The Passover holiday begins tomorrow evening when Jews and friends around the world will participate in a seder, eat gefilte fish (an acquired taste), apples and nuts, bitter herbs, matzah, chicken soup, and more.
The dinner is called a “seder” and we use a “haggadah” to help tell a story. (Raise your hand if you still have the Maxwell House haggadah. The image is of one from my family’s collection from 1965!)
The point of the meal is to retell the story of when we escaped the evil Pharaoh in Eqypt to find freedom from slavery.
You’ll notice I used the pronoun “we” even though this great escape happened millenia ago. That’s one of the things I love about this holiday; the pronouns are “we”, “me”, and “us”.
"A person is obligated to see themself as if they personally have gone out of Egypt."
We use these collective pronouns because we must always put ourselves in the story, to remember our history. We say “me” to stay in touch with our empathy because many people around the world are still held in some form of slavery.
We tell the story of freedom as if the story were happening to us. And this year, it is.
Plagues and parting seas
One of the most raucous and fun activities of the evening is to recite the **Ten Plagues. As the story goes, God sends down 10 plagues to harm the overlords and make them realize the error of their ways. They had lost their humanity and were no longer living according to any ethics, except their own enrichment. They had lost their empathy and were completely unable to understand the consequences of their actions. (Or worse, maybe they just didn’t care.)
The second reason was as punishment for enslaving the Jews.
You would think that one plague—say thousands of frogs everywhere or swarms of locust eating all the crops—would have been enough, but those so-called leaders weren’t paying attention. They thought they were infallible. After all, it was the Pharaoh and his yes-men who were the ones sitting in the halls of power. They thought they could do as they pleased.
As befits one of the great stories in history, there are many, many small details that all worked together to move the plot along. Sure, you could watch Charlton Heston as Moses but I’m pretty sure it didn’t all happen like that. This is Jewish history so figure on a gazillion opinions and interpretations of what did happen.
There was one “red line” however, a final plague. God threatened to kill every first born child. It was the one and only thing that got Pharoh’s attention as he had boy child he dearly loved.
Jews were told to spread the blood of a lamb on their doorposts so that God would “pass over” them and leave everyone in their household alone.
The next morning when Pharoh realizes his son is dead, he kicks them all out, the Jews leave with their unleavened bread and what they could carry.
Does this story make sense?
No, of course it doesn’t. That’s the beauty of biblical origin stories. We get to interpret them over and over again, adapting them to fit the times.
Usually, a seder is a joyous occasion. Yay, we escaped.
But many of us use the time to recognize the many people the world over who are not free. Except this year, we must also speak about ourselves.
Many years ago I was angry about not hearing anything of the women in this story so I wrote my own haggadah. It’s a little over the top in its righteousness but it still kind of works. (Being a writer means that every year I want to rewrite the whole darn thing.)
Here is a chapter rewrite…
10 Plagues of the resistance
Pharaoh really should have paid attention to what was happening in his kingdom because before he knew it, he had lost his power and was very alone.
This year, our story also includes a list of plagues. Only this time, we’re the ones with the power because our plagues are not a 1-time thing. The more we bring ‘em on, the more impact they have.
To recap our Power Plagues thus far:
relentless memes skewering voldemort and the hangers-on
learning to understand court rulings and using terms like “enjoin” and “alien enemies act”
calling our congresspeople to tell them what we think and what they should do
imploring the senate to not vote for the CR
attending town halls in red, purple, and blue districts
making signs that are even more brutally honest and clever than the memes
gathering in small numbers in front of post offices, VA hospitals, and social security facilities.
voting in a Democratic judge to the Wisconsin supreme court…by 10 points
calling our congressperson every week and being really really mad (but also respectful)
gathering on one day in more than 1,400 protests in every state and in small, red towns (even The Villages in FLA) to scream Hands Off
Will anything be enough?
What’s different tonight? This week I encourage you to not think only in terms of specific actions as we usually do. Instead, let’s keep our eyes on the bigger picture and begin to imagine how we will tell the story of our liberation from autocracy.
Let’s begin to feel our own power to take back this country and the ideals we believe in.
The Plagues are working and if we keep repeating all these actions with the faith that our resistance will triumph, then it will be enough and one day, hopefully soon, we will enjoy a well-deserved break from the fight.
Did the protests matter?
YES!
The sheer number of people who came out on April 5 is estimated at 5 million, plus those in other countries. These protests showed a great deal of force, anger, commitment, and community. It showed us that it’s not just us, it’s people from all stripes and from all over the country.
If that was all the protests accomplished, it would have been enough.
But as you saw this past week, not only did voldemort retreat on a number of things, but more people with public profiles began speaking up, and some republican senators voted to reclaim their tariff power.
If that was all that changed, it would have been enough. For last week at least.
So what’s next?
We continue the fight.
For friends and family in Ohio, your senators have been very quiet but Ohioans have become very loud. And you can be loud too. Here’s how to contact them:
Many of you live in Shontel Brown’s district:
And for those in other states, you can always use these handy tools to find your contact numbers:
Wishing you a happy Passover,
Jill
** Wondering what the 10 plagues were? Here’s the list:
Blood
Frogs
Lice
Flies
Pestilence
Boils
Hail
Locusts
Darkness
Killing of the firstborn (where Passover gets its name)