The People of the App

by TOBY LICHTIG

Tonight is Passover, a festival that has gone through various transformations in its three-thousand-year history. I'm not sure whether the first generation of celebrants descended from the slaves who fled Pharaoh's Egypt would have recognized cupboards swept clean of flour, children hunting for pieces of unleavened bread under sofa cushions, and representations of gruesome plagues in the form of finger puppets. But one of the things that helps a religious ritual to endure is its ability to move with the times.

Passover is a great story, full of tragedy, gore and vengeful triumph against the odds. And like all good stories, it has continued to evolve. Now it has gone virtual. The Haggadah – the 2,500 year-old text that describes the tale of the exodus and gives instructions for the order of the Seder – is available in app form.

The Haggadah App (Haggadap?) comes in "modern" and "traditional" Sephardi and Ashkenazi versions, and includes songs, pictures and videos.
The app, say the developers, is "an interactive and fully customisable e-book, created to help people of any level of religious knowledge or observance to prepare for the Seder and help them clearly explain the traditions to all participants".

Observers, or rather "users", are able to tailor the e-Haggadah "so that the running time is adjusted to their needs". They are also able to adjust the religiosity, making this suitable for revellers from "any kind of Jewish background".

While this venture is to be lauded for its enterprise and plurality, parents struggling to bar their children from hand-held devices at the dinner table may be rather less impressed. Confronted with the question "Why is this night different from all other nights?", some may be tempted to answer, "it isn't".