The opening sections of the Haggada seem to lack the organizing structure that characterizes the Seder. At first glance, the opening anecdotes and stories are jarringly disjointed and chaotic. But Marc Herman shows that, upon closer analysis, the beginning of the Haggada can be read as a how-to manual for the fulfillment of the commandment to recount the Exodus from Egypt.

Simcha Fishbane’s new book sets out to understand how Hayei Adam went from being a widely popular halakhic work among laymen, although largely ignored by the rabbinic establishment of its day, to a paradoxical mirror status in our own. Gidon Rothstein reviews…