A few years ago, some friends joined me in writing a Passover Haggadah that borrowed the tunes of Beatles songs. We named it “You Say Shalom, And I Say Shalom.” None of us is particularly observant (we’re more Jew-ish), but we longed for the days when matzo was a delicacy and grandpa chugged the glass of wine left out for Elijah—the prophet who is said to attend seders in spirit form, thirsty for that sweet, sweet Manischewitz—when nobody was looking. Plus, it was a fun way to include our non-Jewish friends and sing as if we were camping out around a proverbial burning bush.
Themed seders are both timely and timeless. The word “seder” is derived from the Hebrew word for “order,” and each portion of a seder serves a specific storytelling purpose when it arrives. The ritual of dabbing drops of red wine onto your plate, for example, accompanies a chapter about the ten plagues God brought upon Pharaoh. Alterna-seders provide context to welcome the uninitiated and allow Passover pros to make this annual tradition their own. I mean, the skeleton of the story is already there.
