New rules mean Seders in Maryland will be different
As the sun sets Wednesday, Marylanders of the Jewish faith will light a candle signaling the start of the weeklong holiday of Passover. It’s a celebration, like so many, that will look different this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Passover, one of the most widely celebrated Jewish holidays, brings family and friends together to commemorate the Jewish people leaving Egypt and slavery to start their journey to the promised land of Israel, according to Dr. Paul Scham, executive director and research associate professor at the Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies at the University of Maryland.
“In practice, it is a home holiday as opposed to a synagogue holiday,” Scham said. “It’s the family getting together. It’s similar to Christmas or Thanksgiving in that people, even if they aren’t religious at all, this is something they celebrate. Imagine Christmas without being able to see your family; that’s what is happening.”
The Passover Seder, a ceremonial dinner that signals the start of the holiday, brings generations of family together to tell stories, drink wine and eat symbolic foods. By the nature of coronavirus gathering rules and regulations, Seders across the county and Maryland will look different. Immediate family members may be able to celebrate together, but larger celebrations will have to wait until next year.
“Despite the physical distancing, I do expect that this holiday will be a moving experience for Jews," said Rabbi Andrew Busch of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. "I believe it will be intensified by the conditions.”
Busch said his congregation will be hosting virtual Seders via Zoom on the first and second nights of Passover.
“This is the congregation’s190th anniversary year and I assure you we’ve never had a Passover like this one,” Busch, 54, said.
This year for the first time, the clergy, the staff and 50 volunteers will have attempted to call each of the 3,000 members of the congregation, by the time Passover begins Wednesday night.
“We have attempted to wish them a happy Passover and also to check in on how they’re doing in the midst of this,” Busch said.
In Laurel, Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde of Oseh Shalom has been conducting services on the Zoom online conference platform since March 15. He is planning an hourlong virtual Seder for members of his synagogue on the second night of Passover. While it is traditional for Jewish families to gather on the first night of Passover, some also choose to have a second Seder service.
Before coronavirus, Jacobs-Velde, 43, of Takoma Park, wasn’t planning to host a second Seder, but the realities of the pandemic inspired him to try something new and to connect members with one another.
“One thing we can do is really take care of ourselves, doing whatever we need to do to feel grounded, to feel a connection to God,” Jacobs-Velde said, “so that we can be acting from that place as opposed to acting from a place of fear and anxiety.”
For Rabbi Hillel Baron, who serves as the Jewish Federation of Howard County’s community chaplain, connecting with community members is more important now than ever.
In his role, Baron visits 10 to 12 hospitals, nursing homes and senior care facilities to provide spiritual support. Those in-person visits are no longer possible.
“Now that physical presence has been curtailed, I try to be present in a virtual way,” said Baron, 57, of Columbia. “To be able to allow or facilitate spiritual support over the telephone, email, Zoom, whichever way it might be.”
Baron has learned to take videos of himself, because of the coronavirus. Lessons well learned, he said, if they could help him connect people to their faith in this unprecedented time amid a widely celebrated holiday.
“A friend of mine from Yeshiva [a Jewish college in Montreal] passed away from coronavirus two days ago. He was 56,” Baron said. “Everyone, rightfully so, is anxious. It gives cause for the need to support each other in this time.”