This Year Is Different Than All Other Years
Why is this seder night different from all others? This year, no one will have to ask.
Our Passover plans have been totally upended. We're all in different places. Travel itineraries were disrupted, then totally canceled.
We’re worried about our own health and how we can avoid making anyone else sick. We worry about family members near and far. We worry about the education of our children.
Our professional lives have been rocked and our income may be compromised. We are seeing shortages of household items we took for granted in our 21st-century lives; and we still have our regular concerns about the state of the nation and the world.
On top of that, making a Passover seder while social distancing? Is it even possible?
There’s no template for this. Or is there?
In every generation, we have confronted challenge, as Jews or as members of the larger human species. We suffer loss, we grieve; we feel pain, we need time to recuperate; and then, if we can, we move forward.
The Passover Haggadah is our people's nimble template: it charts the plagues of the past, both literal/medical and metaphorical/spiritual; our history is forged and illuminated by our culture, our culture is shaped and deepend by our history.
This year, we add new selections to the template, new pages to the Haggadah, new perspectives through our contemporary lens. We look to history and culture for coping mechanisms. For me, pop culture is a port in a storm, a lens through which to examine history and deepen my understanding of others.
In this Haggadah in progress, I'm starting with a liberal Haggadah base, and adding pop culture infused pieces as well as other observations on the Jewish themes of the holiday. I hope that these selections bring a smile, spark discussion, or provide additional meaning at your seder tables.
May this Passover be the last we spend in such upheaval, and may we soon be able to say, "next year in a world, once fragmented, again made whole."
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Passover Guide
Hosting your first Passover Seder? Not sure what food to serve? Curious to
know more about the holiday? Explore our Passover 101 Guide for answers
to all of your questions.