{"id":37254,"date":"2022-04-21T12:38:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T16:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=37254"},"modified":"2022-04-19T23:17:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T03:17:29","slug":"should-we-make-a-covid-tyranny-haggadah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2022\/04\/21\/should-we-make-a-covid-tyranny-haggadah\/","title":{"rendered":"Should we make a COVID tyranny Haggadah?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For Passover this year we used a Haggadah<\/a> from PJ Library<\/a>, a Maskachusetts-based non-profit (funded by Harold Grinspoon<\/a>, a late-blooming artist like Hunter Biden<\/a>). The book includes the classic victimhood narrative in which “Pharaoh” enslaves the Jews and does various gratuitously mean things to Jews (though the hateful term “Jews” is never used; the phrase “Jewish people” is used instead). To this has been added “Miriam’s Cup”:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jewish people would not have gone free from Egypt without the actions of many brave women. Moses’ mother Yocheved and his older sister Miriam hid baby Moses in a basket on the Nile River. … After the Jewish people escaped through the Sea of Reeds, Miriam led them in song.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(a big stretch from Exodus<\/em>, according to Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The kids reading the Haggadah are supposed to ask themselves “Who in the world today is suffering and needs help? Who do we know who helps other people and how do they do it? Are there some ways we <\/em>could help other people, too?” Once I had reminded them that there was no evidence that Jews had ever lived in Egypt and, therefore, there was no evidence that any Egyptian ruler had ever enslaved Jews, the kids were able to come up with some alternatives. The tyrants were Joe Biden and Charlie Baker (governor of Maskachusetts), closing playgrounds and ordering children to wear masks. The land of slavery from which children should seek to escape was Massachusetts. The land of freedom was, of course, Florida.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about producing updated materials for Passover that take out the unproven accusations against Egyptians and substitute documented modern events? The role of tyrant can be cast with national and local politicians who imposed lockdowns on those assembled at the table. Instead of “Next Year in Jerusalem” it can be “Next Year in Miami” for Americans and “Next Year in Stockholm” for Europeans. Instead of parting the Red Sea (actually “sea of reeds” (swamp) in the original Hebrew), G*d can clear a path through all of the traffic jams on Interstate 95 between the locked down Northeast and the Florida Free Sate. Instead of having issues with bread while running away from slavery, the story could be about those fleeing lockdowns not even having enough time to stock up on marijuana at the “essential” (open while schools were closed) cannabis dispensaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who takes over the role of Moses? That’s easy! Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/p>\n\n\n\n