January 29 1478 – 25 Shevat 5238
Joel Ben Simeon, also known as Feibush Ashkenazi of Bonn, completed The Washington Haggada. Beautifully hand-written on parchment, this guide to the Passover Seder is illuminated with stunningly intricate panels. Illustrations include The Four Sons, The Search for Leaven, and The Messiah Heralded. This example, for the Seder ritual of eating bitter herbs, shows a man pointing at a woman, a joking reference to Ecclesiastes 7:26 “Now I find woman more bitter than death.” Ephraim Deinard donated the haggada to the Library of Congress in Washington in 1916, where it was the first Hebrew manuscript to join the collection for which it was named.