2003-04-17 6:45 PM
The Combat Seder
Hey, kids, it's Passover time! Or, as I referred to this year's celebration when talking to TheBoy's dad, the Combat Seder. Look at this!
Aren't they cute? You can see the plagues out of their bag and visited upon the land here.
(When you squeeze Pestilence, in the form of a little rubber cow, her eyes bug out. Plus the eyes are sticky!)
This was the hit of our Passover. ("Our," of course, being the seder at TheBoy's aunt and uncle's place. Last I checked, they weren't making Irish Jews -- though that could be a great Thomas Cahill book, wouldn't it?) But then here are some of the other things that happened at said seder, so before you trust our judgment, read on:
- We used the Santa Cruz Hagaddah,
"the first personal liberation/psycho-spiritual haggadah to receive across-the-board national distribution." It's a combination of Kabbalah and new-age
touchy-feeliness and is saved from utter humorlessness by the colorable line drawings of the always-excellent Nina
Paley. It starts out with a statement of "my truth" from the author, goes
on into metaphorical, gender-neutral and "God-name-free" PC-speak and even includes a little personal ad for the author. (Yes, that's printed in each copy. Since it's still on
her web site 12 years after this was published, it's apparently not working very well.)
- TheBoy's 19-year old cousin got to lead the seder for the first time this year. Not being as practiced as her father at controlling the unruly
mob, it went something like:
"Why is this night -- shut UP! -- not like all other nights?" - Those who were not raising a ruckus were coloring the pictures in the
hagaddot.
- Or passing a pug around the table.
His way-too-big-for-his-tiny-head tongue kept hitting the edges of the plates.
I don't know what a rabbi (or a health inspector) would have to say about that.
- The plagues kept falling on the floor. I was worried one of the dogs
(there were two others that were not being passed around the table) was
going to eat one of the hailstones.
- There are two things that are odd about
this site: one, the Clippy-like
"Mr. Matzoh" and two, that you can actually sell your leaven there.
- Well, ok, maybe not quite as strange as I thought.
- Sing happy Passover songs along with Lambchop and Shari Lewis! You'd think Passover would not be among Lambchop's favorite holidays, but apparently you'd be wrong.