kosher bookworm: alan jay gerber

The Exodus you almost passed over

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The names of our Jewish holidays are almost always listed and used in the Hebrew language, even those that have English equivalents. That is all holidays, except one, Pesach, which more often than not is listed as Passover.

In his latest work, Rabbi David Fohrman, one of America’s leading theologians, titled his book, “The Exodus You Almost Passed Over,” an amusing play on the holiday’s name and theme and an accurate title for the content of his new work.

This week’s essay will reference the author’s humorous take on a holiday’s name and quote the book’s introduction take to give you a taste of his talented pen;

“In Hebrew, it is Pesach; in English, it is Passover. But, either way, it seems like an odd name for a holiday. Would you have named it that? 

“Imagine it is 3,000 years ago. You are an angel in heaven, and you have been invited to join G-d’s Nominating Committee for the Naming of New Festivals. One day you and your fellow angels on the committee get word that the Master of the Universe would like to make a shiny new festival that celebrates His miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. You immediately get down to work with your colleagues to brainstorm some possible names.”

Among the names mentioned are Freedom Day, and Independence Day. Nothing unusual there, but here is the catch.

“Imagine some angel in the back of the room raises his hand and says, ‘I have a great idea. Much better than those names. Let us call it Passover. Passover is a really wonderful name’.”

Rabbi Fohrman continues with this gag narrative: “See, it is a kind of a pun. … You know how G-d made all these plagues to let the Israelites go, and then there was this tenth plague, right? And in the tenth plague, all the firstborn children of the Egyptians were killed. But the Israelites? They were saved. So you could say that G-d sort of ‘passed over’ their first-born children that night, when he didn’t kill them. You get it? He passed over their first-born? So let us call it Passover!”

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