By Michael Thomas IV
Six months ago we booked our annual trip to DC to celebrate the Passover seder with my relatives. The visit to DC isn’t just for the seder, though; it is also to catch up with cousins that I never see and to spend time with my grandparents. We see cherry blossoms in bloom, we go to museums, and there is nice enough weather to walk around because, unlike in Boston, spring actually starts on time. When concerns around COVID-19 grew about a month ago, we started canceling our vacation flights. Our flight to DC, however, seemed far enough away that we might still be able to make it.
Passover drew nearer and nearer and news about the pandemic only got worse. Our temple’s services of Shabbat, a time when we usually put aside electronics, went online, and I began to wonder what was going to happen with Passover. When it became clear that our trip to DC was not going to happen, we started digging out old recipes for Passover foods, because we could no longer rely on my grandma’s cooking. People started thinking about a Zoom Passover.
One of the best parts of Passover at my cousins’ house is searching for the afikomen. This is a Passover tradition where the parents, at some point in the seder, would hide a special piece of Matzah called the afikomen, and the children would have to search for it. We often made teams and the parents sometimes made bets on which kid would find it first. Once the afikomen was found, the children would engage in lengthy negotiations with the parents for extra desserts. Whatever we do this year won’t be the same. This is just one of the many ways that our Passover tradition will have to change. For example, just like Shabbat, part of the tradition is stepping away from our phones and TV and other electronics, but instead, we are embedding electronics into our seder this year. We are planning for there to be a big screen in the center of the table on which we are going to Zoom and for everyone to have their phones out with a pdf of the Hagadda, the guide book for the seder. Another huge difference this year will be the fact that I will not have the opportunity to see and connect with my cousins and grandparents in person.
Passover is only three days away and I’m optimistic about it, but it won’t be the same. At the end of every seder, we say, “L’Shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim,” or, “Next year in Jerusalem.” I have no clue what next year’s seder will bring. I don’t even know how Wednesday’s seder will turn out, but I know that it will be unlike any that I or anybody has ever had, and I hope that my family and every other family will be able to make it through this epidemic and spend next year’s seder together. Instead of “next year in Jerusalem,” we will all say, “Next year in person.”