If you’re anything like me at Passover, by the time you get to the allegory of the four sons you’ve already drank all the wine in sight, and are desperately looking for a way to make your exodus from the harsh bondage of your parent’s seder (Which you’re only attending because you felt guilty for not getting them anything nice for Hanukkah in the first place)
“Why, God? Why?” You cry out to yourself between mouthfuls of gelatinous “fruit” slices (everyone knows Orange is the best) and awkwardly explaining that, while yes, you are the youngest at the table, you forgot how to recite the “The Four Questions” around the time you learned how to puff-puff-pass.
But it doesn’t have to be like this.
The Bob Marley Passover is a new, free, Haggadah from writer (and former Camp Heebaquonk head counselor “Don”) Nathan Phillips and designer Jessica Stewart. And, while there are many (many!) different Haggadah versions out there, this one is hands down our favorite (sorry Maxwell house). From the first blessing (guests are encouraged to name something they love – barring that, they’re asked to name what they hate most about Morrissey) to it’s final song (R. Kelly’s inspirational “I Believe I Can Fly) the Bob Marley Passover (which, come to think of it, doesn’t really have much Bob Marley in it) succeeds in capturing the spirit of the holiday, if not always the letter. Fine by me. Hell, better than fine. The Bob Marley Passover is genuinely funny, which puts it head and shoulders above 99.9% of the treacly crap people foist on unsuspecting seder guest to try to fool them into thinking they’ve actually enjoying themselves. There’s even a “family version” for those looking to downgrade from a soft-R to a hard-PG-13.
Seders, and Passover at large, can be long, laborious ordeals that end up embodying that old joke about airline food: It’s awful, and there’s never enough of it. Thankfully, the Bob Marley Passover is a breath of fresh air (among other inhale-able substances).
*****
Take a look at their Four Questions, and check out the rest at www.bobmarleypassover.com
Thank you RSS for this article
HeebsterPR Houston
I checked it out, and I think it had so much more potential than what the authors did.
For example, there’s really no Bob Marley in the Seder —
It was really just an opportunity for people who think they’re hip to make fun of Pesach, when it could have been really cool to build Bob Marley and Reggae culture and songs into the Seder. Too bad