RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/holidays/two-passover-questions/2023/04/05/

The mysterious order of the Pesach Seder and the diversity of the various parts of the evening, as well as the actions we are directed to take that are included in the Haggadah, have all fascinated commentators as well as everyday Jews for centuries.

Here are two questions that are worth asking the attendees gathered around your table this year; they should promote thoughtful discussion and debate.

Question One: How many plagues were there?

Immediately after the stage in the Haggadah when the Ten Plagues are named comes the part where we find Rabbi Yossi the Galilean initiating the very strange topic of the number of plagues that the ancient Egyptians were punished with.

This part of the Haggadah immediately precedes the section where the joyous song Dayenu is found. The three quoted rabbis in this portion in the Haggadah lived over 1,800 years ago.

Rabbi Yossi explains that there were actually 60 plagues. Rabbi Eliezer is then quoted for his take on this that there were 240 plagues. Finally, Rabbi Akiva differs with his fellow rabbis and takes the view that there were 300 plagues.

What is going on here? It is made plain in the Torah that there are Ten Plagues. Why did this debate take place at all? What’s more, why was this strange discussion thought to be important enough to be included at all in the Haggadah? Doesn’t this whole topic seem extraneous?

https://thespectator.com/topic/brandon-johnson-mayor-chicago-ruin/

Adam Smith once wisely remarked that “there is a great deal of ruin in a nation.” There is much less room for ruin in a city, as Portland, San Francisco and Seattle have proved in recent years, and Detroit, Memphis and Gary, did even earlier. Now, Chicago has decided to join that dismal parade.

The Windy City was already marching toward the abyss under its outgoing mayor, Lori Lightfoot. She was elected four years ago with over three-quarters of the vote. This year, she got so few votes in the first primary (about one sixth) that she was eliminated from the runoff. That second election, held on Tuesday, pitted Brandon Johnson, an African-American organizer for the powerful Chicago Teachers Union, against Paul Vallas, a Greek American who had led several major school systems around the country. Vallas’s résumé was far more impressive than his achievements in those jobs. His bumbling campaign against Johnson revealed those shortcomings once again.

These ethnic markers — a black candidate versus a white one — are important in American urban politics, where political organizations are often formed around neighborhoods, ethnicities and race. One striking feature of the late Chicago election was the complete absence of the Irish Americans. For a century, they had led the city’s political machine, handing out subordinate positions and lucrative patronage jobs to allies in various ethnic and racial communities. Those days are long gone, destroyed by the city’s changing demographics and federal court rulings that killed the old patronage machine.