How is This Blog Different from All Other Blogs?

The goal of this blog is to bring some freedom to the Pesach table.

Due to a personal issue (see below), I did not update my Haggada until today.

Unfortunately, as a consequence, the new Leader's Edition is showing on Amazon but not (as of this writing) available which means that 2nd-hand bots have boosted the used price to $2,510.99! That must be some Haggada!

If Amazon lists it within the next couple hours, it may be available with 1-day shipping. Otherwise, you can download the pdf for free and print it yourself by making a small donation here:

http://jsli.org/art-of-amazement-haggada/

Or get the full 2016 Pesach Kit (includes Haggadas, activities and more) here:

http://jsli.org/passoverkit2016/

What's new this year?

1. Fixed typos
2. Added some more suggestions of how to keep the Seder moving (including places to skip if necessary)
3. Added some food-for-discussion during the meal ("Shulchan Orech").

What's old? The popular tips-and-tricks section; the rich midrashic glosses on the story, the suggested questions to throw out at various junctures.

And the cover, as you can see above.

My blog silence for two weeks was due to the ongoing saga of my Dissertation, which you've probably tired of hearing about by now.

Yesterday was the big day - the long-awaited "Defense". That means when a panel of scholars grills you about your research, your methods and your conclusions.

It ain't over until that final copy is submitted and signed (mid-May), but there is now a light at the end of the tunnel. So no champagne just yet.

If you are looking for some additional Pesach inspiration for your table, you may consider printing and sharing this story:

Former prisoner of Zion Rabbi Yosef Mendelevich recently retold the Seder he made his last year in a Soviet gulag prison, where he was kept in a closed cell for three years for the "crime" of having observed the Shabbat.

  In jail he told his cell mate Hillel that they should hold a Passover seder, but due to the dangers and difficulties Hillel was skeptical, leaving the rabbi alone to try and scrounge the required foods for the festive feast.

He had a small postcard with a picture of a seder plate from the Israel Museum that he had received from Israel, which was not confiscated because it had nothing written on it. Thanks to the picture of the seder plate he had the entire order of the seder written down to remind him what he needed.

Rabbi Mendelevich then detailed how each ingredient he needed miraculously came within his reach. It started when a flu began spreading around the prison, and the jail's administration gave each prisoner an onion for their health. He put it in water to get green sprouts he could use for maror.

Next up was matzah, and fortunately he was allowed to receive two pounds of bread. His sisters agreed to send him matzah from Israel, but they arrived broken into small pieces because the guards thought they contained a secret message.

His father had sent him raisins, and the rabbi collected the sugar doled out to the prisoners which he then put in a jar together with the raisins and water, hiding the jar by a hot water pipe under his bed in hopes it would ferment and become wine.

Then he had another stroke of good fortune, finding herbs growing from under the asphalt of the exercise yard. He took the small herbs breaking through the hard asphalt to be a symbol of freedom, and gathered them for his karpas.

He did not have a chicken for the seder shankbone, but he did have chicken soup flavoring cubes sent to him by people from Kibbutz Yavne in Israel.

Finally to wrap up his preparations he asked the guards for a copy of the Pravda Communist propaganda paper, which he used to craft a seder plate.

As Passover arrived he approached Hillel and surprised him with the ingredients he had assembled. They found that the grapes had turned to wine, and Hillel had his first real seder according to Halakha (Jewish law).

Then another miracle occurred - the next morning Hillel was taken from their cell. Rabbi Mendelevich thought he was transferred to another jail, until Natan Sharansky - who currently serves as executive chairman for the Jewish Agency - told him he was released the same day together with his other friends, and was already in Israel.

In Israel Hillel told the rabbi's sisters about the seder, and they were relieved to learn that even in prison their brother succeeding in being a free man. "It depends on you and not on the conditions," concluded the rabbi.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom
and a Happy and Holy Pesach


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Haggada off the Press

As promised last Friday, here's the update on the new 2014 Art of Amazement Haggada and Passover Kit!

This innovative haggada turns you into a master story teller. Rather than placing commentary below the text, The Art of Amazement Haggada embeds the midrashic details into the text.
“Haggada” means “telling the story” and this haggada will empower you with the mastery of Midrash to keep your participants glued to their seats.
Completely revised and updated for 2014!
Features:
Designed and cross-referenced to be used with the participant “Freedom” edition, but will go well with any other haggados.

• Almost everything is transliterated and translated. Very little Hebrew.
• Suggestions of what parts to skip for less-religious or younger audience
• Midrashim and questions are embedded in the text so instead of looking down at footnotes or at a different book, it’s all there for you.
• Different suggested questions for 2nd Seder
• 12 Tips on how to prepare for and run a successful, engaging Seder.

