Today is Purim, and so we begin the spring cycle of Jewish holidays that will culminate in Shavuos (the subject of my favorite line in all of Martin Scorsese’s films, but I digress). Naturally, I’m thinking about Passover, which we’ll be celebrating in about a month, and the meaning of the Passover story this year.

At progressive and liberal seders in the US this year, there’ll be a tendency to interpret the story through the current political moment. How could there not be? Immigrants will be cast as the ancient Hebrews; Trump as Pharaoh. And just as Pharaoh is depicted in the story as a sudden appearance out of the blue — remember, for years, things had been good for the Hebrews, and then a new Pharaoh came, “who knew not Joseph” — so will Trump be described as an intrusion upon an otherwise placid and benign setting, the undocumented a suddenly victimized Hebrew.

But we know that will not do. The war against the undocumented, waged by Republican and Democrat alike, has been going on or decades. And Trump, however specific and peculiar his viciousness, is the result of decades of political rot and misleadership, from both parties.

Instead of treating the undocumented as the ancient Hebrews — and thus as somehow separable from the rest of the society — let’s see in their plight a more common portent, a way in to understanding how so many in our society, immigrant and citizen alike, are excluded and subjected and oppressed.

And instead of treating Trump as Pharaoh, let’s view him as one of the plagues. Hopefully, the last plague, but whether first or last, as one of many signs and symptoms rather than the source of a society that’s falling apart.