Passover will not be dimmed by the coronavirus.
It cannot. A holiday that remembers biblical plagues cannot be bullied by a pandemic.
Starting Wednesday at sundown, Passover is the eight-day Jewish celebration that commemorates the Hebrew slaves winning their freedom in Egypt. It begins with the Seder. It is an event and a ritual and a storytelling, and it happens around a dinner table.
A Seder tells the story people already know, of a people bound in servitude and broken by labor being freed by a man with a staff and a mission from God. It tells of hardship and perseverance, of sorrow and struggle and, yes, of the plagues sent by God to convince the pharaoh to break their chains.
That’s the story.
The lesson is in the legacy.
Passover — named for that last horrible plague, when the Angel of Death bypassed Jewish homes and claimed the firstborn of the Egyptians — has been celebrated for thousands of years. It has been celebrated in good times and in bad.
The Jewish people have known tragedy and oppression and pain. From the lion’s den to the Nazi concentration camps, they have suffered. But through it all, they have looked to the past and celebrated the light of freedom.
A virus will not stand in the way of a history like that. It should not stand in the way for any of us, regardless of faith.
Passover was still celebrated in the darkest moments of the Holocaust. Passover was celebrated in Pittsburgh just months after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting.
On Wednesday night, Seder dinners around the world will take place, but most will be small affairs. Extended families will join over FaceTime or Zoom, observing the imperatives of social distancing to escape the scourge of the coronavirus. “Why is this night different from all other nights?” is the first question asked at a Seder table, to explain why unleavened bread and bitter herbs will be served. This year, everyone can wonder at how different this year is, from all other years.
Passover is the victory of joy over adversity. As such, it is a template for us all to move forward through the pandemic.
Being shut down, locked away from our outside lives and our livelihoods, is hard. But this too shall pass.
