Washington State Reformatory
Monroe, Washington

This is one of my favorite haggadahs, and the one I use at my pesach seder every year. People who are used to bare-bones haggadahs (no commentary, and no or minimal pictures), are sometimes a little surprised by the size of the hagaddah, but it is very usable for a seder. It hits all the things I want in a seder haggadah:
1 - The classic Hebrew text
2 - An honest translation which sticks to the pshat (literal meaning of the words) for those who don't know Hebrew as well
3 - Illustrations (mostly reproductions of woodcut images from European Haggadahs from the medieval period), for the kids
4 - A running English commentary at the bottom of the page for those who want more in depth insights

The commentary is an academic in content but not in style. It tries to analyze the text (and occasionally the images) from a historical perspective and explain them that way. For example when the afikoman is mentioned in the passage about the four sons, the commentary explains that afikoman is derived from a greek word meaning "festival procession" (which sometimes occurred after meals) and explains the passage based on that. When the haggadah comes to the passage that begins with "in the beginning our ancestors were idol worshipers", the commentary explains the debate in the talmud that led to the two interpretations of how the seder should "go from humiliation to glory", one of which is being represented by this passage which otherwise seems to be starting the telling over again for no particular reason.

I can also assure anyone who is worried about this being a dense and dry haggadah that you needn't worry - it is still easy to read (even after a few cups of wine), and you won't feel like you're in a college library poring over academic journals.

In the back of the haggadah there are also several appendices with additional readings and quotes from a variety of sources on issues like freedom, the holocause, and other seder thoughts. If you want to have more wide ranging Passover based discussions that aren't as closely tied to the text, these are probably a good place to start.

As I said, I love this haggadah and it's the one I bought to use at my seder every year. ( )