Poetry - Reading The Haggadah Backwards | Passover Haggadah by Rabbi Daniel Brenner

I read the haggadah backwards this year

The sea opens, the ancient Israelites slide back to

Egypt like Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk

Freedom to slavery

That’s the real story

One minute you’re dancing hallelujah with the prophetess

the next you’re knee deep in brown in the basement of some minor pyramid

The angel of death comes back to life

two zuzim are refunded.

When armies emerge from the sea like a returning scuba expedition

the Pharoah calls out for fresh towels.

The bread has plenty of time to rise.

I read the hagaddah backwards this year,

left a future Jerusalem,

scrubbed off the bloody doorposts,

wandered back to Aram.

- Daniel Brenner

haggadah Section: Commentary / Readings

Source: Daniel Brenner

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