Stream of Consciousness
Just before the holiday a friend of mine pointed out that this will be the first Seder, since the original one in Egypt, that Jews will be locked in their homes while waiting out a plague.
I am glad we didn't need to put blood on the doorpost.
When we lived in NYC we used to host over 40 people. This year we were 7.We were lucky. A lot of people had no one. Especially older people who can't risk being exposed to the younger members of their families. It is sad but there was no choice.
In order to try to mitigate the loneliness, eight Sephardi orthodox rabbis ruled that it would be permissible to have a Zoom Seder. People set up Zoom before the holiday and watched each other so they would not be alone. Most rabbis had rejected this idea without rejecting ( or being able to reject ) the halachic reasons behind this. I did not be have a Zoom seder, but I think it is great , that in a time when rabbi's are no longer willing to make things easier, some were brave enough to try.
A few nice things for the holiday. There was a televised Seder featuring the president of Israel, various politicians and famous performers, so as to once again make sure people didn't feel alone. Over 1.3 million people tuned in for this.
This was another thing I did not participate in but it was a nice idea. What I did participate in was the 8:30pm nationwide manishtana singalong. Although we were long past saying it, my family and I went to our roof and got ready to sing. As 8:30 came and went , we realized that our loser neighborhood was not going to participate.
So we sang by ourselves.
After the chag I heard that many people in much cooler neighborhoods , did go out on their roofs, porches etc and did sing. There are some really inspiring YouTube videos showing these mostly off-tune singalongs.
This is the first year in my life that I did not have hand baked Matzah. This was always a big deal in our family. My father would even go the morning before pesach to get some of the last Matzah's baked before the holiday. I miss that.
I miss him.
As much as anything Passover is about family and tradition. We missed out on a bit of both this year. I also must admit that I was scared to order the hand baked Matzah as it is all made by Haredim. I know this may be ridiculous but since the last post , I have been hearing of so may people we have connections to getting sick and dying , I am glad I let my fear get the best of me.
If you haven't heard the entire county went on lock-down at 7 pm before the Seder. That was to prevent people from getting together in large numbers for the Seder. You would think this is not necessary but it was. In our house Passover is a holiday that you spend with family , friends and guests. The impulse to invite someone is strong. The government is doing the right thing. The faster we get past this the better. Unfortunately, the news of the lock-down somehow did not get to our Prime Minster, President and several other high ranking officials.
What is wrong with these people??
Seriously.
On to more important issues. I am not sure what is happening in the USA but here, Netflix, announced they will reduce the quality of the streaming as to take up less bandwidth.
Give me a break. The internet stinks here when no one is using it. Now I have to watch fuzzy shows as well.
Speaking of which, we just finished Unorthodox, a 4 part series about a Haredi women from Williamsburg and how she tries to leave her community. I have very mixed feelings about the show but I loved hearing the yiddush, which was great.
A much better show is Tiger King. If you don't know what I am talking about look it up, its nuts. It is unbelievable who we share this planet with.
The fact that I even watched a show called Tiger King shows the desperate times we live in. My daughter recommended it and the truth is that I could not stop watching even though I felt my brain-cells melting while I was. I have since moved to more highbrow entertainment and have been binging everything Dave Chappelle. The guy is truly a genius and it is worth trying anything that can put a smile on your face.
Lastly, I just read that it looks like we are headed to election #4.
Just when you thought things could't get more exciting.