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In today’s edition:
- Onion slapping and dark warnings at a divided Passover
- At last, Ukraine aid comes thanks to Mike Johnson — or no thanks?
- A physician’s fall causes him to rethink the human body
Returning to the Seder table
In some community traditions of Passover, which begins today at sundown, those seated at the Seder table whip each other with green onions — a reminder of the sting of ancient Jews’ persecution. For rabbi Benjamin Resnick, this Passover will be different.
To be clear, there will still be scallion-slapping (though hopefully not so hard from one of his sons that it makes his big brother cry again), but it will take on a different — or at least additional — meaning. What was once just a “playful diversion,” Resnick writes, feels on the first Passover after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel like a much darker illustration of the “ancient and protean” antisemitism that fills a hostile world.
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As the Haggadah (Passover’s accompanying text) reads, “For not only one enemy has risen up to destroy us, but in every generation do enemies rise up against us, seeking to destroy us.”
Ruth Marcus once thought this passage carried “an anachronistic air of Jewish paranoia,” but she, too, is seeing Seder elements through a new lens this year. Her children and perhaps other loved ones are seeing through a different lens, as well — just a different different lens, the result of many clashing opinions on the war in Gaza.
Whereas Ruth’s Thanksgiving celebration “sidestepped our divisions by declaring the table an Israel-free zone,” that’s not possible at Passover, where Israel is the story.
Still, Ruth hopes the family can still gather over certain core truths: Jews are under threat; too many Gazans are dying; and Jewishness means tending to the suffering of anyone, no matter who.
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Shadi Hamid writes that divisions over Israel within the Democratic Party, too, are becoming harder to hide, as shown by the House of Representatives’ recent vote on aid.
Why is this Israel bill different from all other Israel bills? Well, Shadi writes that “voting against Israel aid was once exorbitantly risky; it no longer is.” Thirty-seven House Democrats defected from the caucus’s support for stand-alone Israel aid over the bill’s lack of conditions on delivering said aid.
“If rank-and-file Democrats continue to register their discontent in the months to come,” Shadi writes, “the Biden administration might feel compelled to bend, not out of principle but for the more practical reason that a party leadership cannot afford to ignore its members on such a charged issue.”
Chaser: David Ignatius digs in to the bilateral effort by Israel and Iran to de-escalate after trading strikes: “One rule for containing a crisis is to keep your mouth shut.”
Ukraine aid at last
As the House finally acted on foreign aid this past weekend, the most attention-grabbing component was not Israel or Taiwan (which was also slated to receive funds), but the help that Congress was approving — finally, blessedly, almost unbelievably — for Ukraine.
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Max Boot writes that the $61 billion aid bill approved in the Republican-controlled House comes just in time for Ukraine to avert disaster in Russia’s war on the country. His column is a great explainer of where things stand in the conflict after the last few months, as well as where they might go with this new infusion of aid, whose passage in the Senate is expected this week.
The Editorial Board writes that the bill could be a turning point for the United States, too. It shows U.S. allies that they can still (eventually) rely on their old friend. “This is a historic moment,” the board writes. “A de facto bipartisan coalition government has maintained U.S. global credibility.”
Karen Tumulty says that a lot of the credit must go to Speaker Mike Johnson. She writes that the Republican leader brought back a semblance of order to the House in getting the bill past opposition from his own caucus’s hard right, which was no small feat. “Political bravery,” Karen calls it.
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Now, “all of this praise might seem excessive,” she says, “given that allowing the House to work its collective will is the essence of a speaker’s role. But doing what’s right, or even normal, is not how the Republican Party … rolls these days.”
You know what? Praise for Johnson is misplaced, Jen Rubin writes in her own column. Do we forget that Johnson delayed Ukraine aid for months? How many fighters died in the interim? How many Ukrainians lost their homes?
Please recalibrate, Jen requests: “The fact that Johnson finally relented merits a sigh of relief, not celebration of him as a profile in courage.”
Chaser: Novelist Mohsin Hamid sees a world moving on from U.S. leadership — and perhaps flowers growing through the cracks as that foundation comes apart.
Less politics
Dwaine Rieves’s life didn’t flash before his eyes; as the nearly 70-year-old physician was suffering from possible brain damage, he felt fine. “I feel the gorgeous appearance of blood,” he writes, “and how good I felt even as I thought I might be dying.”
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Rather, his life flashed before his front door’s Ring camera — and with it, his whole understanding of the human body. He looked and sounded dreadful. How had he felt so peachy?
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In a thought-provoking guest essay, Rieves recounts his sidewalk tumble and the EMTs’ arrival at his front door. He swims in and out of consciousness in the ambulance and at the hospital. But the heart of the essay is back in his medical school years, in the sermon delivered by a onetime professor:
“What I first want you to remember is that at least half of what we think the human body is teaching us will likely be proven wrong. Unfortunately, I do not know which half will remain true.”
Smartest, fastest
- Happy Earth Day! Plastic can’t be recycled, environmental author Eve Schaub writes, and it’s time to stop pretending it can.
- In a video interview, Anne Lamott reflects on how she found love at 63.
