Passover 5780/ 2020: A Modern Plague

Part I- Why is This Night Different …

This year as we sit with our families, many of us virtually, we relive the Israelite exodus from Egypt and teach the next generation of Jews and others, the horrors of slavery and the values of freedom.

I was taught as a child that our own historical experience as learned through the Haggadah, the small book that retells the story of the Israelite exodus from Egypt and the oppression of the pharaoh, allows us to feel others’ oppression and work for their freedom as well as our own. I also learned that we do this in America, precisely because regardless of the prejudice around us, the law protects equality of opportunity and is as much of a guarantee of mobility and free exercise of religion as we’ve ever had in our diaspora. America was “the promised land,” for many of my parent’s generation, the generation of Jewish families who came to the United States as a result of pograms or World War II. America was a “promised land” not only because it might provide the avenue for a new beginning or personal riches, but also, due to the promise of equality under the law. It offers us this precious guarantee as a minority and at the same time, obligates us to assist others on their journey to achieve the same. This can be a long, seemingly never ending, as we know through our own story as slaves in Egypt and our difficult history after that through too many historical incidents to list.

Forty years ago while growing up in a small suburban Jewish community, my family fought for the civil rights of African Americans and welcomed Cesar Chavez of the United farm workers into our synagogue to ask for our help in improving the living conditions of the farm workers. I sometimes have to remind myself of the forty years Moses and his multitudes spent wandering in the desert before reaching “the promised land,” because in so many ways, we are still fighting these same battles. Many of us look to the annual retelling of the Passover story to find the inspiration to keep going and to keep fighting the cynicism resulting from endless battles for freedom and equality of opportunity.

We are unable to come together for this year’s celebration of freedom due to a plague, a modern plague of covid-19, which has shuttered most of us in our homes, alone and behind closed doors. While covid-19 is expected to actually end, whether in two, six, or twelve months; it will leave its imprimatur on our lives and has already multiplied the severity of so many other modern ‘plagues’ such as, homelessness, hunger, racism, poverty and unemployment.

Part II- The Seder

We are unable to physically come together to teach and learn the lessons of freedom when we need it most. This years’ Seders will be done the same way we are doing business, teaching and communicating-via the internet.* The Seder itself is a remarkable instrument of teaching. Not only does it have a specific order, ( Seder means order) but within each part of that order, we learn and relearn about our own historical experience as slaves in Egypt: a hasty escape, crossing the sea at low tide while Egyptians drown chasing us, being lost and wandering in the wilderness for generations, disillusionment and finally the taste of freedom and the foundation of a new society upon reaching “the promised land.” The Israelites following Moses into the wilderness became lost, fought amongst themselves and ultimately struggled to get up each day to move forward in their desperation to get out of the wilderness to find a more comfortable independent life. Some in these wandering generations undoubtedly lost the original dream of liberation and longed to return or to “settle,” wherever they were. Moses, who remains the hero of our story, has a revered place in Jewish mythology because of his exceptional leadership holding the divided group together, coming face to face with god and passing along a system of laws to bring his people forward. He even brings the community to the brink of liberation but is unable to accompany them into “the promised land” because of his past criminal actions, the committing of a murder. To achieve freedom took vision, leadership, law and a long long time, none of which did I appreciate some time ago as I excitedly made posters and marched for civil rights and boycotted grapes, believing I was changing the world then and there.

The allegories and lessons of the Exodus are repeated year after year to temper our hubris and arrogance, the dislike of which may have come from the earliest Seder rituals inherited from Hellenistic culture. We modeled the Seder experience after another Greek ritual, the Greek symposia. The Seder (symposia) is a relaxed get together, including reclining, lots of wine, singing and eating all throughout which manages to keep some of us awake during the long narrative which resembles a terrific thriller. The story of oppression, killing, plagues, escape, hope, Moses’ and his multitudes, the burning bush, a trip to the highest mountain, a visit from God, receiving the Ten Commandments and permission to enter “the promised land” -without their leader who had led them through it all, is so rambling that there is always something new to pick up on or learn again.

