Celebrating Passover a challenge this year

Stay-at-home orders won’t keep Jews from observing Seder, but friends and family could be left out.

The heart of the Seder, the ceremonial meal that kicks off the annual Jewish celebration of Passover, begins with a question: Why is this night different from all other nights?

As this year’s observance begins tonight, the question could just as easily be: How is this Passover different from all other Passovers?

Yes, the COVID-19 pandemic is having an impact on this holiday celebration just as it is on Christian Holy Week activities and as it will on the upcoming Muslim observance of Ramadan.

Passover commemorates the exodus of the Jewish slaves from Egypt as recorded in the Bible. It’s fascinating to examine that story and the Passover traditions that go with it in the context of our current situation.

The good news is that Seders traditionally are held in people’s homes. So rules barring people from gathering at houses of worship won’t necessarily keep Jews from observing the most popular ritual of the holiday.

The bad news is that families who hold Seders typically invite plenty of relatives and friends to take part. Having guests is a tradition spelled out plainly in the evening’s liturgy: “Let all who are hungry come and eat.” Many families invite non-Jewish friends to participate, since the story has powerful meaning to Christians and Jews alike, and there are strong theological connections between Passover and the Easter season. But of course this year large gatherings at home are a no-no.

Nevertheless, Seders will go on, and participants will have plenty to ponder. They will be recounting the plagues that beset Egypt even as they live in a world experiencing a plague right now.

The name of the holiday refers to the biblical plague in which the first-born sons of Egypt were killed, but the angel of death passed over the homes of Jews and spared them from that punishment. This year Jews will commemorate the holiday while huddled in their own homes in hopes of being spared and sparing others from illness.

One particularly challenging aspect of this year’s observance is that Passover is a celebration of freedom, but at the moment people are not feeling nearly as free as they usually do in this nation and others that cherish liberty. That’s for good reason, of course. Public health is at stake, and the restrictions in place now will not last forever.

Having to do without certain things can even enhance one’s understanding of the holiday. Seder participants are instructed to regard themselves as if they personally had been freed from slavery in the exodus. The hardships we are living through now, trivial compared with what the ancient Israelites and other Jews of the past had to endure, should make people that much more grateful for the gifts they have enjoyed and hopefully will again in the not-too-distant future.

Even if we can’t gather in groups, it’s crucial that people of different religions continue the common contemporary practice of interfaith outreach during this season of tremendously important holidays. Each of us can still learn from the other, regardless of whether or not we’re in the same room.

With the coronavirus dominating the news, it might be easy to forget that religious intolerance has been growing here and around the world in recent years. For the first time in generations, many American Jews no longer feel secure in their houses of worship or expressing their faith publicly. It is up to all people of goodwill to turn the tide and ensure that Jews and other religious minorities feel welcome in their communities.

To do otherwise is to dismiss the valuable lessons of history so devastatingly and succinctly described in the Haggadah, the Seder prayer book: “In each and every generation they rise up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be he, rescues us from their hands.” Indeed, to fight intolerance is to do God’s work.

As this most unusual Passover celebration begins, let us pray for better times ahead not just in terms of surviving this pandemic, but with determination to heal the world in the months and years to come.