Usually in Passover, especially during the holiday Seder [ceremonial dinner], there is a feeling of a common holiday throughout Israel, among all people, in all families. But this year, Passover feels different, like a dull, quarantine cloud descended on us and locked us in our homes.
We used to get ready for a Passover meal with the whole big family, and suddenly everyone had to stay at home.

But the fact is that we ourselves built this state. The coronavirus is just a way to uncover the truth and show our separation: as long as we are not one people, we do not sit at the same table and do not want to leave our Egypt today.

This year, the Seder just corresponded to the structure of the people of Israel, in which there is no unity. We did not leave Egypt, and therefore we have nothing to celebrate. We need to think about why we are in this state. Have we already left Egypt, our egoistic desire? Have we become one people of the Creator?

We think that this Passover is not real because we do not meet as usual with the whole family, with grandfather and grandmother. But just this Passover is real because it shows us how much we are not with our people.

The problem is not in the Passover Seder, but with the way we are every day, not in the relations within the family, but much wider throughout the entire Israeli society. All year we do not behave as one united people, and, accordingly, now we are forced to sit during Pesach alone at home.

We have developed to the point where it is not enough to sit with grandparents and celebrate the events that took place 3,500 years ago. The time has come to understand that we have not left Egypt.

The way out of Egypt is the way out of our egoism, a state in which we truly become united as one people, as one man with one heart and receive the Torah, the power that is revealed between us and binds us as one special people of Israel.

But we have none of this. And then a special symbol appears called coronavirus and explains to us where we are: We have not left Egypt, but live inside a huge egoism, even stronger than in other nations. We do not even have the right to be called Israel because it means directly to the Creator (Yashar-Kel), and we do not strive for the power of bestowal, for mutual love and unity.

So, we are sent to sit alone, without a grandmother, and think why we are alone and why quarantine is declared. The virus comes specifically to explain to us who we are and that we do not really relate to the Passover holiday and to the right to be called Jews who left Egypt.

Passover is celebrated in memory of the exodus from Egypt, but we have nothing to remember. Therefore, we are sitting at home with our immediate family, as before leaving Egypt, and we think what needs to be done to get out of it. This is only the night of the exodus from Egypt, but not the exit itself.

The quarantine shows that egoism left us alone in the desert: without relatives, friends, or our nation. Passover just symbolizes the desire to get out of this loneliness and connect with others as one man with one heart.

What is the difference between this night and all other nights? Not that everyone sits alone in his house, but because now we understand why we are sitting alone on this festive evening. And it is also different in that we finally thought about: Are we ready to leave Egypt? You have to face it.

Egypt is our selfishness, mutual hatred, competition. This is the essence of Passover night—it is night, but in an organized manner (seder) it prepares us to exit our egoism in the land of Israel (Yashar-Kel), that is, to a higher power, to bestowal and love. The Creator is the power of love.
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From KabTV’s “New Life-1220” 4/2/20

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