Page 24 - Harlem Pesach Companion 2021

Finding Freedom During a Pandemic

By Elisheva Spellman

Every year on Passover we celebrate and commemorate our
freedom from slavery in Egypt. We spend hours during the
night discussing our history, and our nation’s transition
from slavery to freedom. There are physical symbols of our
pain and suffering, like the bitter herbs and salt water, and
there are symbols of our freedom, like the 4 cups of wine.
Interestingly, the Seder doesn’t only talk about our past
redemptions, but also tells us to look ahead towards future
redemptions, ending the Seder with ‘םִּיַל ָׁשוּרי ִּב ה ָׁאָׁבַה הָׁנ ָׁשְל’,
‘next year may we be in Jerusalem’. There are even some
people who have the custom of wearing shoes to the Seder so that they will be ready to
leave immediately if Passover night becomes the night where they can return to Israel. By
emphasizing both past and future redemptions, the Seder is asking for each of us to
experientially imagine being freed from enslavement.

Most years, the idea of imagining a miraculous freedom seems far-off and impractical.
This year, however, is the second year in which many of us are enslaved by the
coronavirus pandemic. This year is our second Passover entrapped in our homes. We are
not free people. Instead of being enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians, we are enslaved
by a deadly virus and a global pandemic. And when we talk about being freed from
slavery, we will still be enslaved by current events. Just as a slave isn’t allowed to decide
where to go and what to do, so too we are unable to go where we want and do as we
please.

The Hallel prayer is split into two pieces during the Seder. We recite the first half at the
end of Maggid, and we recite the second half after the meal. This split can be seen as an
illustration of the coexistence of past and future redemptions at the Seder. The first half
of the Seder, up until the meal, is focused on our past redemptions, and from the meal
until the end we sing and celebrate the possibility of future redemptions. This year, the
future redemption that I will be thinking about is the miraculous vaccine that hopefully
will one day lead us towards some physical freedom.

Passover is the season of freedom. Both physical and spiritual. Jews were freed from both
spiritual and physical slavery. The physical freedom was the Jewish people being freed
from Egypt, and the spiritual freedom was the Jewish people receiving the Torah at Mt
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