Yay plagues

Passover is a rather important if unpleasant Jewish holiday. The story is this: while Jews were slaves in Egypt, Moses, one of those Jewish slaves, was divinely instructed to confront the Pharaoh and demand the release of his people. Moses did so, Pharaoh laughed, and Moses warned him of ten plagues, ranging from rather unfortunate to really unpleasant that were to be visited upon Egypt.

Pharaoh had no particular fear of plagues and continually refused to release the Jews or reneged on his promises to do so even as God ramped up the plagues. The first nine plagues were as follows: water turning to blood, frogs being everywhere (what?), lice and gnat infestation, wild beast infestation, pestilence, boils (ugh), hail, locusts, and darkness. They were all bummers, but not so severe as the last one. For the last one, Jews were instructed to put lamb's blood on their doorposts so that the Angel of Death might "pass over" them (like Passover, see?) as he/she/it visited death upon the first born son of all the Egyptians. After this one, Pharaoh relented and let the Jews go, but they were in such a terribly hurry that they did not have time to allow their bread to rise. Unfortunately, this rush gave rise (so to speak) to one of the defining features of modern Passover, or, in Hebrew, Pesach: observant Jews do not eat grains which have risen. This means no pasta, bread, crackers, cookies, cakes, brownies, etc., which is a real bummer if your birthday falls during Passover as mine so often does. Instead, we get to enjoy matzah, which is a sort of edible cardboard made from flour and water. Many non-Jews like matzah. Jews do not.

The other major tradition of Passover is a seder, a sort of ceremonial/religious meal that retells the Passover story and involves symbolic foods. In my house, it's a family and family-friends type of affair.

Liberation, though of a much milder sort--really, no comparison with being emancipated from slavery--will come in June. Or maybe July, if we continue to have snow days at our present rate. Enjoy your last few months in the Fayette County Public Schools system, and keep sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.