Passover 2015

Passover was fun last night. Reading in advance uncovered this little fact:

The Israelites escaped from Pharaoh in the late 15th Century BC and ended up in the land of Canaan. Before too long they split up into tribes again. The two biggest were Judah and Israel.  That's Judah on the left and Israel on the right.

Eight hundred years passed -- middle to late bronze age.

Then the Babylonians and their king Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah and demanded the Judeans pay them a tax each year to keep their freedom. After a few years of payment, a political struggle broke out in Judah, with half the people supporting the Babylonians and half the people supporting, get this, the Egyptians, who were the other most powerful player in the region. Many advocated moving out of Judah and going to Egypt to be safe.

That's right, going INTO Egypt. It is during this time, when many Judeans were kidnapped and taken by Nebuchadnezzar into captivity in Babylon, that the whole idea of Jewishness began. Before that you were Judean or Israeli or Moabite or Syrian, but after that a Jew was a Jew, no matter where they might live.

This is also when they adopted the Passover story, eight hundred years after it happened, probably at least in some measure to remind their nation it wouldn't be such a good idea to trust the Egyptians again.

Politics -- religion -- politics --- religion -- blue states, red states, evangelicals, liberals, chariots, smart bombs, everybody has a story and if you win the war you get to tell yours.

Our story includes deli hats, Rosie's brisket, a short pass through the Hagaddah and a lot of wine and laughter. Hasselback potatoes are in forever. You wouldn't think the matzo balls could get better but they did. And in Brooklyn, Isabella got $5 bucks for finding the matzo.