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Thursday, April 2, 2009 | return to: supplement, passover


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This year, take a pop approach to the four sons

by edmon j. rodman, jta

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This year at your Passover seders, as you metaphorically depart Egypt, consider that you may also be leaving Kansas and traveling nonstop to the Land of Oz. Or that, matzah in hand, you and your guests are heading into deepest space, going where no one has gone before.

The seder is a journey, with treks and flights long and short, and if you are leading or following one, you may be seeking ways to make the trip engaging, full of scenic views and intriguing side trips.

The answer: Pop your Haggadah.

PASfour sons
Is Harry Potter an example of the haggadah’s wise son?
For seder participants from many backgrounds, pop culture can act as a well-known path to the maggid, the storytelling at the heart of the seder. For a different “different” night, introduce books, movies and TV shows that have engaged the popular imagination as a way to connect to the haggadah text.

The chance to do this comes early on in the seder, when we reach the part of Haggadahtown where the four sons dwell.

The origins of the four sons are four passages found in the Torah in Deuteronomy and Exodus. Since there are four, let’s look at that number of pop culture sources to help bring them to life: “The Wizard of Oz,” “Star Trek,” “Harry Potter” and “Seinfeld.”

You can begin by asking, “Which character in the ‘The Wizard of Oz’ most resembles the simple son? He’s the one who sits at the seder and asks, ‘mah zot, what’s this?’ ”

Most of us have followed the yellow brick road so many times that it’s a question easily answered: the scarecrow. He’s the one who announces in song and dance, “If I only had a brain.”

But you might have another interpretation: “He only seems simple. He’s in search of a brain, yet oddly enough, he has enough self-awareness to know he needs one.”

Next you can ask: “In the ‘Harry Potter’ novels, who is the wise son? According to the haggadah, the wise one asks, ‘What are the precepts, laws and observances which God commanded us?’ ”

Is the wise one Harry, the character who makes his own rules and often disobeys his superiors, but is usually right about his instincts? Or is it the studious Hermione, who does what her elders tell her?

Perhaps now is the time for a talk about what it really means to be “wise” — and whether you can break the rules and still be the wise one.

Reach to the heavens for the wicked one, the one who excludes himself from the seder by asking, “What is this observance to you?” Which character in the original “Star Trek” series strikes you as the eternal outsider?

Like the wicked son, Spock is the character who always sets himself apart from the rest of the crew.

“But he’s not wicked,” some will answer in protest. “He’s coolly intellectual, unemotional. Does that make him wicked? Why don’t you look to one of the show’s real villains?”

Many have strong feelings about the Spock character, and a debate could arise about the secret meaning of his nature. Prepare to dip at least twice. You might even come away with a new appreciation of how the five rabbis stayed up all night at B’nei Brak.

So who is the one who doesn’t even know how to ask a question? The one whom you must take by the hand and lead out of Egypt?

May I suggest Kramer from “Seinfeld”? It’s not so much that he can’t ask a question, but the questions he asks.

Imagine Kramer on the great day of the Exodus asking about a shortcut, or if he can borrow your matzah.

Talking about the four sons may lead to another four questions: Can we add a fifth son, like George from “Seinfeld,” who asks too many questions? Does joining with others to achieve his goal suggest that the scarecrow is smarter than he looks? Is the tricky Capt. Kirk really the contrary one? And is Albus Dumbledore the wise son, or wicked?

But that’s another story.


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