The Matzaman Cometh

Dedicated to the memory of Maj. Stuart Wolfer, one of two soldiers felled by an April 6 rocket attack inside Baghdad's Green Zone. Wolfer, a 36-year-old Army reservist from Idaho, had been working out in a gym when the attack occurred. A married father of three, he grew up in south Florida, where his parents, Esther and Leonard Wolfer, still live. Known for his deep commitment to Jewish life, he served as the Jewish lay leader at Kuwait's Camp Buehring during a previous tour of duty.


Looks like this is going to be the last Table Talk before Passover, as the exigencies of the holiday and tax day are slowly but surely taking over every moment of my life, like the way a python slowly but surely swallows and digests its prey. (Who's going to have time to read it anyway for the next couple weeks?)

A lot of people pay attention to statistics like how many Jews are there in American, and how do they affiliate, yada yada yada.

They also say that Passover is often one of the 2 final refuges of a Jew before throwing in the towel altogether.

Even Groucho had a seder. It wasn’t like yours or mine, it was a seder, more or less....

Listen: if you know me, or if you have come to know me via this blog, you know that I’m not into rite or ritual that isn’t meaningful. So since most of us want to have a meaningful or uplifting Passover, what’s the secret?

IMHO (that means “in my humble opinion”) the most important thing to do, whether you are making your own seder or attending someone else’s, is to make sure that the story part is as fun and memorable as possible. In this day and age, I don’t know how to accomplish such a feat without visual aids.

Hence, I strongly advocate getting or creating a “box of plagues”.

Here are a couple places you can get one on-line:

Box of Plagues
Bag of Plagues
Bag of Plagues
Bag of Plagues
Bag of Plagues

Even if you’re attending someone else’s seder, why not volunteer to bring the Plagues? Pull them out, make it dramatic for everyone, even the adults will love it, and want to come back next year.

Finally, the most unreported story from Israel today is how many Israelis are living in poverty. Such a wealthy country, but such disparity. You can help a family or two have food to eat for Passover by donating on-line to one of the several organizations that are providing groceries to the needy, such as this one.

Wishing you a great Passover and Shabbat Shalom. See you in a couple weeks.


PS – What would Table Talk be without a video? Here are two for the season:





Groucho quote of the week:
“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”