By Jordan Darling, Editor-in-Chief
Wednesday, April 8 marked the beginning of the week-long Jewish holiday Passover, the commemoration of the Israelites leaving Egypt and breaking the bonds of slavery through the grace of God. For 2,000 years the Jewish people have gathered despite hardship, persecution, and uncertainty, including Russian pogroms in the 19th Century and the Holocaust in the 20th. to commemorate the plight of our ancestors and remember the trials they went through.
For people of the Christian faith, you may be familiar with the story of Passover as it launches the book of Exodus, and the Last Supper, where Judas betrayed Jesus, which I present the abridged version of Exodus and the “reason for the season.”
Moses approached the Pharaoh and said: “Let my people go.” Then the Pharaoh said “No.”
And then after the death of his first son through the last of the 10 plagues, which passed over the Jewish people, the Pharaoh said: “Okay. I get it. Leave.”
The Jewish people quickly packed their belongings and fled the land of Eygpt.
They left so quickly that they only had matzo which is a type of unleavened bread (this is important as it greatly affects my eating habits this week).
Moses parted the Red Sea and was given the Ten Commandments by G-d and then the Israelites wandered the desert for 40 years.
The part I would like to bring special attention to is the plagues, and the irony that the exodus of our ancestors commemorated every Passover by the Jewish people was triggered by plagues, and a plague will greatly hinder that commemoration this year.
For the Jewish people, like most religious groups, their houses of worship have been closed due to the pandemic and families are scrambling to find a way to observe the holiday together despite the stay-at-home order and forced social isolation due to COVID-19.
Many families will be gathering around more than the Seder plate as they try to fit everyone into the screen to celebrate the holiday together.
My family traditionally gathers on the first Seder, which is the first night of Passover, to read the Haggadah, a prayer book, and bless the matzo together.
Normally 20 or more people pack into my grandparent’s dining room and share booklets, elbowing each other throughout the long and monotonous process.
This year was slightly different but just as chaotic, two of my cousins and I along with my grandparents and an aunt and uncle gathered at the table with a laptop opened in the corner so my siblings, their families, and my parents could be a part of the tradition.
My papa read the story of our ancestor’s flight from Eygpt over the ruckus of my nieces and nephews screaming in the background and we promised that next year we would be together in Jerusalem.
Tradition and modern technology are not the first things I think of when I am looking for a perfect pairing.
Often the two mix like water and oil, however this year technology was the perfect tool to keep my family connected and allow us to come together to practice a tradition that stems back 2,000 years.
This year it felt like the plague really passed over my family.
