passover in quarantine
April 8, 2020
While I am disappointed to not be hosting my first seder tonight, I have also found a lot to be grateful for, like my home, my friends, my health and taking steps daily to help my business and employees survive. Here was a brief morning pass at some thoughts for this Passover.
Passover in Quarantine
Today, the ego rules our culture. The collective consciousness has become enslaved to the ego’s tyrannical will. We seek to connect, but do so by scrolling past friends or potential dates, commodified and replaceable faces on a feed. The joys that they share are the ego orchestrating how it wants to be seen. The witnessing ego wonders if the other is better? Happier? More successful? If I work harder could I afford that car or vacation? That imagined inner peace?
We as spiritual beings have forgotten our true selves on this physical plane. Geographical distance and the outlines of our bodies separate me from you. The perception of finite resources on this planet pits us in competition instead of collaboration. Egoic personalities and agendas have dominated religious institutions, corrupting that sanctuary from our individualist thinking. In our confusion and loneliness we are all, each of us, devastatingly alone, right next to each other.
The suffering of the Jews enslaved in Egypt worsened while Moses pleaded for their liberation. God sent attacks upon Pharaoh and his subjects in the form of 10 plagues, the last of which kills the firstborn sons of the Egyptians, including the Pharaohs’. After this devastating and personal loss, the Pharaoh sets the Jews free.
In my experience, it is only when the pain of staying as I was or thinking how I did had become excruciating and unbearable that I was motivated to seek, to learn, to heal, to change. Our planet, our country, our communities and we, ourselves are all suffering. The more we suffer the more the ego of our culture assures us that if we just work harder, buy more, present ourselves better than the pain will ease and the dream will be actualized.
Today we celebrate Passover without the proper groceries to create the ceremonial plate, without family and friends, without being able to participate in the mitzvah of feeding the poor so no go hungry on this night. But we celebrate it together, for once, as a world.
The pandemic is painful. This fear and uncertainty, the loss of life, health, financial security could flare up our egos, making us grasp harder as we fight for ourselves. Instead I see people pausing, like the moment on Shabbat we set aside to light candles, and being soft enough to look within themselves, to check on others, to be grateful for the blessings we have. Perhaps in this grim reality we have the opportunity to become aware of the bondage of the ego and shake it off by connecting with ourselves, with each other, and with the shared experience we are having with all other humans on the earth right now. If we reach a bit further we could maybe feel something beyond that loves us through our confusion and rebellion, that wants the best for us, that knows we can do better individually and as a whole. Often a silver lining is one that we find in the darkness. What is that for you right now?