This evening we had the first night of Passover with a lively, warm seder at our house. Our usual guests, our fictive kin, and our three children were all assembled.
In one section of the Hagaddah, there is a section which lists the ten plagues. But before we list the standard biblical ten, there is an additional list, designed to focus our minds and hearts on the moral issues of the world. We read them each year, and the Hagaddah was published in 1974. But this year, as we read the list, we were all at first almost amused, and then silenced to realize that it describes our current government to a T. THis is no laughing matter.
The revised ten plagues beyond the fold. Cross over on dry land with me:
The making of war,
the teaching of hate and violence,
despoilation of the earth,
perversion of justice and government,
fomenting of vice and crime,
neglect of human needs,
oppression of nations and peoples,
corruption of culture,
subjugation of science, learning, and human discourse,
the erosion of freedoms.
The words of the authors of this hagaddah (New Union Hagaddah, edited by Herbert Bronstein, first published in 1974, and the 16th printing in 1990) could not be more true.
Later in the evening, spekaing with one of our guests, an eminent scientist nearing 80, we heard him say this, "These are very bad times. WE have never had times this bad in the history of this republic." That from an optimist.