arts & entertainment

The Passover Pop Playlist

Get in the mood for your seder(s) with the musical sounds of our day.

Binyamin Kagedan

JNS.org

I

n every generation, one is obligated to
see himself as if he had personally left
Egypt"
The Passover Haggadah annually
exhorts us to make the ancient tale of
Israelite liberation feel personally relevant.
What better way to make this "dinner
party" (or "dinner parties:' for those who

observe two Passover seders) seem more
hip and current than to get in the mood
with the musical sounds of our day?
Recline to your left, take a sip, and enjoy
this humorous and enlightening Passover
pop playlist from JNS.org.

❑

Binyamin Kagedan has a master's degree in
Jewish thought from the Jewish Theological
Seminary of America. He can be reached
at bkagedan@gmail.com .

"Royals"

By Lorde
From The Love Club EP
The Passover seder is a night of ques-
tions and contradictions. On the one
hand, we do things to make us feel like
royals — lean back and relax, have our
wine poured for us, dip our foods and
Lorde
otherwise dine like Roman aristocrats.
On the other hand, mixed into our
regal re-creations are symbols of lowli-
ness and hardship: the bitter herb, the mortar-like charoset, and even the matzah, some-
times known as "poor man's bread"
No one song in recent memory captures the paradox better than this Grammy-
winning Song of the Year by the international pop sensation Lorde (nee Ella Marija Lani
Yelich-O'Connor).
"And we'll never be royals/It don't run in our blood..." sings the 17-year-old New
Zealand singer-songwriter, before turning it right around with, "Let me be your ruler/
You can call me queen bee/And baby I'll rule/Let me live that fantasy"
So which is it? Are we princes at the seder, or are we paupers? A great question for
table-wide discussion.

"Set Fire to the Rain"

By Adele
From 21
Among the coolest (when one is in
middle school) of the plagues is surely
the barad, the hail mixed with fire.
I remember imagining the barad as
bowling ball-sized chunks of ice that
Adele
literally had flames burning in their
centers.
Revisiting the actual biblical text, one
finds a somewhat more fathomable, though still very improbable, meteorological sce-
nario — heavy hail accompanied by frequent and powerful lightning bolts.
I don't think British singer-songwriter Adele (nee Adele Laurie Blue Adkins), 25,
quite had the Ten Plagues in mind when she composed this hit song, but both she and
the biblical narrator heighten the effect of their narrative by juxtaposing the elemental
opposites of fire and water.
The plague seems all the more miraculous, and Adele's stormy emotions feel all the
more — stormy.

"We Are Never Ever
Getting Back Together"

By Taylor Swift
From Red
Anyone familiar with the details of the Exodus
story knows that Pharaoh's behavior throughout the
episode of the Ten Plagues closely resembles that of
the protagonist of this song by the 24-year-old Swift,
America's country-pop authority on teenage heart-
break.
Like the weak-willed lover who just can't seem to
Taylor Swift
close the door on a bad relationship, Pharaoh refuses
to make up his mind about breaking it off with the
Israelites.
Conditions get a little rough in Egypt — blood in
the Nile, frogs in the floorboards — leading to Pharaohs decree of "Get out of my house,
and don't come back!"
Then — as soon as things calm down — it's suddenly all "No, wait, I need you back!"
Over and over, Pharoah agrees to let Moses' people go and then reneges as soon as
they've packed their things. It's only that final, devastating plague of the first-born that
makes Pharoah say, "Never ever" (after which he, of course, changes his mind one last
time).

"It Ends Tonight"

E

By All-American Rejects
From Move Along
Another fitting breakup song from the
Oklahoma-formed rock band consisting
of lead vocalist, bass guitarist and pianist
Tyson Ritter; lead guitarist Nick Wheeler;
rhythm guitarist Mike Kennerty; and
drummer and percussionist Chris Gaylor. All-American Rejects
The word "Passover" itself originates
with the nighttime plague of the firstborn
when the deadly heavenly spirit passed over the homes of Israelite firstborns.
It was that very night that Pharaoh finally relented, giving the Jews permission to leave
Egypt and take all of their possessions with them. Wasting no time, the Jews began their
march toward freedom and national rebirth under the cover of darkness.
Night, in the worldview of Judaism, is really never an ending but always a beginning.

"Can't Hold Us"

By Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
From The Heist
For pretty much everyone everywhere,
the Exodus from Egypt is the quintessen-
tial blueprint for rising up and breaking
free.
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
American hip-hop duo Macklemore
(ne Ben Haggerty) and Ryan Lewis' 2012
anthem tells it all: "This is the moment/
Tonight is the night/We'll fight it's over/So we put our hands up like the ceiling
can't hold us!"

JN

April 10 • 2014

63

E

