The spread of the coronavirus is perfectly timed for Passover, a holiday often described as a Jewish Thanksgiving. Both holidays draw extended families and friends together around a table of food. But, for Jews, it feels like this year, Thanksgiving has been canceled.
Because of the quarantine orders, some Jewish families will go online and share their seders with loved ones via Zoom or Skype. Others will hunker down with their spouse and/or children. And some Jews will spend Passover all alone. We will be segregated by household, to be precise.
In the Book of Exodus, on the eve of the final plague, the Jews were instructed to paint the blood of a lamb on their doors to ensure they would be spared from the 10th plague. Each family was to stay in their own home and eat their own Passover meal.
“…On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn male, both man and beast, and I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt. 3The blood on the houses where you are staying will distinguish them; when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. ” —Exodus 12:12-13
In times of peace and prosperity, Passover is like Thanksgiving. But G-d wants us to also remember a time that was utterly terrifying. G-d had just decimated the land of Egypt with horrific plagues—the final and most brutal of which was happening the night of the very first pascal “feast.” He told our ancestors to eat “in haste,” with our bags packed, and our sandals strapped on. So we ate alone in our homes, with a terrifying plague just outside our doors.
Sound familiar?
This year, as we eat our Passover meals without guests, just the people in our household, and with a genuine plague right outside our doors, we will be forced to remember.
But, the Exodus story isn’t about terror—it’s about freedom. The plague we’re all hiding from is changing us. We won’t be the same when we come out on the other side. Some of us will stay the same, of course—hoarding even more toilet paper for the next disaster. But many more of us will remember how neighbors shared with neighbors, how communities exchanged workdays for lives, and how nations shared resources and knowledge with other nations.
G-d led His people out of Egypt to receive His law at Mount Sinai. The law that commands us to love our G-d with all our heart, all our soul, and all our might. And the law the commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves.
May this night indeed be different from all other nights. And may our modern-day plague draw us closer to each other, and to G-d.