Taylor Swift’s (unofficial) Exodus era
Swifties can now express their love for the pop icon while celebrating Passover, thanks to the “Unofficial Taylor Swift Haggadah,” written by Na’ama Ben-David.
Ben-David says the idea came from her teenage daughter, a big Swift fan.
“She loves talking about Taylor Swift,” Ben-David said in a statement. “Her music, her lyrics and the inspirational messages she gets from listening to the albums. When we started talking about Pesach, she remarked that there are a lot of parallels between the story and themes of Pesach, and Taylor Swift’s music — and the idea was born!”
Illustrated by Shelley Atlas Serber, this edition of the haggadah joins a crowd of creative Passover haggadahs published for the 2024 holiday.
It begins by calling the seder, a word that literally means “order” or “sequence,” a “setlist,” and is steeped in Tay-Tay esoterica, including a paper plane motif (a reference to a necklace mentioned in the song “Out of the Woods”); page numbers hidden in friendship bracelets (a reference to a lyric in the song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” from her 2022 album “Midnights,” it’s a trend Swiftie concertgoers adopted in recent years); hot pink cowgirl hats from the singer-songwriter’s early days as a teenage country artist; and trivia about Swift’s life and discography.
Ben-David connects one especially famous metaphorical section of the haggadah, the story of the four sons — the wise, the wicked, the simple, and the one who does not know how to ask — to four characters whose romantic entanglements are a theme of the 2020 album “Folklore.”
“The vibrant and modern design of the Haggadah was inspired by Taylor Swift’s worldwide hits,” Serber said in a statement. “When we all sit down at our seder tables around the world, we share the same songs that we’ve enjoyed together for years — the hits of the Jewish people.”
The book, which is printed in Hebrew and English, is available in paperback and costs $19.89 — Taylor Swift’s birth year, and the name of her fifth studio album, released in 2014.
First up on the list of the 10 plagues? Blood — or should we say, “Bad Blood.”
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
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