- Jason Willick lays out how the Supreme Court could vindicate Bill Barr’s criticism of Robert Mueller’s Trump obstruction argument.
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
Seder table strife
Like so much gefilte fish:
Inescapable
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
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In today’s edition:
In some community traditions of Passover, which begins today at sundown, those seated at the Seder table whip each other with green onions — a reminder of the sting of ancient Jews’ persecution. For rabbi Benjamin Resnick, this Passover will be different.
To be clear, there will still be scallion-slapping (though hopefully not so hard from one of his sons that it makes his big brother cry again), but it will take on a different — or at least additional — meaning. What was once just a “playful diversion,” Resnick writes, feels on the first Passover after the Oct. 7 attack in Israel like a much darker illustration of the “ancient and protean” antisemitism that fills a hostile world.
As the Haggadah (Passover’s accompanying text) reads, “For not only one enemy has risen up to destroy us, but in every generation do enemies rise up against us, seeking to destroy us.”
Ruth Marcus once thought this passage carried “an anachronistic air of Jewish paranoia,” but she, too, is seeing Seder elements through a new lens this year. Her children and perhaps other loved ones are seeing through a different lens, as well — just a different different lens, the result of many clashing opinions on the war in Gaza.
Whereas Ruth’s Thanksgiving celebration “sidestepped our divisions by declaring the table an Israel-free zone,” that’s not possible at Passover, where Israel is the story.
Still, Ruth hopes the family can still gather over certain core truths: Jews are under threat; too many Gazans are dying; and Jewishness means tending to the suffering of anyone, no matter who.
Shadi Hamid writes that divisions over Israel within the Democratic Party, too, are becoming harder to hide, as shown by the House of Representatives’ recent vote on aid.
Why is this Israel bill different from all other Israel bills? Well, Shadi writes that “voting against Israel aid was once exorbitantly risky; it no longer is.” Thirty-seven House Democrats defected from the caucus’s support for stand-alone Israel aid over the bill’s lack of conditions on delivering said aid.
“If rank-and-file Democrats continue to register their discontent in the months to come,” Shadi writes, “the Biden administration might feel compelled to bend, not out of principle but for the more practical reason that a party leadership cannot afford to ignore its members on such a charged issue.”
Chaser: David Ignatius digs in to the bilateral effort by Israel and Iran to de-escalate after trading strikes: “One rule for containing a crisis is to keep your mouth shut.”
As the House finally acted on foreign aid this past weekend, the most attention-grabbing component was not Israel or Taiwan (which was also slated to receive funds), but the help that Congress was approving — finally, blessedly, almost unbelievably — for Ukraine.
Max Boot writes that the $61 billion aid bill approved in the Republican-controlled House comes just in time for Ukraine to avert disaster in Russia’s war on the country. His column is a great explainer of where things stand in the conflict after the last few months, as well as where they might go with this new infusion of aid, whose passage in the Senate is expected this week.
The Editorial Board writes that the bill could be a turning point for the United States, too. It shows U.S. allies that they can still (eventually) rely on their old friend. “This is a historic moment,” the board writes. “A de facto bipartisan coalition government has maintained U.S. global credibility.”
Karen Tumulty says that a lot of the credit must go to Speaker Mike Johnson. She writes that the Republican leader brought back a semblance of order to the House in getting the bill past opposition from his own caucus’s hard right, which was no small feat. “Political bravery,” Karen calls it.
Now, “all of this praise might seem excessive,” she says, “given that allowing the House to work its collective will is the essence of a speaker’s role. But doing what’s right, or even normal, is not how the Republican Party … rolls these days.”
You know what? Praise for Johnson is misplaced, Jen Rubin writes in her own column. Do we forget that Johnson delayed Ukraine aid for months? How many fighters died in the interim? How many Ukrainians lost their homes?
Please recalibrate, Jen requests: “The fact that Johnson finally relented merits a sigh of relief, not celebration of him as a profile in courage.”
Chaser: Novelist Mohsin Hamid sees a world moving on from U.S. leadership — and perhaps flowers growing through the cracks as that foundation comes apart.
Dwaine Rieves’s life didn’t flash before his eyes; as the nearly 70-year-old physician was suffering from possible brain damage, he felt fine. “I feel the gorgeous appearance of blood,” he writes, “and how good I felt even as I thought I might be dying.”
Rather, his life flashed before his front door’s Ring camera — and with it, his whole understanding of the human body. He looked and sounded dreadful. How had he felt so peachy?
In a thought-provoking guest essay, Rieves recounts his sidewalk tumble and the EMTs’ arrival at his front door. He swims in and out of consciousness in the ambulance and at the hospital. But the heart of the essay is back in his medical school years, in the sermon delivered by a onetime professor:
“What I first want you to remember is that at least half of what we think the human body is teaching us will likely be proven wrong. Unfortunately, I do not know which half will remain true.”
It’s a goodbye. It’s a haiku. It’s … The Bye-Ku.
Seder table strife
Like so much gefilte fish:
Inescapable
***
Have your own newsy haiku? Email it to me, along with any questions/comments/ambiguities. See you tomorrow!
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