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Facsimile of the Augsburg (c. 1535, Ḥayyim ben David Shahor) Haggadah. Of the original, only a single copy survives in JUNL. Many famous woodcut depiction originate from the Augsburg Haggadah. There are two scenes symbolizing the Anti-Semitic sufferings of the Jews. The first shows a hare being hotly pursued by dogs and a hunter. The hare is being chased toward a net and the outcome seems that the hare will be caught in the net and then savagely attacked. In the second scene, at the last moment, the net miraculously lifts up, the hare goes through and with legendary speed, it outruns the dogs.
An alternate explation may be that the Talmud's acronym for the order of brachot in Kiddush on Pesachis Yakneha"z: Yayin, Kiddush, Ner, Havdalah, Zeman (wine, kiddush, havdala candle, havdala bracha, shehechiyanu). This sounds much like the German/Yiddish "jagen-has" - hunting the rabbit. (has as in
hasenpfeffer). So many haggadot have the illustration of the rabbit
hunt to remind us of the proper order of brachot.
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