Yesterday April 12, 17 Nisan 5780 I saw "Saturday Night Seder" featuring Jason Alexander.
Fairness demands I disclose the stated purpose was to entertain those isolated at home because of the Stay at Home orders promulgated worldwide in response to the COVID19 virus pandemic. The program was a fundraiser for the CDC Foundation. For the most part the video had some outstanding musical numbers and other segments about the Exodus.
Unfortunately the participants including several "Rabbis' offer insights that succeeded in making the Exodus being only incidentally a Jewish story. Rather the Seder recalls the yearning of the oppressed for redemption, a slaves' hope for freedom, a call to fight for Social Justice etc....
True there are some universal values conveyed by the Seder and the Exodus as a paradigm for personal growth , hope and the like . The straw that really got to me was
Harvey Fierstein's tirade against a literal reading of "Next Year in Jerusalem" deriding the thought of a Jewish return to its ancestral Capital. Mr. Fierstein would prefer Miami or Berlin.
Although the organizers had a noble intention in mind but I was left as though my story and culture had been usurped and appropriated . The Exodus as depicted in the Haggadah was fulfillment of prophecy made to Jewry's ancestor Abraham, The Exodus features miracles, signs and wonders forging a special relationship between G-D and the Bene Yisrael/ Jewry. Repeating the story is for internal use, to communicate the special relationship between Jewry and G-D. Indeed non-Jews pretty much could not participate in the Passover sacrifice. Recasting the Exodus story as universal erodes away its true message of G-D's intimate involvement in human affairs, exemplified by Jewry's Exodus from Egypt.
Exchanging Jerusalem as Jewry's home and to speak of home in vague terms thereby eviscerating the notion of Exile, Diaspora and redemption. Further what I found most irksome is how Mr. Fierstein came across sounding like the Haggadah's Wicked son who excluded himself from the Exodus redemption. Further one cannot help thinking Mr. Fierstein's grandfather or Great Grandfather who have called out Next Year in Jerusalem expressed the active yearning of generations to see Jewry restored to their land living under the rule of the Mashiach , the Temple rebuilt and the world perfected. Not some generalized desire for a better world.
