Passover the Kleenex, I’m Watching Prince of Egypt

Pre- P.S. If you want to read about how Mr. B played with dead people when he was little, say no more! _Pre- P.S. If you want to read about how Mr. B played with dead people when he was little, say no more!

Everyone has their own Passover traditions.  Some people have those seder-thingies.  Some people eat matzah. Every year since college, I’ve watched Prince of Egypt and cried quietly in my room because I am really 10 years old and the only way for me to understand Passover is through a cartoon featuring the voices of Michelle Pfiefer and Ofra Haza.

Last year, I tried to include Comrade Atheist Mr. B in this tradition.  “Watch this with me.  Maybe you’ll understand what Passover is once and for all.”

“I understand Passover, but it’s not real.  None of it ever happened.  It’s a nice fairy tale.”

“I know, I know, but that’s not the point.  The point is that maybe not exactly that happened, but something did.  And we are still a people, and Passover celebrates our peoplehood.  Don’t you get any sense of pride over stuff that Jews accomplish? “

“But what makes us a people?  It’s not like we’re a softball team.  You can’t be proud of being Jewish just because you were born Jewish. Sure, I feel proud of Jewish intellectual accomplishments, of the tradition of education, but not because they were born Jewish. ”

“I can’t explain feeling Jewish to you.  You either do or you don’t.  A cartoon’s not going to change that for you, but I thought you might want to celebrate something that’s meaningful to me, even if neither of us believe in the religious aspect. ”

“Ok, I’ll watch so you leave me alone.”

“You should get into it. Like, remember when we were in Prague and you felt that the whole country was anti-Semitic, partly because the Czech word for Jew means kike in Russian? And even after we went into all the synagogues and we complained about how it was a rip-off designed to pull money away from Rich American Jew tourists, you still wore your kippah?  Why didn’t you take it off? You hate kippot.”

“Because I feel more Jewish when there is anti-Semitism.”

“Ah, so you do feel Jewish after all.”

“I guess.”

“I’ll take it.”

A very sameach hag to you if you’re celebrating Passover.  And if you’re not, I’ll still see you in my room because I need you to hook up the DVD player.