Sunday, April 10, 2011

G-dcast Lets the Fourth Son Have the Last Word in Explaining Passover


G-dcast, the educational project that uses funky cartoons and narration to explain all of the weekly Torah portions, has been producing videos that do the same for Jewish holidays.

Their Passover cartoon takes the Four Sons out of the Haggadah and brings them to life. Talking to each other and bantering about the holiday and its features, they seem like a bunch of siblings engaged in normal brotherly interactions. 

During the course of the back and forth wisecracks, they manage to touch on most of the highlights of the seder and the story of Passover."

After all is said and done, the "son who doesn't know how to ask" gets in the last word:  "Why don't we have any sisters?"

At the end of the segment, some questions are posed about unusual Pesach observances in other countries. 

In Ethiopia, why do Jews break their dishes on Passover?
Why do Afghan Jews beat each other with scallions during their seders?
In Poland, why do Jews pour water on the floor at the Passover seder?
In Gibraltar, do Jews really put bricks in their charoset?
What do Syrians break their matzah in the shape of?

Looking for the answers and other topics for discussion at the seder? Check out and print the Teacher's Guide.

One more question: What's with the Russian music and costumes? 

The answer, from the producer and director: "Jews live all over the world of course. We thought it would be randomly fun to set this episode in Russia so that we could write some funky music and then have the world tour at the end!"

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