To learn more about the Art of Amazement Haggada, including how to get a print-it-yourself PDF, click here.
To learn about the JSL Passover Kit click here.

Or cut to the chase and order your hard copies here:

1. Leader’s Edition — Paperback binding (Amazon.com)
2. Leader’s Edition — Spiral binding (longer delivery time)
3. Participant’s Edition — Paperback binding (Amazon.com)

Feeling a bit of Pesachphobia, also known as haggadaphobia and sometimes referred to as sederphobia?

You can conquer that fear with the new 2014 edition of the Art of Amazement Haggada.

PS - Our public service site bestjewishkidsbooks.com has been stocked with links to great Pesach books and gifts, even matzah, believe it or not.

If You Were God

The purpose of this blog is to fire up your Shabbat dinner table. Please print and share.

If you were God and had decided that Egypt needed to experience 10 plagues, which plague would be the first?

What would be your opening shot?
Ancient Egypt was a fabulously rich, powerful country, thanks in large part to the great Nile River. And they knew that the Nile was the source of their wealth and power. So naturally, these idolatrous people worshiped the Nile like a god.

So if you were God, wouldn't you strike the Nile first?

Imagine this scene: Achmud and Thasnas, an Egyptian couple, go down to the Nile river one morning with their buckets to get some water and just as they are putting in their buckets, the strangest thing in the world happens. The entire river turns red, blood-red.

Hmm, maybe it’s some kind of omen, maybe it’s just a natural phenomenon. But as surprised as they are at seeing the water turn red, when they draw out their buckets they’re completely shocked. It’s not just the color of blood, it is blood.

 

It’s easy to tell the difference between red-colored water and blood. Blood is thick, blood smells, blood coagulates.

And not only that, fish have a hard time surviving in a river of blood. In fact, all the fish in the river die. When you have millions of dead fish, what happens next? (It stinks.)

OK, so now we know it's no trick, no optical illusion.

So poor Achmud and Thasnas, what are they supposed to do? They went to get water for their families, and there’s no water. All there is is blood. Well, Egypt has other sources of water, there are other rivers, there are lakes, cisterns and so on. But soon they and every other Egyptian finds out that it’s not just the water in the river. It’s in every river in Egypt. In every lake, in every well, in every cistern.

In their bathtubs! Someone could have been in the middle of taking a bath and suddenly it was blood. Even water-based substances, like fruit. When you bite into an apple, normally a little juice will come out, right? That also was blood!

So Achmud and Thasnas go home without water hoping that they have enough stored in bottles to last until this water crisis is over. What do they find out when they get home? That even bottles of water in their homes have all turned to blood. This is a major crisis for Egypt, and for Achmud and Thasnas, who have no idea what’s going on.

Then the word comes around, there is a rumor, that the Jews have water. Achmud and Thasnas have no idea why, they don’t even stop to think why. By this time they are so desparate for water, they know a Jewish family not far away and they run to see if its true. If it is, the Jews are down-trodden slaves, they won’t even bother asking, they’ll just take the water.

So they get to the Jewish home. They know this guy, his name is Reuven and his wife Rivka and they’ve both done hard labor for Achmud and Thasnas in the past. They burst into Reuven’s home without knocking and see Reuven and Rivka each holding a glass of what looks like water.

“Reuven and Rivka, is that water?”

“Yessir,” Reuven says in a very humble way. He is, after all, a beaten, harrassed, molested slave.

“Hand it over.”

As soon as Reuven and Rivka give their glasses to Achmud and Thasnas, before everyone’s eyes, the water turns to blood.

“Aye!” you can imagine how disappointed Achmud and Thasnas are. By now they’re quite thirsty. But they’re also angry. “Is this some kind of magic?”

“No-sir.”

“Then how did your water turn to blood just now?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

“Aye, take it back, I can’t look at any more blood!!!!”

And as soon as Achmud and Thasnas hand the glasses back to Reuven and Rivka, do you know what happens? It turns back into water.

Achmud, Thasnas, Reuven and Rivka are all equally shocked to see this.

Reuven and Rivka slowly hand the water back to Achmud and Thasnas, and it turns to blood. They slowly hand it back, and it turns to water. They hand it back, it turns to blood, they hand it back, it turns to water.

How are Achmud and Thasnas going to drink water before they die of thirst?

“I know!” says Thasnas. “You hold the glass and pour the water into my mouth.”

So they try that [wait for them to mime this] but as soon as the water enters Achmud and Thasnas’s mouths, it turns to blood. Yech!!!

“I know!” says Achmud. “Let’s drink it together. Now I don’t want any tricks, or I’m going to beat you.”

So Achmud and Reuven are drinking out of the same glass of water at the same time and Thasnas and Rivka are drinking out of the same glass at the same time, but you know what happens? Reuven and Rivka are drinking water, but Achmud and Thasnas are drinking blood! It’s double-yech!!!