Part III- The Exodus

During the Seder, we did the ritual of spilling one drop of wine for each plague which God visited on the pharaoh. In Pharaoh’s anger and cynicism he put the whole of his nation, including his own people, through the hardships of each plague while punishing the Israelites for wanting their freedom. After experiencing ten vicious plagues one after another, Pharaoh had enough and gave a final warning that he and his men held the Israelites responsible and planned to wipe out their community. Evidently. It took ten vicious plagues too, for the Israelites to understand that Pharoah will never give them ‘permission’ to leave and their status will never change should they remain. In other words, it took a long while for the Israelites to “act” to save their own lives and as a consequence, the Jews left so fast that they didn’t have a chance to bring with them leavened bread. ( therefore the matzoh). Whether separated by pride or the perception of others, there is a lesson here too about self identification and recognition to fight complacency, come together as an oppressed group and make a choice to act, fight back or flee. The Israelites and the Jews have learned this lesson repeatedly from their history.

What follows in the Seder narrative is the actual experience of the Exodus. A disparate group of Israelites from different tribes and regions with differing rituals and behaviors are thrown together to wander in the wilderness for at least three generations. They begin their journey separate struggling to create a united community, at least until Moses receives the laws at Mount Sinai which provide a common ethical foundation upon which the refugees can enter the land of Canaan as a somewhat organized and unified ‘nation.’ Here we leave them to create their own history as the Jewish people.

Part IV- A Modern Pharoah

It struck more than one of us in the Passover zoom-room that we are in fact living through a true modern plague resembling those of old, albeit with advantages, thank god. Many of us can access food, medicine, the internet, and brilliant, skilled and compassionate hospital and medical personnel. Currently, we have a pharaoh who at first refused to even see a plague approaching and therefore, like the ancient Egyptian pharaoh, refuses to see its hardships because they don’t touch him. This myopia visits more sickness and suffering on his own people, not just the detested minorities. The Egyptian pharaoh no doubt wanted to hold on to the labor and tributes he received from the Israelites and others in his land, as they built his palaces, pyramids and watched over his children. These are undoubtedly, the reasons pharoah was so reluctant to give in to Moses’ entreaties to ‘let his people go.’ Our own pharoah too appears to be more concerned with “getting back….” and reviving an economy which benefits and empowers his ilk, before ending the coronavirus pandemic. He appears to be uninterested in learning from his scientific and medical advisors how and when the plague will run its course thereby enabling his subjects to return to work “safely.” Our pharoah is unlikely to look beyond his own borders to seek alternative models of economic activity while the pandemic spreads. In all ways, human life appears to be held hostage to economic activity. Rather than let the naysayers and prickly resisters get their way, this pharaoh has resisted all entreaties to “mitigate” the spread of the virus through any of the following public health recommendations: national emergency mobilization, creation of a national stockpile to facilitate successful logistical efficiencies and putting into effect the actual use of the Defense Production Act. Finally, there is no indication that this pharoah is committed to timely testing, tracking and tracing, which most epidemiologists suggest is the only avenue to a safe return to economic activity. Instead, lies, misleading statistics, misguided recommendations for cures and petty animosities, keep today’s pharaoh front and center, seemingly for self interest and partisan politics, rather than the health of the nation.

The question is then, how do we articulate and advocate for our freedom without simply waiting for another catastrophe to strike, as the Israelites did in pharaoh’s Egypt. Fortunately, In the case of the current plague, there are Moses’s in nearly every state. These heroes are working together to complement each other’s actions by tackling the health emergencies facing us bypassing the inaction and incompetence of the pharaoh.

