention uh to Sad Night. Everybody Ruin Loey is with us live via telephone. So what happened when you came to the publisher with this idea? Were they enthusiastic about it? How' they react to the whole thing? Um they they were very excited. I actually you know went to several publishers before Mosaic Press and for various reasons they weren't uh into the idea um or they were into the idea but it wasn't the type of thing that they were looking to publish. Um and uh I contacted Mosaic Press and less than 24 hours later I got this super excited email that they're like, "Wow, this is great. Like we really want to do this." >> Wow. Very nice. And there you go. And I'm assuming it's available everywhere at this point. >> Uh yeah, you know, a Felheim uh distributor does a really good job of getting it around. >> All right. So, it's an older Jamaica stores and I would assume online as well. >> Uh yeah, all online. Mosaic Press has it on their website and and all the stores. I think it's even on Amazon. >> What did you do with Denu by the way? Did you leave it intact or did you put the Rabbi Loi touch on it? >> That's a great question. So with Denu and with all the other songs in the Hagada songs in Nerza, >> right? >> Um I didn't do a a rhyming translation per se, but I um actually left Aenu completely alone. And if you notice, um, we were talking about the rhymes, but the nice thing about this Hagata is that, um, Mosaic was kind enough to include the standard Hebrew, a regular translation, and the rhyming translation, which you could compare and contrast. Um, and so for Deenu, I left Denu alone with the regular translation. And what I did was instead I took the paragraph of comma the comma that comes right afterwards which is basically the same material >> right >> and translated that in rhyme instead. >> Uh I like the fact that they included or you included the carbon pesak at the beginning as well. A lot of people don't realize that that's they a tradition to say error of pesak and you included that as well. And one thing I won't spoil the suspense or the surprise. I'll let people discover it on their own. And that is what you did with the Esser Makos with the 10 plagues. Good job on that one. A lot of lot of good rhymes and a lot of good messages in there. >> Right. That's also an example of the reason to the rhyme and reason Hagato because we just tried to trans translate them. It's could be pretty hard pressed to come up with rhymes, >> right? 100%. No question about it. All right, everybody. Yeah, I call your attention to Rabbi Ruain Loe's Hagada. It's called the rhyme and reason Hagada, a poetic translation with rhyming explanation. I really think it'll enhance your seder and that people of all ages, not just the kids and teens, but really everybody uh around the table will enjoy uh whatever poems of our you decide to include in your sed. You can go to the Mosaic Press website. It's distributed by Felheim. It's in all of the Judeica stores. You can buy it online or you can get it when you head to the store to shop before Pesak. All right. Loey, anything else you'd like to answer? >> Um, a couple other things. Um, one thing you didn't ask about is, you know, po poets always have the ability, if they choose, to use poetic license, >> right? Um and um so a place where that came up for me in the Hagada. >> Yeah. >> Which is also my favorite rhyme in the book, not my favorite poem in the book, but my favorite rhyme is what I something I did for part of Ana. A word I never otherwise would have used for this, but made sense with and it used and it rhymed was I said, "Come inside and take a slice of the Pesak sacrifice." >> Nice. I like that. So, you know, I never would have thought of a part of the carbon pace off as a slice, but it worked. >> That's good. Um and um and just another um one other you know just to give you a flavor of what another part of the reason is like which you don't really see in the rest of the Hagata is I took like a a vart a little varra in rhyme and this is how it uh this is how it sounds. What part >> what part of the is that in >> this is for for yeah to go jump all the way to the end. >> I didn't like I said for near I didn't really do translations I did summaries or in rhyme. So this is an idea of what a dvarra >> from the tsh ina sounds like. Many have pondered the words of this song and the message they mean to convey. I'm not one to say who is right or who's wrong but the tsh bates explains it this way. The author's main purpose in writing these phrases in rather mysterious fashion was targeting minds that like puzzles and mazes and answering riddles with passion. His goal was that as a result of this quest, the attempt to decipher his peace, that we would postpone the time of our night's rest, and the talk of our tale would increase. >> Amazing. Rab Loy, you did a great job with this. Congratulations, Masleub, on this. It's really great. >> Thank you so much. >> And I really do. I hope everyone out there gets it because I really do believe it will enhance everyone's seder cuz I think young and old will find it fun and they'll appreciate it and they'll you know they'll just uh it'll bring a smile to everyone's face as they hear all these rhymes and get all the messages that you're uh bringing across. So congratulations on this. >> Um thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be on the show. >> Rabbi Rubain Loey the rhyme and reason hagada a poetic translation with rhyming explanation. Check it out, folks. Um, Mosaic press release and of course available at all the Judeaica stores. Thank you to you. >> See you soon. >> I know my pes will be more fun. I'm definitely I am definitely using this at the seder. There's no question. I'm going to pick out some poems to use at the seder on Wednesday night, April the 1st. If you're wondering folks when the seder is JM in the AM on this Monday morning broadcast.