It turns out that the Egyptians learn that the only way they can drink water during this crisis is if they.....
Excerpted from the newly-updated Art of Amazement Haggada, now available for download as last year, and for the first time now available in a print edition. There are 2 versions, Leader and General.

1. Downloadable Art of Amazement Haggada (Leader’s Edition)
2. Downloadable 2013 Pesach Kit (includes both Haggados + 7 other goodies, including activities and games)3. Amazon print version – (Leader’s Edition)
4. Amazon print version – (Regular Edition)

Know someone running a Seder? Or who might benefit from a very-user-friendly Haggada or Pesach Kit? Please forward them this blog, or do what I did and send them the Haggada as a gift.

 
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Pesach


PS - Want to give your Table Talk rabbi a taste of freedom? Like it, tweet it, or just forward it to someone who might enjoy it.

As always, this message can be received via email. Sign up here.

And remember, when looking for 10-Plagues toys, other Passover books, even matzah, it's a mitzvah to do your search here: http://bestjewishkidsbooks.com

;-)

That Kid-Cat-Dog-Stick Shtick

The purpose of this blog is to give you an excuse to change the subject at your Shabbat dinner table. Please print and share.  

This week's topic is a Passover enigma.

You may recall that the Passover Haggada ends with the fun but peculiar song, “Chad Gadya” – An Only Kid.

This colorful song features a kid (i.e., a baby goat) purchased by “my father” for the price of two zuz, evidently an ancient coin.

No sooner does he buy the kid, it is eaten by “the cat”, which is in turn bitten by “the dog”, which itself suffers being beaten by “the stick”. The stick doesn’t get off lightly for its beating; it is burnt by “the fire”, which is naturally doused by “the water”.

What happens to the water seems quite natural: it gets lapped up by “the ox”, which leads to the fatal slaughtering of the ox by “the butcher”. The butcher faces none other than the Angel of Death, and in case you thought that this dastardly fellow was invincible, he is ultimately vanquished at the conclusion of the song by the Holy One, Blessed be He.

So what's it all about?

Try asking that at the table, listen patiently, then read on.

The symbolic meaning of this sequence of people, animals and objects remained obscure until the Vilna Gaon (Rabbi Elijah of Vilna, late 1700s) presented the following interpretation.

Each verse alludes to one person or event in Jewish history:

The kid is the birthright mentioned in Genesis 25. This is the right to take the baton that had been passed from Abraham to Isaac, to continue Abraham’s mission to build a world full of lovingkindness and monotheism and devoid of idolatry, child sacrifice and other evils.

My father is Jacob who bought the birthright from his twin brother Esau, who had been born first and thus had the natural right to the birthright.

The two zuzim are the bread and stew Jacob paid Esau for the birthright.

The cat represents the envy of Jacob’s sons toward their brother Joseph’s, leading them to sell him into slavery in Egypt.

The dog  is Egypt, where Joseph landed, and where eventually the entire clan of Jacob and the subsequent Israelite nation lived, were enslaved and were redeemed.

The stick is the famous staff of Moses, used to call forth various plagues and part the waters of the Sea for the Israelites to cross.

The fire represents the thirst for idolatry among Israelites that proved to be a persistent bane for over 800 years, from the year they left Egypt until the destruction of the First Temple in the Fifth Century BCE.

The water represents the Fourth Century BCE sages who eradicated idolatry.

The ox is Rome (Esau’s descendent) who destroyed the 2nd Temple in 70 CE.

The butcher is the “Messiah Son of Joseph” (Mashiach Ben-Yoseph) who will restore full Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.

The Angel of Death needs no introduction; in this song he represents the death of Messiah Ben-Yoseph.

The Holy One of course also needs no introduction; here He arrives with Messiah Ben-David.

The repetition in each stanza underscores the ebb and flow of Jewish history – sometimes we’re down, but then we rise up. While most of the song looks backwards, it ends with an optimistic view toward the future, a fitting conclusion to the Seder.

Adapted from the new Art of Amazement Haggada  

Leader's Edition (i.e., for someone leading a Seder)
Standard binding: www.createspace.com/4198678
Spiral binding: click here

Freedom Edition (i.e., for everyone else)
Standard binding: www.createspace.com/4208226
Spiral binding - coming soon! 

Shabbat Shalom

PS - Passover begins Monday March 25.

PPS - Want to make your Table Talk rabbi happy? Like it, tweet it, or just forward it to someone who might enjoy it.

Oh, yeah, one other thing - please remember, don't forget, when looking for 10-Plagues toys, other Passover books, even matzah, start your search here: http://bestjewishkidsbooks.com

Your rabbi will be proud of you.