The Four Sons

April 22, 2024

The Four Sons
Happy Passover! I hope this art helps provide some reflection at Seder during a time of crisis. Each image is loosely based on crime-scene photos proudly paraded to the world in the past six months. One thing I love about the Four Sons/Four Children is that for centuries it was a custom in Jewish communities to illustrate the Wicked One in the Haggadah as a soldier. Among other things, it captured the anti-tyranny teaching of the Passover narrative. This visual tradition was largely abandoned during and after the establishment of Israel in 1948. In the past several decades, you can find Israeli haggadot valorizing the military. This isn’t to say one tradition is right and one is wrong. Judaism contains multitudes, and you can scour it for fascist-friendly elements just like you can in any religion. But when Zionists claim a state birthed out of 19th century European ethnonationalist ideology is the one Jewish “homeland,” or that the state of Israel enacts the singular fulfillment of Jewish values, they’re not being honest (I’m trying to say this nicely, positive Passover vibes etc). CHAG SAMEACH, Happy Passover, from bondage to freedom for all ❤️