This is the second year that my congregation, B’nai Shalom in Westborough MA, has produced a Passover Parody video – All About Those Plagues.
I’m delighted to share it, not only because it is a lot of fun and we’d like a lot of people to see it, but because there’s a great deal more that a project like this produces that is worth talking about on our Rabbis Without Borders blog.
We invited anyone who was interested and able to join us on filming day to be a part of the project. The result was 6 year olds through 90 year olds helping to make the video – members of the congregation who might not often get to meet worked together to come up with dance moves, creative and entertaining motions, and more. Some of our extremely talented congregants gave of their time and skill to do the time-intensive work of directing, video and editing (a special shout-out to Chuck Green on all three of these).
We are also blessed to have the talented Rachel Baril and Ashley Harmon, friends of the parody writer, Elyse Heise, make the project possible as our guest stars. Along with others from beyond the congregation’s membership who volunteered their time and talents to help make this possible, this is a great example of ‘congregation without borders’ where anyone can make a contribution and a connection (now to apply this to the rest of congregational life!)
There’s a great buzz in the congregation as we all enjoy it, enjoy seeing our friends in it, and participate in helping to spread it far and wide. It will also feature at many of our family Seders this year. Aside from just being pure fun, its a great way to engage kids and adult alike to then launch into the Maggid (the telling) part of the Seder, asking for them to help fill in the missing details of the story around the song.
We hope you enjoy it too. Chag Pesach Sameach – Happy Passover!
