Original subtitles

Behold this golden goblet of wine.

It is a symbol of joy as we celebrate the festival of Passover.

Many long years ago on this night, our ancestors heard the call of freedom, and

tonight that call rings out once more, commanding us to champion the cause of

the oppressed peoples throughout the world.

I don't know, are you recording?

I can't tell. I think so.

Don't waste this. I hope so.

Okay.

All right.

So what do you want me to do? I want you to sing the Passover,

you know, you go like... No,

that's not what I sing at Passover.

I really don't know what I used to... Well, okay, there's this part, which is

the kadush.

And I will do the best I can, Nina. Excellent. Because it's been years and

years and years.

When's the last Seder you did?

When did you leave the house?

I'm sorry, I'm burping. I'll do it again.

We now drink our first cup of wine.

It is customary for each person to drink four cups of wine at the Seder table.

These four cups symbolize the ancient four freedoms, which are represented in

the liberation of the Jewish people from bondage.

Make the sound of a check-in suit.

Doodle-wop, rat-a-tat, boom.

Make the sound of a phone. You've got to believe something.

Why not believe in me?

Why not believe in me?

Take the chain off your brain.

We were once the slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, and the Lord, our God, delivered

us from bondage by his might.

Press so hard they could not stand.

Let my people go.

So the Lord said, go down. Go down. Moses.

Moses. Way down in Egypt land.

Tell old Pharaohs to let my people go.

Let my people go.

He made old Pharaoh understand.

Let my people go.

Yes, the Lord said, go down.

Go down. Moses.

Moses.

To let my people go.

Thus spoke the Lord, bold Moses

said, Let my people go.

If not, I'll smite your face long dead.

Let my people go.

The Lord said, go down. Go down. Moses.

Moses.

When I was a kid, I knew this word by word.

And this is what we did in Hebrew school. We learned these things by rote.

And I could do everything.

And then at the cheder, I would have a certain,

you know, as the kid, the youngest male, I would have certain special roles, like

asking about, asking the four questions.

One of which is, why is this night whatever?

Alachma Anya.

This is the bread of poverty which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.

Let all who are hungry and needy enter and eat with us.

Oh, here's a question. Since you cared so little about it or for it, why did

you keep doing Passover anyway?

Well, I still believe in the fact that you had a heritage and I wanted you guys

to know something about your heritage.

It was a happy kind of...

I mean, there were the sad times, the Exodus and all that stuff.

It was a sad part of Passover.

But it was happy and sad both, you know, happy from the fact that Jews were

getting out of Egypt.

And it was sad that there had to be all these

mean Jews before the Pharaoh gave in to the Jewish people.

They had an opportunity to...

Moses to lead them through the split Red Sea and then of course the sea came back

together again killed all these Egyptians but I thought you should know

a little something about the heritage of a What there was basically our family

We now reach the reading of the ten plagues which God brought to

the Egyptians.

As each one of these plagues is

mentioned, a drop of wine is spilled from the goblet into a plate.

Which way, which way, do that flood-red river run?

From my back window to the rising sun.

Red river, red river, won't you tell me what to do?

Worried as I can be.

What's your way? What's your way? Do that blood-gray river run From

my back window to the rising sun

After that.

After that.

I hear tiny insects everywhere.

Tiny insects in my pants. Watching insects make romance.

Insects make me want to dance.

Dance. Dance. They make me want to dance.

Dance. Dance.

Insects everywhere.

I'm insects.

Buzzing, buzzing, buzzing. Yeah.

Cause like with the diamonds in the sky. Insects buzzing in my eye.

Buzzing insects make me want to dance.

Dance. They make me want to dance.

Dance. Those insects make me dance.

Dance. They make me want to dance.

Dance. Those insects make me want to dance.

Dead animals!

Dead animals!

What do we care? Hail, hail, we're full of cheer.

What do we care?

They bite and sting me anyway.

They bite and sting and suck.

They bite and sting and suck, suck, suck. They bite and sting and suck,

suck, suck.

Who turned the light out on my life?

And who turned my day into night?

You made a mess out of my life.

You don't seem to know the wrong from right.

Somebody said you were leaving, and I didn't

know what to do.

And, you know, we all sat around the table, including Uncle Herzl.

And Uncle Herzl rejected to the part where you did a drop to signify.

to signify the killing of the firstborn Egyptians. My uncle got infuriated with

that. He didn't like that part.

Why? Well, he wants to kill people.

What? I mean, we don't want to go around killing people, right?

