A great afikoman present

My family has a long tradition of giving gag afikoman presents.Over the years, many of them have been similar in spirit to altered books but predated the alternate book movement by at least 30 years. Some of the gag afikoman presents have been quite elaborate. This year, we gave this altered candle to my mother.

My father, looked remarkably like Pope John Paul II. My father could have been hired by the Vatican to wave at the crowds when the Pope wasn’t feeling up to it, and I don’t think the adoring crowds would have noticed that they were being blessed by a Brooklyn born rabbi, rather than by the pontiff himself.
Prayer Candle Company is owned by smart people ( relatives of mine). There is a campaign in the Catholic Church to beatify John Paul II. I found this candle in the Spanish food section of a supermarket and knew that it would make a great afikoman present. My husband brilliantly rewrote the prayers in the candles and replaced all of the crosses on the candles with Jewish stars. With the help of Google translate, we even translated the prayer into several languages.

My youngest was worried that my mother would be offended by this gift. She was not.

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