Everything Matzah
A Passover sampling as the holiday comes to a close
Readers of The Wondering Jew know we often do an Everything Challah on Fridays and offer a little bit of everything, mostly on the lighter side, from the Jewish world.
Well, it being Passover, I figured if we can’t do challah, we gotta do matzah.
Here is an unleavened collection of wit and wisdom—a Passover gift, whether you found the afikomen or not.
A Subway Seder
Rapper, friend of The Wondering Jew, and Substacker Kosha Dillz, aka Rami Even-Esh, continued his tradition of staging a Seder on the New York City subway.
There is something sincerely heartwarming about hearing these Passover prayers sung by a group of strangers, undettered by an accompanying track of air brakes and clanging cars.
The Prince of Egypt: A Rational Analysis
Despite the Passover story being among the best-known IP in all of Western civilization, evidently it’s hard to make a big-budget Hollywood movie about it. Simon Wells’ The Prince of Egypt came out nearly thirty years ago, and there hasn’t been another one since.
Last week, Natan Slifkin, an Orthodox rabbi and author of Rationalist Judaism, explored The Prince of Egypt and the criticism it has received from Orthodox Jewish circles for its portrayal of Moses.
What’s Wrong with This Picture?
Real “Just change the text on the Shabbat ad” energy here.
ICYMI
In the last couple of weeks, I offered four interpretations of the Four Children, asked four questions about the Four Questions, took a trip around the 2026 Seder plate, and gave you some ideas about what to cook.
Also Passover-appropriate is one of my all-time favorite pieces I’ve written, about what I told my daughter when she asked whether Moses really parted the Red Sea:
"Dad, Did Moses Really Part the Red Sea?"
Earlier this week, I was minding my own business — by which I mean serving my daughters pancakes, pouring their syrup, refilling their waters, grilling them extra slices of turkey bacon, effectively …
Matzo versus Matzah
The Wondering Jew style guide calls for “matzah,” but when you’ve written the word, oh, eight hundred times over the last fourteen days, you do get tempted to throw the occasional “matzo” on the pile.
Why is the one spelling different from the other spelling (as it were)?
“Matzah” hews closer to the Hebrew (מצה), while “matzo” reflects the Ashkenazi-Yiddish pronunciation that made its way into American English. “Matzo” appears more often in formal writing (newspapers, etc.). Plus, it’s what Manischewitz uses on its boxes, and you’d think they’d know.
But matzah ends with that -ah, like a relieved exhalation, and that feels seasonally resonant to me. So I’m sticking with it.
Chad Gadya: The Original Heavy Metal Song
Last week, The Forward published an article digging into the origins of Seder banger “Chad Gadya,” which Jack Black calls the “original heavy metal song.”
A “Tiny” Seder
And speaking of music…
Inspired by the NPR Tiny Desk series, Azi Schwartz, the senior cantor at Park Avenue Synagogue here in New York City, presents the music of a Tiny Seder.
I close with the words of Georgia State Senate candidate Nathalie Kanani: “Wishing you a Passover rich in divine love and blessings.” Whatever that means.
Chag Pesach Sameach, and see you all on Friday!
חג כשר ושמח
On the Matzah/matzo question, note that the Manischewiz box uses the plural Matzos, which hews to the Hebrew plural (Ashkenazi pronunciation). So if we’re talking straight transliteration of the Hebrew, it should be Matzah (singular) and Matzot or Matzos(plural).