Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Good Ol’ Seder Plate

Seder plateMy friends (and fellow Hump Night Thumpers) Fran and Skip are throwing a jug band Seder. They've asked us guests to take jug band songs and convert them to a Seder theme.

Here's my contribution.


Good Ol’ Seder Plate

(With apologies to Bascom Lamar Lunsford, the author of Good Old Mountain Dew.)


Chorus:
Oh, what’s on the good ol’ Seder plate?
Sit 'round and I'll give it to you straight
With a tune and some verse
That for better or worse
Will explain the good ol’ Seder plate.


We’ve all had some wine
Now some karpas, dipped in brine,
Should provoke an inquisitive state.
Perhaps this unique ingestion
Will lead to a question
That’s why it’s on the Seder plate.


Some herbs are bitter, you bet,
Like maror and chazeret.
They really do not taste great.
But don’t be a quitter
Recall that slavery was bitter
So these herbs are on the Seder plate.


The slaves by the Nile
Used mortar by the pile
To build Pharaoh’s real estate.
In remembrance of such
We put just a touch
Of charoset on the Seder plate.


In the old times they did
Take a lamb or a kid
And sacrifice it on a slate
But we don’t all eat meat
So we’re using a beet
As the z’roa on the Seder plate.


It was a terrible cost
When the temple was lost
And our rituals had to wait.
So please listen, I beg,
And don’t eat the egg!
Leave the beitzah on the Seder plate.


We should answer the call
To respect one and all
And never discriminate.
So we choose to in-clute
A small piece of fruit:
There's an orange on the Seder plate.


So that is our good ol’ Seder plate
And that’s all I have to relate.
You’re all very dear
And I’ll see you next year
In Jerusalem 'round our Seder plate.

3 comments:

Michael H. Wasserman said...

OY!
(greetings from netanya, israel)

Michael H. Wasserman said...

here's one my grandfather wrote...
me thinks some good jug potential for your seder:

http://www.jewishmag.com/8mag/ballad/ballad.htm

J.R. Jenks said...

That's great, BB! I'll check with our hostess and see if she still needs a song for the 4 sons/4 children slot in the haggadah.

I'll bet your grandfather's Seders were a lot of fun.