That’s right. I said it. I’m the grinch who stole Passover. I’m the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” fan who doesn’t want a Maisel-themed Haggadah for her Passover seder. But I do wish that when these religion-and-pop-culture mashups happen, that they do so in a way that enriches either the religious source material or the pop culture text, and this collector’s edition did neither–it was simply a marketing gimmick. The Maxwell House Haggadah is known for its accessible simplicity. And I can respect that, even if it’s not what I find meaningful during the Passover holiday. But I am the kind of person who likes to dive deep into culture and text, to look for meaning.

What might I have done instead? Try to look at the Maisel characters through a Passover lens. Take the Four Children: Wise, Wicked, Simple and Unable to Ask a Question…Midge Maisel (nee Weissman) spends years not knowing how to ask for what she wants, but then gets wise about it, rendering her wicked in the eyes of father, Abe, a wise man (phonetically, Weissman!) whose worldview is rigid and simple. Rose demands her daughter conform to a simpler life, but because she herself doesn’t know how to ask for what she wants, she flees her life (wicked?) and country to reconnect with an old path. And in the newest season, we find out that the son, living a life at a frequency that seemed much simpler than Midge’s, is using that simplicity as a cover for a complicated government life. Maisel characters–and people–are complicated.

For more about how I’d bring pop culture into the Four Children context, check out my latest in the J. And you can check out past pop culture/Passover pieces at my Haggadot.com author page (where you can make your own meaningful Haggadah!)

(Thanks for reading – will try to keep this space more updated in the future.)