To Seder are not to Seder, that is the question

Passover begins April 8 in the evening with the first Seder. I’ve been reading online and hearing from some friends about postponing the Passover Seder this year because families and friends can’t gather due to the coronavirus. I’ve heard some people talk about holding the Seder on Pesach Sheni. Pesach Sheni means "Second Passover [Sacrifice]." It marks the day when someone who was unable to participate in the Passover offering in the proper time would observe the mitzvah exactly one month later. (See Numbers 9:6-9 for the origin of Pesach Sheni.) I appreciate why people might want to do that.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend that we do NOT postpone the Passover Seder this year nor wait until Pesach Sheni to celebrate Passover for several reasons. First of all, we have good reason to believe that we still will be self-isolating ourselves on Pesach Sheni, beginning May 7th and continuing through May 8th. Families and friends still will not be able to gather. Secondly, I believe there’s power in having a Seder when Jews all over the world are doing thing at the same time. We unite with our people, past, present, and future. Thirdly, I believe we need the Seder’s message of hope during these difficult times.

I appreciate how difficult it will be to run a Seder this year. Some seders will be intimate; others will use online platforms to gather people together. All I can say is just do your best. To help you, every day I’m going to share with you a commentary on the Haggadah that I have chosen specifically with the message helping deal us through this sad reality.

The first commentary comes from the Ayeka Haggadah: Hearing Your Own Voice by Aryeh ben David

The Exodus has given hope to generations-and this year, at our Seder, we need to give hope to ourselves.

Over 3000 years ago, a group of people, enslaved for generations, lost hope of ever being free. No slave had ever escaped from Egypt, and the Jewish slaves had given up calling out for help. When Moses promised them freedom, they couldn’t even listen. Yet, just one year later, this powerless group had awakened, challenged the world’s strongest leader, and emerge triumphant.

This outlandishly radical, and possible story of success is a paradigm of hope that has inspired people of all faiths and nationalities throughout the centuries.

Hope is the most precious gift that exists. The mystics would say that our soul is hardwired for hope. We certainly feel better about ourselves and others when hope fills our being. Yet hope withers easily in the face of disappointment and hardship. We are afraid that our dreams will lead to disappointment, and it is all too easy to become disillusioned toxic cynics who ridicule optimists and visionaries. The hopeless state drains the life of our eyes and the health of our bodies.

Then comes the Passover Seder, the antidote to hopelessness. The Exodus story is an overcoming of impossible odds, a triumph over all powerful enemies. Reliving the Exodus gives us the will and strength to hope once again, to discover our vision for a better world and a better “me.”

Hope is the gift Jews have given to the world, and hope is the most important gift we can give each other during our Seder. By reliving the Haggadah, we refill our hope-tanks with strong fuel from the deepest reservoirs….

Though we are no longer slaves, we each remain stuck in some part of our lives. The Passover Seder is a de-stuckifying experience.

This is not always easy. Getting unstuck-making changes- is scary and can overwhelm us. It makes us venture into the unknown and take risks. We may fail; we may wander for years in the desert. Toddlers don’t began walking without falling hard and often. But they don’t stay down; they get up and move forward.

Hope is the springboard for next steps. We need to replenish our personal hope-tanks, to bond with kindred supportive spirits, to embrace the challenge of change ourselves and the world. Hope has been the sole of the Jewish people for over 3000 years. Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let my People go!”  We have to ingest these words anew every year, in order to strengthen ourselves and to overcome the fear of the unknown, to march forward, slowly but defiantly for the Promised Land. (page 12)

During this pandemic the world and we need hope more than ever and that’s why think why we should hold our Passover Seder’s on-time in order to replenish our hope-tanks.