But you shed the drop because... The idea is you shed the drop because you're

sympathizing. You're like, oh, this was a terrible thing, so you're going to

spill some of the wine from your cup because it was...

such a bad thing yeah but i think literally it was in celebration of the

killing of the first born egyptians and uh my uncle didn't like it but anyhow he

and my father would have a big fight every seder at that point every year

they'd have a big fight

The falling stars you wished upon.

The cinder's now and now they're gone.

They'll raise it to festoons my fetid field.

Revealing husks of lovers past.

The shells are all that ever last.

I've taken everything that they've concealed.

Wicked little twist of fate.

Placed you here upon my plate.

Here when no one hears your cries.

Where was your God to steer you through?

Perhaps your God's forsaken you.

Otherwise, why lead you here to die?

Thank you.

It's merely moments now.

Moments now until your feeble flesh bends to my

will.

And it will.

So rest your weary head.

There'll be no pain.

No pain at all.

It's everything you are.

dissolves your fate resolved upon my

Let us, therefore, sing a song of thanks to God, not only for protecting us from

our enemies, but also for the great and magnificent gifts he has bestowed upon

us, his Torah, the Sabbath, and the festivals.

And now his greatest gift, which we in this generation have been privileged to

witness, the return of our land, the land of Israel, Dayenu.

Dino, Dino, Dino, Dino

the children are free and I say it ain't far to this land

from where we are take my hand come with me where the children

are free come with me take my hand and we'll live

in a land where the river runs free in a land through the green

country in a land to a shining And you and me are free to be

you and me.

I see a land bright and clear and the tide.

you and me are free to be

The second half of our Seder begins with the grace after meals.

Praise be thou, O Lord God, King of the world, who feeds the entire universe

with his goodness, his grace, and his loving kindness.

He gives bread to all flesh, and in his great goodness, food has never been

lacking for us, for he feeds and supports everyone.

Our God, our Father, feed us, support us,

sustain us.

Do you think the events in Exodus actually happened?

What kind of question is that to ask me?

I don't care.

that you can't go home because all of your hope is gone and

your life is filled with much confusion until happiness is just an illusion

and the world around is crumbling down darling come

on girl reach out for me

I'm about to give up.

The third cup of wine is called Elijah's cup.

In Jewish tradition, the prophet Elijah is the messenger of God, appointed to

herald the era of the Messiah, the era of perfect happiness, when all peoples

throughout the world shall be free.

We drink the third cup, the cup of Elijah.

And then refill our cups for the fourth and last time.

So you have no religious inclinations whatsoever?

These days.

Ever?

Ever? Yeah. Oh, when I was a kid, yeah.

Really? Yeah, when I was a kid, I bought into a lot of this stuff. Remember, that

was before I was bar mitzvahed at age 13.

Yeah, you know, I thought it was the way I'm told by my parents and by the Sunday

school people.

all these stories.

And I thought, okay, that's my, well, I shouldn't say my tribe,

but that's the way my, the people I know closest all believe.

And obviously that had to be the truth and all that stuff.

And yeah,

I bought into that stuff, that Judaism went back so many thousand years and

this and that.

But after a while, some of that didn't make complete sense either.

Okay?

You know, so.

And there are people who spend a lot of time, they are great religious scholars,

they want to understand all these little nuances about Judaism and things like

that. And I figure, okay, fine.

Just don't push it down my throat.

For the other half of the sky

Woman

I can hardly express

My mixed emotions and my thoughtlessness

After all I'm forever in your debt

And woman

I will try to express my enough feeling and

thankfulness for showing me the meaning

of success.

Inside the man.

Please remember, my life is in your hands.

And woman, hold me close to your heart.

However distant, don't keep us apart.

Lying, cheating, hurting, that's all you seem to do.

Messing around, every guy in town, putting me down for thinking I'm someone

new.

Always the same, playing your game, drive me insane.

One of these days that it won't be long you look

Don't be so kind, it's my turn to cry.

Do what you want, I won't take the brunt. It's fading away, can't feel you

anymore.

Don't care what you say, cause I'm gonna wear the snake, gonna make you pay.

People jumping all around, what's up woman?

Now that the four cups of wine have been consumed, the official ceremony is over.

But wait, our rejoicing has only begun.

It's time for some rhythmic Hasidic melodies.

Rhythm, of course. Rhythm has always been the very soul of Hasidic prayer.

C'est étrange.

Je ne sais pas ce qui m'arrive ce soir.

Je te regarde comme pour la première fois.

Je ne sais plus comment te dire.

Mais tu es cette belle histoire d'amour que je ne cesserai jamais de lire.

Tu es d'hier et de demain.

