April 13th, '03
Free at Last!

Israel's Minister of Defense has just announced that Israel's month-long state of emergency is over. Time put away the gas masks. And this three days before Passover - the festival of freedom.

You shouldn't get the wrong idea. No one's doing the (Baghdad) Boogie in the streets. This is because for for most of us, after the initial excitement, this state of emergency settled way into the backs of our minds. But still, it's a liberating feeling to rip down all that plastic sheeting from the windows, and put it where it belongs: on our countertops and surfaces, as soon as we finish scrubbing them to make everything kosher for Passover. Well, like the song says, Freedom is a Constant Struggle.

Speaking of freedom songs, I'm giving a pre-Passover children's concert on Tuesday. In honor of the occasion, I've rewritten an old spiritual (Oh, Mary Don't You Weep) so that it chronicles the Ten Plagues that were visited upon the Egyptians in the Exodus. If any of you out there use it at your seder, drop me a line, and let me know how it went over!

Hag Kasher V'Sameach (Happy Passover)!

Oh, Mary Don't You Weep

CHORUS: Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn
Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep

There was blood throughout the land
To show the strength of our God's hand
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

Frogs all over, hop hop hop
Because that slavery did not stop
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

Lice on every Egyptian's head
Made them wish that they were dead
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

God gave Pharoah quite a scare
With lions, tigers and a bear!
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

This one was a nasty trick
All the animals got sick
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

God put boils upon their skin
To show those guys they could not win
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

God sent down a storm of hail
You should have heard them weep and wail
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

Clouds of locust, what a fright
Eating everything in sight
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

Egypt's day turned into night
But Goshen had the gift of light
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

Number ten was the hardest one
God struck down the first born sons
Pharoah's army got drownd-ed
Oh Mary, don't you weep CHORUS

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