A Passover Wish

This coming Wednesday, April 8^th, is a day that will have special meaning for me.  It is the 7^th anniversary of the day I lost my only sister, Paula,  to cancer, and it is the first night of Passover.  This will be a Passover like no other that any of us has experienced.  Passover is a celebration that brings families together…to remember…to tell again the story of how the Jews were liberated by God from bondage in Egypt…to pass that story on to our children…to continue the thousands of years old thread that links all Jews together all over the world.  But this Passover, Covid-19 has stolen the rich moments of togetherness and joy that is the hallmark of this holiday.

And yet strangely, I feel closer to my sister this year.  Maybe it is because my mortality, usually fuzzy and out of focus, now seems crystal clear.  As I remember the helpless feeling we all felt as my sister drifted away from us, the clarity of what we are all going through now helps me perceive the crossover point that we all must navigate at the end of our lives.  In a heartbeat I could be there, and with her. 

I don’t want to be maudlin, but this Covid thing is making us all stop and take stock of our lives.  Things will not be the same when this is over.  The truly important things in life will stand out in stark relief from the lives we led up until this March.  That is a good thing.  I look at Cecily, my wife of 40 years with a new appreciation for us being together.  I talk with my kids, Shaune and Caitlin, and listen to their fear and worry for me, and try to be strong for them….and am surprised when I see them being strong for me!  On the other side of this I think we will all be more aware of the importance of family, and the connections which we take for granted.  The preciousness of life and our loved ones has new meaning.  So many families are going to be crushed by this pandemic. 

There will be many losses and much grief that we will all feel as a result of this experience.

So, my wish to all of you, my dear friends, is that especially this next week and all the weeks that follow, you will treasure and hold close all those you love.  As we celebrate this Passover, we must remember to treasure our families and thank God for all the good things in our lives…

At the end of the Passover seder, we always say, “L'Shana Haba'ah B'Yerushalayim”—“Next Year in Jerusalem”.  This year let us say, “Next year in our homes with our families held close”

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….and by the way, you might try some lambs blood around or on your front door posts ….you never know!