Talmud Class: A Fabulous Short Story: 'Redemption Song' by Allegra Goodman

Allegra Goodman recently published a collection of short stories called This is Not About Us. The irony is that the book is very much about us. She describes the Rubinstein family of Greater Boston. The kids went to Maimonides. Much of the action takes place in Brookline. There are stories of day-to-day life in Boston, and in Jewish Boston, that will feel deeply familiar. I felt I was reading about us.

One of those stories, Redemption Song, is about how a family does Passover together where they have very different approaches to the holiday. The patriarch, Irving, was a Holocaust survivor and ran a stern, joyless Maxwell House seder that scarred his young sons, Dan and Steven. When they grow up, both living in Brookline, they have very different approaches to the seders. There are vegans and pot roast lovers. There are Maxwell House adherents—just read what is in the Haggadah—and innovative voices that put oranges, bananas, and other objects on the seder table to represent various oppressed peoples. There are family members who don’t believe in instrumental music, and others who love to sing and play guitar. There are people who love deep conversation about deep topics, and others who just want to get on with it.

The title of the story comes from the last song that Bob Marley composed, Redemption Song, while facing his own mortality, contending with advanced cancer. His song tackles this question: how we can achieve freedom from the forces that constrain us? How do we achieve redemption? Allegra Goodman’s story ends with the younger generation singing this song.

Please read the story. Please listen to the song. What do the story and the song teach us about how we can achieve our Redemption Song at our upcoming seders and in the world at this hard time?