Friday, April 02, 2010

Moses & the Israelites cross the Red Sea (updated)

I have now seen this updated image at several places. Among others, it was reproduced on the cover of the custom-written Hagaddah used for the Passover seder my wife Ageliki & I attended (at the home of Kathy Hirsh-Pasek & Jeffrey Pasek, to whom we are grateful for including us). So why not share it with the world?

(Click on the picture to enlarge it.)



=> A FOLLOW-UP: This post generated a lot of e-mailed responses, including this one from Mark Kleiman:
This seems inconsistent with the explanation I have heard for why we dip hard-boiled eggs in salt water during the seder: because when they crossed the Red Sea, the Children of Israel had to wade through water up to their baitzim.
(That is, their balls.) Curiously enough, I've never heard this other explanation, but I like it. It's a classic example of the cheerful vulgarity that runs through a lot of Yiddish humor.

With Jews, of course, there will always be conflicting interpretations.

Next year in Jerusalem (metaphorically speaking),
Jeff Weintraub