Don’t Shut the…Door
By the time this episode airs, we'll have already celebrated our second year of socially distanced Seders. Passover is all about seeing yourself as a participant in the exodus from Egypt, and applying that experience to improving our world today. That intention has led to a slew of games, toys, and content designed to make the Seder more approachable and more fun, especially for children.
While there's lots to choose from, for Jews my age there's one piece of content that rises above all the rest—The Rugrat's Passover Special. This year, as we can see the light at the end of the pandemic, and perhaps struggling to feel like we can get there, the story of Grandpa Boris Kropotkin being locked in his attic seemed more relatable than ever.
Written Format
It’s Passover this week, and by the time this episode is released, we’ll have already celebrated a second year of socially distanced seders.
Passover is a major holiday in Jewish life, and it interrupts our regular Torah reading cycle with a series of short, daily readings spread across the 8 days of Passover. The special readings, as you might imagine, tell the story of the Israelites exodus from Egypt, through to the parting of the Sea.
A few weeks ago, in the wake of the January 2021 riot at the US Capitol, I spoke about the importance of telling the Passover story in the first person. One of the reasons Seder can be so much fun, and so easy for children to relate to, are the lengths we go to achieve this first person perspective. One result of this, is all the merch available for Passover—toys, games, books, songs, and this year virtual puzzle rooms simulating our escape from Egypt.
For me though, and a whole generation of Jews my age, there’s one piece of Passover content that rises above all the rest, and always will—the Rugrats Passover Special.
There’s a reason Rugrats is so relatable for Jews my age, and it’s not the Nickelodeon nostalgia or the funny writing. As a friend of mine pointed out, in her grad school thesis on Jewish media, Rugrats is the first depiction of an interfaith Jewish family on television. The Pickles family included Tommy—baby protagonist of the show—his very Jewish mother, and his non-Jewish father. Floating around in the background were Tommy’s grandparents on his mother’s side, Boris and Minka Kropotkin, who were about as stereotypically Jewish as you can get.
Boris and Minka feature prominently in the infamous Passover special, after Boris accidentally locks himself in the attic while looking for Minka’s mother’s wine glasses, while setting the table for Seder. In true sitcom fashion, Boris is slowly joined in the attic by each of the children present, and being locked together he proceeds to tell them the Passover story, from memory, in detail vivid enough to launch Tommy, Chucky, and Angelica into a world of their own imagination.
What I love about the Rugrats Passover special is how it highlights the most important aspect of the ritual—it’s portability. Downstairs the Kropotikin family table is set for an elegant Seder, even without Minka’s mother’s wine glasses, but that Seder never really takes place. Instead, virtually the entire Seder takes place in the attic, with Boris and the children. Sure, it doesn’t follow the exact text of the Haggadah, but all of the essential elements are there, all of the critical questions are asked, and as a result the children launch into their own first person experience of the Passover story.
Seder is among the most important rituals we have in Jewish life, primarily because it takes place at home, it doesn’t require community. In fact Seder only really requires one person, and that person doesn’t have to be in any specific place, or even stay in the same place for the entire ritual.
Seder, more than any other Jewish ritual, seems designed for a people on the go—like the Israelites wandering the desert—or a people on the run. In the past, that’s meant on the run from others—with Seders hosted in small, dark, cramped spaces to avoid discovery by the Romans, the Crusaders, the Inquisitors, or the Nazis. Today, we’re on the run from a virus, but the reality is no different, we’re all hunkered down, hiding from an existential threat, or in the case of Grandpa Boris Kropotkin, locked in the attic.
The running gag of the Rugrats Passover Special is Boris pleading, always a second too late, for the latest arrival at his spontaneous attic Seder to not shut the attic door, because it locks on the inside. “Don’t shut the…door,” he cries over and over again, to no avail. Boris, like many people leading Seders in the attics and basements of history is looking for a way out, and he knows that every person who joins him is one less person left to save them from being locked in the attic forever.
It’s easy to lean into Seder this year, and tempting to lose ourselves in reliving the experiences of our ancestors, as vividly as possible, during their exodus from Egypt, just as we’re beginning to see some light at the end of our own long tunnel. We’ve all tried so hard to make the best of the past year, just as Boris after struggling with the attic door, accepted his situation and sat down to wait, telling his grandson and the other Rugrats the story of Pesach to pass the time. He was ready, though, every time the door opened, to call out for help. He knew that as vivid as the world he created in that attic was, it wasn’t real, and he knew that while it’s essential to relive the Passover story as if you yourself came forth from Egypt, it’s perhaps even more essential to continue your own journey after the story ends, putting the lessons you’ve learned to practical use, making the world a better place.
Grandpa Boris, Tommy, Angelica, and Chucky all make it out of the attic. They conclude the Seder and move on with their lives, just like we will. Passover, though, will still be there, ready to support us in good times and bad—whether we’re trapped in the attic, hiding in the basement, or sitting in splendor with family, friends, and random strangers, without masks, at a full Passover table.
Chag Pesach Sameach and Shabbat Shalom
