page_title: Birds' Head Haggadah
section_title: Illustrations
hierarchical_section_title: Birds' Head Haggadah / Description / Illustrations
context_page_description: The Birds' Head Haggadah is the oldest surviving illuminated Ashkenazi Passover Haggadah. The manuscript, produced in the Upper Rhine region of Southern Germany in the early 14th century, contains the full Hebrew text of the Haggadah, a ritual text recounting the story of Passover – the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt – which is recited by participants at a Passover Seder. The text is executed in block calligraphy and accompanied by colorful illustrations of Jews performing the Seder practices and reenacting Jewish historical events. The Birds' Head Haggadah is so called because all Jewish men, women, and children depicted in the manuscript have human bodies with the faces and beaks of birds. Non-Jewish and non-human faces are blank or blurred. Numerous theories have been advanced to explain the unusual iconography, usually tied to Jewish aniconism. The Haggadah is in the possession of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where it is on permanent exhibition.
context_section_description: The manuscript contains two full-page miniatures. The first, placed at the beginning, depicts a husband and wife seated at their Seder table. The second, appearing at the end of the Haggadah, depicts a vision of a rebuilt Jerusalem in the messianic era.
  In addition to the full-page miniatures, 33 pages in the manuscript have illustrations in the margins. These illustrations, which closely follow the text, depict Jewish men and women performing Passover and Seder practices, and also reenacting events in Jewish history. The Passover and Seder-themed reenactments include the roasting of the Paschal lamb; the baking of matzos; grinding the bitter herbs; eating the bitter herbs with charoset; leaning on one's left side at the Seder; breaking the middle matzo, and so on. Historical depictions include the Binding of Isaac; the Jewish people hurriedly leaving Egypt with their matzos, which did not have time to rise; Pharaoh and his army pursuing the Jewish nation to the Red Sea; Moses receiving the two Tablets of Stone from heaven and giving over the Pentateuch to the Jewish people; and the Jews receiving manna from heaven during their wanderings in the desert.
  The Jewish characters are dressed in medieval German-Jewish clothing, and the pointed "Jewish hat" mandated by the Church beginning in the 13th century is seen on Jewish leaders and teachers, including Moses. Yet while the Jewish characters all have human bodies, and some also have human hair and beards, and wear helmets or women's snoods, their faces are those of "sharp-beaked and sharp-eyed birds". A large beak occupies the place where the nose and mouth should be. Epstein notes that the birds' heads are not uniform, but individualized according to the "age, sex, and status" of the character. Some characters have pigs' ears as well.
  The faces of non-Jewish characters, in contrast – such as Pharaoh and the ancient Egyptians – and non-human characters such as angels, the sun, and the moon, are blank or blurred. An unknown artist subsequently added facial features to the Egyptian soldiers, but these additions either faded or were rubbed out.
caption: (L. to r.) A Jewish man, woman, and child shape and prick holes in handmade matzos in preparation for baking
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