Pesach Limitations re: Corona (Spiele 2020 pt. 3)

(Written in the Summer, only sections colored in blue were written after this was first drafted, with a new focus to the coronavirus. This is part 3 of a 5-part text)

Part 3: Why is this night different (to the Jews)

Picking up where we left off, is that Passover is, as I would argue, the most egalitarian Jewish holiday, but perhaps the most fundamental part of Passover, in my opinion, is that it marks the start of a journey of thousands of years and countless generations who followed the Torah, and everything that came after. Really, I will say that it is a story of liberation. But the Torah, the Nevi’i'm, the Mishah, the Gemara, all of it really is a series of guides for how to live our lives. If someone came to me now and said, “excuse me, I know you’re enjoying life, but how would you enjoy hundreds (sort of) of extra rules, including a whole new schedule, diet etc.?” I would not be interested in that terrible sales-pitch. But the difference here is not even the message per se but the context. It is not easy to keep kosher for Passover. Kosher for Passover food itself is not known for being cheap, and even those in an already kosher-for-the-other-51-weeks-of-a-year house need to spend some intense time boiling utensils and pots, cleaning the ovens, scrubbing the floors ad nauseum, and even cleaning out the pages of books etc. etc. That’s not freedom; it’s not liberation, some might say, that’s work, and that’s expense. Or how about not working not only on Shabbos, but also not on the Chag? That’s quite time consuming, depending on your point of view. At what point do we become slaves of a whole new kind?

Lots of people would have lots of answers to that. Mine might not be the consensus—especially in the less G-d-fearing circles—but I’ll give it to you anyway. Let’s start small. In childhood everyone has to grapple with the fact that things are the way they are at times not because there is an obvious sense to them—at least not obvious to the child—but it benefits society in the end. Many of the things I said about Passover, I could say about clothes; the are often expensive, you have to clean them which takes time and sometimes extra expense, some occasions call for special clothes and special accessories, plus, people judge me for it. It would be a lot easier to go around naked. However, not only does that make for chairs that I would not want to use second, unpreparedness for cold climates, and warding off insects, the extra dimension of ‘modesty’ is something that I hope to G-d we have to wait until puberty to understand. All of that is true. Moreover though, once we receive clothes, it gives us more freedoms than we had before, with different tastes and styles that may be—I would argue—a much better reflection of one’s identity than nakedness. Society knows this, and as it happens it was one of the first things to happen in the Bible.

With Shabbos, it’s very similar too. It does not always make sense to a non-Jew or a non-observant Jew to observe Shabbos. It comes with the problem of having to allot time differently, and possibly loosing opportunity for making money or having other occupational appointments, but it’s also not even always good socially, unless you live very close to all friends, family, and synagogue. And yet, it is shown to improve sleep, improve mental health, and it trains people to stop trying to change the world, and just to be content. That is a basic human impulse to want to change the environment around us, whether that is writing down some amazing idea, traveling somewhere exciting, transferring money, or even involving ourselves socially in some other ways. It takes a great amount of self-control, even for those who have practiced such a way for a lifetime, to be content with the world as it is, to be content with those around us, with the food in front of us, and to be satisfied with a week’s worth of work we’ve accomplished. To say to a world begging for us to work day-in-day out not only in occupation but in everything else a firm and resolute ‘no’ takes determination and a sense of self-worth that people are not always trained to have. A slave works because he has to for fear of a very real punishment, so rather than thinking of ourselves as slaves to religion or religious practices, ask yourself why would we want to make ourselves slaves to work?

Now too, however, we’re faced with a different problem altogether. Rather than seeing the struggles of being called away to work, called away for friends and appointments and everything else, we’re called to stay inside and to keep, generally speaking, apart. And so looking back on the fact that unlike so many other things, this is a home holiday, we are caught off-guard with the realization that this is a struggle to stay inside, to make the most of what is available around us, not going out for shows, for food, or even for certain necessary appliances. Again, we are called to find a contentment in a world which goes against our very instincts to find contentment with. And yet, it is for the good of our families and everyone around us to sit still. To work through what we have had and what please G-d we will have again. We are waiting, not for a promised land now but for a promised time; a time when we can go out again, and when we don’t have to be scared to gather together for the comforting, emanating warmth that our loved ones bring.  

We had more rituals for our lives because we do indeed have the freedom to do so. It is true that we are free agents, perhaps the freest of any point in Jewish history, and to throw that away is arrogant, but that shouldn’t be a reason by itself. It takes self-control and extra planning to attempt to go against our instincts on this, but to take it slowly, and to take it easily, with the faith that our actions, especially our actions when done as a nation, do effect change. Consider that we are reliving not only the flight from Egypt, as symbolized with the bitter herbs and matzo, but we are commemorating the failures of the Jewish people to listen. The journey through the desert which even Moses himself could not finish took about 40 years longer than a 2 week journey should take not because of navigational incompetence, but as punishment. We can be sad about it, but we can also use it, the time of cleaning, and of reading the Haggadah at home, studying in synagogue, and taking not only Shabbos but also the Chag as time off from work of any sort and instead think. This is a holiday of freedom, but it is a holiday of immense restrictions as well. We are commanded to be joyful, and yet we cannot act as openly as we might otherwise. Like the child learning social customs for the first time, we cannot view freedom and free expression as individuality, anti-social behaviors, and acting upon libidinal desires. Instead, freedom, true spiritual freedom comes from something much deeper.