Part V- The Promised Land

Finally, the plagues wore down even the Egyptian pharaoh until he threatened the lives of the Israelites either as scapegoats or because of their perceived annoying and constant pleas for freedom. The Israelites themselves, finally woke to act on their own. Unfortunately, they acted as a reaction, remaining complacent until their very lives were in danger. This might also be a warning to us all to get our “bags” packed but not to run quite yet, especially since It doesn’t appear there is any place to run. There may be time to build resources and launch a resistance to overcome this pharaoh’s actions regarding the virus and the economy- before he further jeopardizes the health and welfare of his subjects..

Like the Israelites of old, many in America today identify themselves as belonging to different tribes, classes, ideological and spiritual affiliations. Like Moses and his multitudes, perhaps it is not too much to hope that as we come out of the wilderness, the plague of covid-19, and indeed the chaos of the last three years of the Trump administration; we can come together by refusing to “lean in” to these labels and divisions amongst ourselves. These divisions are reinforced by the pharaohs’ elites to keep these groups separate as opposed to uniting together against him. The Passover story teaches us that It is possible to rekindle and create nationhood using the legal codes and ethical norms which our own forebears bequeathed to us, imperfect as they may be.

It took ten plagues for the Israelites to seize their freedom from the wicked pharaoh. We imagine the hardship during the time of the Egyptian pharaoh to be of a physical nature, exposure, cold, hunger and brute force. The actions of our own pharaoh appear to be much more insidious. His power is reinforced through mendaciousness, malevolence and the manipulation of facts. This plague has revealed however the fissures in our society that while dividing the community cause enormous physical suffering. To name a few, they are: the suffering of midwestern farmers due to needless trade wars, Americans suffering without homes, food and a living wage, and those from far away who attempt to flee their suffering who still believe that our country is “the promised land” and who arrive at our borders only to be imprisoned. Perhaps most tragic, is that we see so clearly as a result of covid-19, the unequal distribution of health care as long as it is tied to employment and wealth and not considered a natural right of all.

When our exodus out of the covid-19 fog finally occurs, what lessons will we have learned? Will we emerge to improve our lives and the lives of others? Post plague reality opens up opportunities to throw over the modern pharoah and the terribly lop-sided status quo, perhaps through an election. Which will lead to significant changes in social and economic policy. We can emerge from this crisis not only with our characteristic resiliency, but to create a revival of the American dream which includes newer values of equality and inclusiveness. We have this opportunity as well as prevent the rise of new pharaohs while engaging with global allies to prevent the rise of another deadly plague clouding the future.

At next year’s Seder tables, gathered together in each other’s tables, perhaps we can celebrate our own escape from the plague of covid-19 by throwing off the yoke of both ancient and modern pharaohs. Perhaps we can tell the story of our struggles for a new kind of liberation, regardless of how long it takes and how much marching we do. We will have an American people’s “Haggadah” and its story to tell.

Part VI- The Ten Plagues: then and now

Blood. Bigotry and xenophobia

Frogs. Enabling the plague by ignoring intelligence, failure in mass testing and central coordination of the crisis

Lice. Rhetorical manipulation and lies regarding science and fact

Beasts. Disregard for freedom and activity of the press.

Cattle disease. Placing citizens lives in jeopardy leading to illness and loss of life

Boils. Reduction in administrative capacity regarding all aspects of intelligence and responsible governance and lack of responsible government oversight, thereby diminishing the legitimacy and trust in government

Hail. Weakening the authority of the citizenry while emboldening the central authority of the executive with nepotism and cronyism

Locusts. Lack of transparency and rhetorical campaigns meant to mislead for self interest and partisan ends

Darkness. Ignoring the government mandate of founding fathers regarding the separation of powers thereby placing at risk democratic foundations of state

Death of the first born. Instilling fear, distrust, infighting, and dividing one from the other through verbal and personal abuse from the executive

Note

*I am aware that some orthodox rabbis in Israel have not given this sort of techno Seder their kashrus. I’m not too concerned given that some of these same rebbies are still not explicitly discouraging. attendance at bar mitzvahs, weddings etc. during this time thereby jeopardizing their own community’s health.