Overall things weren't very different, although our chicken soup got a tad cold waiting for the Passover program to upload. Then, as usual, we heard about the trials of the Jews lo these many years, but with a modern twist. I especially appreciated the updating of The 10 Plagues, which in olden days included visitations of lice and boils and frogs upon the mean Egyptians, to include the more common tsunamis and tornadoes and earthquakes. It's true, there have been few frog storms in my lifetime, and if we Jews want to stay current and avoid being trampled to death by the ever-growing Mormons, we'd better drop that whole frog shtick.
The iPad version of Passover blatantly condoned the addition of an orange to the 5,000-year-old seder plate, the centerpiece of the table which carries the symbols of our history: a shank bone, bitter herbs, a roasted egg, charoset (Google it) and a bitter vegetable. The orange has something to do with women now being included in the upper echelons of the religion. I personally frown upon this Rachel Maddowesque development, as the last time I attended an event led by a female rabbi she was wearing black leggings and leopard-skin clogs. I miss the old days, when rabbis were old and wore black and had long beards. It was also nice when my grandmother did all the cooking, which she did handily for the 25 or so relatives crammed around our dining room table.
Last night it was a small gathering--just me and Mitch. Although it was sort of sad, at least we got to drink steadily during the proceedings instead of being limited to just four little thimble-sized cups of wine. And the wine, an '07 Stag's Leap S.L.V., was such an upgrade from the grape-juicy Manischewitz of our youth that by the end of the dinner we were both certifiably drunk and could hardly remember the names of all those dead relatives. (Thank you, Joel, it was a bottle for the ages!)
remember, "next year, together".
ReplyDeleteI should live so long.....
Delete