Passover plans transitioning toward normalcy
For years, Haim and Dorit Sasson and their children commemorated the holiday of Passover by joining other worshippers at Chabad of Squirrel Hill for a communal Seder, or ritual meal.
Last year, they couldn’t do that due to the newly emergent COVID19 pandemic, which had prompted the cancellation of virtually all religious and other gatherings.
This year, though, the family will be back at the Squirrel Hill synagogue for the communal Seder. The numbers will be smaller than in past years, there will be physical distancing, and the participants will have either been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19. But the Seder will take place. “It’s good to have it again,” Dorit Sasson saud. “The Jewish community is very community-oriented. All the rituals are around some part of the community.”
It was difficult last year, particularly for the children, “suddenly not to have any of that,” she added.
Throughout the Pittsburgh region, Jewish families are preparing for a partial, though not complete, return to normal when they start observing the weeklong
Passover holiday after sundown Saturday. The holiday is a central event on the Jewish calendar, commemorating the biblical story of the Israelites’ liberation from slavery. Jews observe the date with a ritual Seder meal, often at home or with a larger group at locations such as a synagogue.
Seders include the ritual of a child asking why this night is
“different from all other nights” — and in 2020, the Seder was markedly different even from other Seders. This year’s Seder is also shaping up to be different, but less so than last year’s. With COVID-19 case counts below their peaks and vaccination rates rising, many are feeling comfortable in gathering with at least a few more people than last year.
The Sasson family had its own Seder meal at home last year. “We tried as best as we could,” Dorit Sasson said. “It could be a lot worse. I feel bad for people who have nobody to go to. We weren’t alone singularly; we were all together as a family, but we felt like something was really off.”
Haim Sasson said the solidarity of a communal celebration is even more meaningful after the deadly anti-Semitic attack on worshippers at the Tree of Life / Or L’Simcha synagogue building in 2018. He added that such solidarity needs to be extended to Asian Americans after this month’s massacre in Atlanta and to other minority groups under siege.
“The unity is going to make us strong again, especially after these events,” he said.
Others in the Pittsburgh-area Jewish community are similarly planning for Seders that are altered, but only partly, by the pandemic.
Robin and Steve Hausman, of Whitehall, members of Temple Emanuel of South Hills in Mt. Lebanon, normally have about 20 people at their Seder. The guests include relatives both local and from out of town, plus friends, including some who have never experienced
a Seder before.
Last year, the couple had a Seder for just the two of them in person — but were joined by relatives via Zoom from various time zones.
This year, their daughter and her husband are joining them, since the four of them have been part of a “pandemic pod” already.
“There’s going to be four of us crowded around a computer here, and we will be virtual with our local and distanced families,” Robin Hausman said.
The far-flung participants will use a common Haggadah — a program for the Seder’s readings and rituals — and each of them will take a turn sharing a memory, story or description of their meal. After the ritual and the meal comes a time of music. “We are singers,” Ms. Hausman said. “We love to sing all night if we can.”
Members of Chabad of Squirrel Hill on Thursday distributed Passover kits, which include ritual food items, for members who chose to mark the holiday at home, “providing them with the means to a Seder so they could do it alone if necessary,” said Rabbi Yisroel Altein of Chabad of Squirrel Hill. But he’s also looking forward to reviving the communal Seder.
“I’m delighted there’s an opportunity to bring people together for a Seder in a safe way,” he said.
Adjustments due to the coronavirus vary in part by religious tradition within Judaism. Many in the Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform traditions will worship via Zoom or other videoconferencing technology, while observant Orthodox Jews do not use electronics on holy days such as Passover.
Temple Emanuel, which has an annual communal Seder on the second night of Passover, is holding it online this year, as the Reform congregation did last year, Rabbi Aaron Meyer said.
“At the conclusion of the seder Jews say ‘Next Year In Jerusalem,’ a hope for better days (messianic hopes) rather than a desire for airplane tickets to the modernday city,” he said via email. This year, “perhaps we all say ‘Next Year In Jerusalem...In Person!’”