This morning, I went crazy in Crown Heights. If you’re a first-born child, the way I am, today should have been your fast — that is, unless you managed to be at a seudat mitzvah, or a feast given for the completion of a mitzvah, like a brit milah or the completion of a tractate of Talmud. Finally, I hit a minyan where someone was just finishing up a tractate, as a huge cluster of people around him, fellow first-borns, pushed and pressed and listened.
When I get home, it’s more Passover fun. Somehow, in the midst of moving and reproducing, we’ve decided to make our own Passover seder for the first time ever — and, yes, it will be a dairy one.
So here’s what’s occupying my space and interest. First of all, the genius who came up with the hilarious — and, curiously enough, the semi-Biblically-accurate Facebook haggadah has an all-new version for this year. My favorite interaction — although, of course, it looks way better with formatting and graphics:
Pharaoh: Rough day today, so be nice. My dad entered immortality this morning, and I’ve assumed the throne and become the new Pharaoh. I even took over his account. I’m doing my best to carry on his legacy, but it’s tough. And it didn’t get any easier after dinner tonight when the cat threw up all over the carpet. Comment · Like · Share
Joseph: I am sorry to hear of your loss, my master.
Pharaoh: Who are you, and why are you writing on my wall?
Joseph: I meant no disrespect, my master.
Advisor: He is an Israelite. There are many of them. I do not know whether they are with us or against us.
Pharaoh: Let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they join with our enemies in time of war.
So that’s what’s keeping me sane — or half of it, anyway. JDub Records’ kids’ band, The Macaroons, are, predictably enough, enthused — this is their holiday, after all, and they have a new mini-album out, for which they’ve managed to release this video:
minyan
Pronounced: MIN-yun, meen-YAHN, Origin: Hebrew, quorum of 10 adult Jews (traditionally Jewish men) necessary for reciting many prayers.
seder
Pronounced: SAY-der, Origin: Hebrew, literally “order”; usually used to describe the ceremonial meal and telling of the Passover story on the first two nights of Passover. (In Israel, Jews have a seder only on the first night of Passover.)
