As soon as the Portland Frog became a meme, Jewish social media blew up with jokes about the 2nd Passover plague – tzefarde’a (frogs). Famously, the Egyptian tyrant causes his land to be overrun with frogs because he refuses to free the Hebrew people, but there are additional details that make this a fun one to ponder. For one, the Hebrew says “the frog came up” – ONE frog – even though the rest of the time it says “frogs.” So there are a few explanations rabbis have come up with. One is that a single frog multiplied to create swarms. A more creative explanation is that there was a singular giant frog who traveled and brought destruction. Jewish social media was sharing videos of the Portland Frog protester with the caption, “One Big Frog! One Big Frog!” Of course the frog protesters did multiply, and many were seen in crowds all over the world on “No Kings” Day.

This calligraphic work takes the verses addressing the frog plague and combines them to form a simple rendering of the Portland Frog protester. The frog figure itself is made up of the English translations of the Hebrew around it. At the bottom left my signature is in the shape of a lily pad.

The texts used are Exodus 7:28-29 and 8:2, Rashi on Exodus 8:2, Sanhedrin 67b, and Midrash Tehillim 78. No Shemot are present in this work, so rules for handling the printed Sacred Name do not apply.
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Museum-quality posters made on thick matte paper.

• Measures 11″ x 14″ and 16″ x 20″
• Paper thickness: 10.3 mil
• Paper weight: 189 g/m²
• Opacity: 94%
• ISO brightness: 104%
• Paper is sourced from Japan