The story of exodus is rife with the contradictions of freedom. It is a happy story because we are freed, but it is sad because Pharaoh enslaved us in the first place. It is happy because we survived the plagues, but it is sad because innocent, first born Egyptian children did not. The story of our liberation is filled with absurd contradictions because life is a journey between absurd contradictions that bring us trembling to our knees and absurd contradictions that make our bellies rise, filled with laughter. 

Saul Bellow once observed, “laughter and trembling are so curiously intermingled that it is not easy to determine between the two.” In times when the world seems designed to make us tremble, our spirits search instead for laughter. As long as we are laughing, we are living. 

When I look back at my own life and moments of heartiest laughter, they are always tied to moments of sorrow. Like at my grandmother’s funeral when my uncle strapped on an invisible jet back to fly through the sky looking for my grandmother and taught us all the dangers of Learning Annex creative writing classes. 

If you so wish now, please raise a glass for the blessing of the Second cup. 

Baruch atah-Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha’Olam Borei pri hagafen, ve lemale beten im avir sheh nish’ta’el al Gav Donald Trump

Blessed are you Adonai, our G-d, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine, and fills bellies with air that we may cough on Donald Trump.


 


 


haggadah Section: -- Cup #2 & Dayenu