April 8, 2020

On the night of April 8, we come together to celebrate the story of Passover and the freeing of the Jews from Egypt. In the Torah, God has always done things to cleanse the world. I wonder if the fact that the world is in the midst of the coronavirus during this year’s Passover is some sort of sign.

Every year, families sit at the Passover seder and the kids ask the “Four Questions.”  This year, I have my own four questions.

1.  Why is this year different than any other year?

Many of us are used to having a large seder with extended family and friends. This year, we are having virtual seders online.  Also, this year, we may want to add the coronavirus as one of the plagues we dip our finger into the wine for.

In the Passover story God inflicts 10 plagues upon Egypt for keeping the Jews enslaved. Over the past several years, the modern world has see its share of “plagues” that in many ways resemble the plagues that God sent to Egypt when he was trying to get Pharaoh to listen and change his ways. The plagues continued because Pharaoh wouldn’t given in, even after multiple plagues.

Maybe God been trying to send us a modern-day message. There have been major floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters throughout the world in recent years. For a short period of time after each disaster, parts of the world would come together to help. However everyone soon went back their normal way of living. Maybe God kept sending more and more natural disasters, hoping that we would wake up, but realized it wasn’t enough to get the world to change its ways permanently.

Now, like the horrific 10th plague of the killing of the firstborn males in Egypt, we have a virus that has affected every person on the planet. This might be the only time in modern history that the entire world has literally been stopped in its tracks.

Before the coronavirus, our world was out of control in many ways. People were constantly running in circles, too busy for their families, fighting each other over politics and religion. Racism is on the rise and we have been hard on the environment. Children have been over programmed, often focused on meaningless drama and meaningless things in general, and not appreciative of the little luxuries in life. Could the coronavirus be God’s eye opener for our world?

2.  Will good things come out of this situation?

We have seen throughout history that there can be light at the end of the tunnel. At the end of the Passover story, we were given the Ten Commandments.  At the end of the Holocaust, the State of Israel was born.

Maybe this worldwide pandemic will result in the re-set button the world needs. In the Torah, there are mandatory re-set buttons such as Shabbat. There is even the shmitta rule where we need to let the land and animals rest every 7th year.

The world has literally stopped in many ways. People are slowing down, reconnecting with their immediate families. Neighbors are helping neighbors, pollution is clearing up (this week in Los Angeles the air quality has been better than it has been in many years), the entire planet is working together and we are learning to appreciate the little things in life such as the ability to give someone a hug or to go to school, which we all complained about and took for granted. Now, when we go back to school, many will be grateful for the privilege of learning and being with friends every day.

3.  Will our worldwide bonds be strengthened? 

I can’t think of another time in history that the entire world was fighting towards one goal. It’s almost as if aliens invaded, yet this alien is microscopic. Countries are helping each other by sending ventilators and other life-saving equipment. Doctors worldwide are sharing their findings to help people who are sick with the virus, and world leaders are mostly supporting each other’s efforts. This virus does not discriminate, and it seems like people are now realizing that we are all in this together. We are now one race – the human race.

4.  Will our religious faith be strengthened during this challenging time?

The world has always seen tragedies, but this time it has affected the entire planet.  Many people are anxious and afraid. Some teens have lost faith, or their faith is now shaken, asking why God isn’t intervening and making things better. Others, however, are finding strength in God and their religion. Hopefully, this will pass soon, and we will all be stronger for it.

The sages teach, “In every generation every individual must feel ‘as if’’ s/he came out of Egypt.” Two little words, ‘as if’, which are the hallmark of what this upcoming holiday is about, being able to imagine, to feel, to identify, with others. As we all huddle in our homes, this year, friends and family, just a click away on Zoom, it is easy to imagine, and feel, ‘as if,’ we too must come out of Egypt. The word Mitzrayim literally means ‘from a troubled, tight and narrow place.’ Just as our ancestors were surrounded by the thick darkness of the ninth plague and hearing the sounds of death around them, so we too are enclosed by an amorphous and invisible darkness, one that threatens not only those in far off lands but indiscriminately reaches out to each and every individual in the world, no matter age, sex, color, or religion.

And if you imagine ‘as if’ you were those manning the corridors of our hospitals, makeshift healing centers, or even hotels for convalescing, you would hear the cries, the suffocating sounds, and even the last breaths of our fellows. You would feel the exhaustion and the frustration of limited supplies, the unending days of surrendering to the needs and the calls of their responsibility. You would feel the exasperation and the horrific thoughts and fears of deciding who gets the ventilator and who does not. Yes to allow our selves to feel ‘as if’ we too were those on the front lines who sacrifice, make offerings, korbanot, of themselves so ‘some will live and some will die.’

As we sit in gratitude being spared to live another day, to appreciate those with
extraordinary talent who hurriedly search for cures, to honor those who man the
grocery stores and create meals for pick up, the selfless first responders willing to
save another life though theirs is compromised, to imagine those saying goodbye to
their families, perhaps not being able to return if they too have succumb to ‘test
positive,’ – yes in every corner of this vast country there are those we must feel,
imagine, and empathize with. This Passover every individual must feel ‘as if’’ s/he is connected to the past, the ancestors who awaited a journey of liberation, to the present, our neighbors who serve and protect, and the future, those who will have left this earth after returning their last breath and those who survive holding inconsolable grief.

“In every generation every individual must feel ‘as if’ he came out of Egypt – the
restricted spaces so many of us confront knowing that true freedom surpasses
physical limitations but is the soul’s journey to awakening, to new understanding,
growth, expansion, and a gratitude for hope and life like we never felt before.