On Wednesday night, as Jews around the world observe Passover, they will have to adapt long-standing traditions. Usually, Passover is a time when extended family or community members join together for a Seder meal to commemorate the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt. This year, the holiday will have to be observed with Jews in isolation beyond their immediate families.
Those whose level of observance allows them to use electricity will likely be connecting with outside family through a video conferencing platform to try to replicate as best as possible some sort of communal experience.
But the story of Passover itself, as well as its history of observance over thousands of years, is an example of how religion can provide inspiration and perspective as the world navigates the difficult times brought on by the coronavirus pandemic — a modern sort of plague.
On Passover, Jews retell the story of their liberation from slavery in Egypt. The Haggadah, which is the guidebook used to conduct the Seder, explains how every successive generation of Jews is obligated to regard themselves as if they, too, had come out of Egypt. The obligation is both a way of expressing gratitude to God for freedom, but also to never forget the hardships that ancestors had to endure. The matzo that’s eaten during the week of Passover is a reminder that when Jews had to flee Egypt, they did not have time to wait for bread to rise, so they had to bake unleavened bread.
Not only is the Passover story an incredible one of survival, but the fact that its observance today has endured is itself a testament to perseverance.
During the Spanish Inquisition, observance of Passover was one of the criteria that was used to determine whether somebody was illegally practicing Judaism. Were they found to be observing the holiday, Jews would be tortured or even killed. On the first night of Passover, soldiers would barge into the homes of those who had been Jewish to check if they were covertly holding a Seder. In some cases, Jews had to go literally underground and hold Seders in the darkened basements of Christian neighbors. They risked death because it was important to them to pass on the tradition to their children.
The infamous “blood libel” centered on the idea that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make matzo.
In 1941, in the Gurs camp in France, one prisoner wrote a Haggadah by hand from memory over the course of months. It was duplicated and distributed among prisoners. Recalled one prisoner, “At the time, celebrating the Passover holiday in the Gurs camp, we felt as if a refreshing breeze from the Promised Land had descended upon us via the desert: ‘By the strength of His hand, God took us out from the house of slavery.'”
One Holocaust survivor tells the story of how Jews managed to hold a Seder at the Vaihingen concentration camp, setting up a sophisticated operation to make matzo secretly and hide it from Nazi guards.
The Soviet Union also tried, unsuccessfully, to stamp out Judaism by focusing on the Seder. In the 1920s, the Soviets tried to co-opt the holiday by creating a “Red Haggadah” that framed the Passover story as one of Jews being liberated from the slavery of capitalism. And that was the relatively safe time for Jews in the Soviet Union — things got much worse under Joseph Stalin, and yet, observant Jews still found a way to commemorate Passover.
The coming weeks are going to be a painful time in America as more people become incredibly sick and die from COVID-19, businesses and their workers struggle to survive, and the stress and discomfort of social isolation begin to take their toll even on those who are relatively fortunate. But for those observing Passover, the continuation of a long tradition, and the perspective that it brings, will help them see a glimmer of light breaking through the dark tunnel ahead.
