Inhabited Chair: Let My People Go
Wednesday night marked the beginning of a Jewish holiday called Passover. It celebrates the freeing of the Jewish slaves from ancient Egypt. The holiday gets its name in English from the 10th plague where the Angel of Death would kill every Egyptian firstborn but would “Passover” all the Jewish households. For those of you that are not familiar with it, I will give a brief synopsis of the story.
About three thousand years ago the Jewish people were slaves. Pharaoh feared an uprising from the Jewish slaves so he ordered all newborn boys killed. In order to save him, Moses’ mom made a little boat for him and floated him down the Nile River. Under the watchful eye of his older sister Miriam, baby Moses finds his way into the house of the Pharaoh. He grew up as a trusted advisor to the Pharaoh but would later run away to become a sheep herder after he saw a Jewish slave being mistreated. Later G-d would call upon Moses to utter those famous words “Let my people go.” Then when the Pharaoh said no, ten plagues are brought upon the people of Egypt before the Pharaoh changed his mind and let the Jews go. Of course it was not that simple, the Pharaoh changed his mind and it took a couple of miracles, but eventually the Jews were free.
So that’s pretty much the story of Passover. The point of the story is not to entertain (although the Charlton Heston movie “The Ten Commandments” is pretty good), it is to remind us that we have things pretty good and that we should be grateful for all the things we have instead of always wanting more. In addition to retelling the story every year, the Seder plate is used to remind people of their past suffering and current “good life.” The Seder plate consists of five foods each of which has their own symbolism. “Maror and chazeret - Bitter herbs, symbolizing the bitterness and harshness of the slavery which the Jews endured in Egypt…Charoset – A sweet, brown, pebbly mixture, representing the mortar used by the Jewish slaves to build the storehouses of Egypt…Karpas – A vegetable other than bitter herbs, which is dipped into salt water at the beginning of the Seder. Parsley, celery or boiled potato is usually used. The dipping of a simple vegetable into salt water (which represents tears) mirrors the pain felt by the Jewish slaves in Egypt, who could only eat simple foods…Z’roa – A roasted lamb or goat shankbone, chicken wing, or chicken neck; symbolizing the korban Pesach (Pesach sacrifice), which was a lamb that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem, then roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night…Beitzah – A hard-boiled egg, symbolizing the korban chagigah (festival sacrifice) that was offered in the Temple in Jerusalem and roasted and eaten as part of the meal on Seder night.”(wikipedia.com) It is a holiday of symbols that simultaneously makes the people who celebrate it feel special and grounded.
Shoe Thoughts: Instead of just shoes I am going to feature products that tie into the story of Passover.
The Ava Rose North South Top Handle would look right at home floating in the Nile with baby Moses in it. Moses acted as a messenger between G-d and the Jewish people, and the Bed Stu Hawkeye messenger back might have made the trip back down Mt. Sinai with the 10 Commandments a little bit easier. If you are going to be wandering around the desert for forty years, you better have some comfortable sandals. Propet promises comfort and dependability with their 1000 mile guarantee.
Non-Shoe Thoughts
- LOST Thoughts:
- Benjamin Linus has a soft side after all, children. He could not kill Rousseau with Alex there and he could not kill Penny with Charlie there.
- John Locke is in control, by order of the island. Ben is just a bystander now.
- We got a chance to see Ben manipulate the new survivors very quickly, he is good.
- There is definitely some Egyptian mythology going on with that temple and the smoke monster. One of the hieroglyphs showed Anubis, the Egyptian g-d of mummification and the afterlife.
- Suddenly Llana is asking questions about what is in the shadow of the statue to Frank Lapidus. These new survivors were clearly not on that plane by chance.
- The Office Thoughts:
- I am not happy with NBC, I really only caught the last five minutes of the first episode of The Office because they moved the time around.
- I thought the second episode was decent but nothing spectacular.
- It took Michael many years but he is finally learning that a company is made successful by hard work, not gimmicks. The line where he realizes this was the hardest I laughed this season.
- That was a really up and down episode for Pam, at first she tries to go back to Dunder Mifflin, then she makes her first sale.
- Andy and Dwight are now friends, it is still weird to say.
- Parks and Recreation was not at all funny enough to justify moving The Office. I don’t think I laughed once during the entire episode.
- 30 Rock was funny and depressing at the same time. The jokes were funny but the overall message that the economy is in dire straights was a little depressing.
And now I would like to say a few words about myself and my posts. My name is Zachary Wolfson, I’m a student at Northeastern doing my internship at Shoebuy.com. I will be writing weekly blog entries, which I modeled after “Monday Morning Quarterback” by Peter King who is a great sports writer and always gives some love to my Philadelphia Eagles. Every week, there will be a main story where I discuss something that is happening in the world at that time, my shoe thoughts of the week, where I share my thoughts on a couple of styles and my non-shoe thoughts of the week where I just share random thoughts for your enjoyment.
Thanks for reading. I always enjoy hearing from my readers so leave lots of comments on anything I’ve said. Please subscribe to the Shoebuyblog.com RSS feed and tell all your friends.