De toujours, ma seule vérité.

Tu

es

comme le vent qui fait chanter les violons et emporte au loin le parfum des

roses.

Par moments, je ne te comprends pas.

Parole encore.

Écoute-moi.

Je t'en prie. Parole, parole, parole.

Je te jure. Parole, parole, parole, parole. Parole encore des

paroles que tu sais m'en vont.

Parole, parole, parole.

Écoute-moi. Parole, parole, parole.

Je t'en prie. Parole, parole, parole.

Je te jure.

foreign

or less dropped out of Judaism in my teenage years, early teenage years.

And I really quit when I was in Wisconsin, and it was hard to fast for

Yom Kippur.

When I was a graduate student in Wisconsin, all these things were more

difficult, and I just said to hell with it.

And what about the pressure that you had? Like, Bubby Zelda was always

wanting us to be... What?

bar mitzvahed and bad mitzvahed oh she would have loved that yeah well she

would have loved that but i wasn't interested in that that's very brave i

know i know firsthand what it's like to do something that your family's not that

your family doesn't like oh yeah like what like dropping out of college that

was a stupidity on your part it has nothing to do with religion and there

was no way we could prevent that

I think you made some mistakes in life, Nina, but we're not here to talk about

your mistakes.

Unless you want me to talk about your mistakes.

I mean, I put those all behind me years ago.

I know how, you know, I mean, you look funny there, but I

still think a bachelor's degree from those days would have been of use to

you.

Don't you think that Bobby Zelda would have said the same thing about having a

bat mitzvah? I don't know.

Too many lonely souls who drifted out to sea.

You lay your bets and then you pay the price. The things we do for love.

The things we do for love.

Communication is the problem to the answer.

things we do for love like walking in the rain and snow when there's nowhere

to go when you're feeling like a part of you is dying and you're looking for

the answer in her eyes you think you're gonna break up then she says she wants

to make up

like walking in the rain and snow when there's nowhere to go when you're

feeling like a part of you is dying and you're looking for the answer in her

eyes you think you're gonna break up then she says she wants to make up

The things we do for love.

I think you gotta check your equipment.

I am checking your equipment. This seems like a lot of fuss for... No, no, I'm

just, uh...

I'm just... I know, but it seems like a lot of fuss if you want to record people

smoothly and things like that.

You're always adjusting this thing. Oh, would you like me to stop adjusting?

The microphone's sort of going into your neck.

That's not bothering me one bit. No, no, but it's affecting the... If a

microphone is pushed up against something... You mean the sound? Yeah,

then the sound. Well, if you have a problem... Well, I can try to attach the

microphone to another.

Part of your gown.

Whoops.

I'll bet that will be better.

Okay.

If you attach it so it keeps falling off, you know what the problem is going

to be.

And now our concluding song, Chad Gadya. This is a folk song written especially

for children.

That is, children from 6 to 60.

It tells the story of a father who bought a little goat.

Although it also tells about a cat, a dog, and many other things, listen well

to this song because it really tells the entire story of the Jewish people

throughout their long history.

I love

you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

¶¶

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think when it comes to our kids, we did it pretty good. We were very lucky.

I mean, you didn't follow everything I wanted you to do. Josh didn't. Liz

didn't.

And I think, again, when it comes to financial success, remember, someday

you're going to have to eat.

You need money to eat, Nina, and to live.

And I hope that in this lousy economy,

you don't suddenly find that you're completely at sea.

As long as your mother is alive, you have the house, you'll have a place to

go if it's absolutely necessary.

That doesn't happen, but at least you've got some degree of

fallback. But I would have been happier if you had been

more financially independent by now.

So anyway, if you had built up more money in

your bank account and stuff like that, I think I'd feel I could rest eat more

easily about you guys.

But since there's nothing I can do about it, and my own

life is coming to an end one of these days soon, right here in Urbana.

I just hope that things go well for you.

As I said, I'd feel a lot better if you had more security, but it's a

father's job.

So anyway, what else?

Next year in Jerusalem!

Thank you.

This land to me This brave

and ancient land to me

And when the morning

sun Reveals her hills and plains

Then I see

Where children can run free

So take

my hand And walk this

land with me

It was good enough for my mother.

I'm looking for religion.

Give me that.

Well,

give me that. It gets in your hand.

It was good enough for my mother. Hallelujah.

When she got in trouble.

Hallelujah. It was good.

Hallelujah. That's it, boy. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Give me that old Tyree Linger.

Tyree Linger. It gets in your feet, Lord. Tyree Linger. And make you shout

sometime, I was a whore.

And then you drink the wine.