The
Baal Shem Tov, or Besht — the founder of Chasidism —
met the soul of the Messiah during an ascent to heaven.
The Besht asked him, "When will the Master come?"
The Messiah answered, "When your wellsprings break forth to the outside!"
(from a letter
written by the Besht to his brother-in-law about one of his soul ascents)
The Haggadah of the Inner Seder reveals the deep structure of the seder.
It includes commentaries that explain not just what things mean but how the seder works as a spiritual technology. The Power Point/Zoom version includes many of the Inner Seder commentaries but is trimmer and includes beautiful haggadah material by Sarah Benor from the Jewish Language Project. The Zoom haggadah was offered first in 2020 for pandemic seders and revised for 2021. The PDF Haggadah of the Inner Seder has been updated for 2025, including reflections on the war and Gaza. It is laid out in the form of a table with columns for signposts/directions, Hebrew, translation, and commentary.
In the Haggadah of the Inner Seder, you'll find cues indicating where important transformations of the seder's symbols take place, helping you to follow the process of liberation through story and ritual.
And you'll learn about different customs from different communities. (In the Power Point version, you'll learn even more about different customs and communities.) You can download a 20-page Word DOC file or a PDF file. For the 2021 Zoom seder, click for Power Point or PDF. You can also download a 4-page supplement with a selection of commentaries from Haggadah of the Inner Seder, to use alongside your own haggadah.
The Haggadah of the Inner Seder is a great resource for understanding in detail every part of the traditional seder, including how to do each part of the ritual. It works well as a leader's guide or study guide to supplement other haggadot you may have. This year's version has new commentaries and questions related to what is happening in Israel and Gaza, and what is happening to democracy in the U.S. and Israel, and much of it has been set in a bigger typeface. (These new comments have not been incorporated into the Zoom version.)
The Haggadah of the Inner Seder can work as your main haggadah. Nevertheless, it's main purpose is to help you understanding the deep structure of the haggadah to give you more tools and insights to create and lead your own seder.
You can also learn more about the seder's deep structure here.
The PDF is about 15 MB and make take a few moments to download/display.
Another Haggadah that goes deeply into the structure of the traditional haggadah, which you can order from Amazon, is Michael Kagan's "Holistic Haggadah". Ellen Bernstein's environmentally aware haggadah, "The Promise of the Land", is also invaluable.
(That's a silicon wafer superimposed over a handmade matzah)click image to view
Kabbalah and Ecology