我的会堂 - 和许多人一样 - 是建立一个虚拟市场销售我们发酵剂今年。像许多交易，现在，销售的逾越节的禁发酵食物会接触，并象征性的，在那：在“代理销售”将通过电子邮件发送给拉比的形式处理。
Jewish law calls for selling发酵剂一个非犹太人。在正常情况下，我的犹太教堂出售给当地的警察一美元，由法师和官员之间的握手，并合影敲定。有人烧面食他们发现遗迹和面包屑，说一个祈祷自己开脱任何东西，他们无意忽视。休斯敦的美国正统犹太教堂表明，代替通常的公共篝火，冲洗发酵剂倒马桶是处置的可接受方法。这是允许在任何一年，但每次说话卫生纸时ad infinitum已经成为常态，似乎是一个恰当的比喻。
通常情况下，我平时预逾越节rituals include eating most of what I have — so there’s little to sell off — or making donations to a food pantry. A few times I’ve packed it all in a plastic bin, “sold” it to a friend, then “bought” it back after the holiday, not wanting a pantry-worth of ingredients to go to waste. That’s the suggestion my rabbi made for this year, acknowledging that any food waste would be a “disgrace,” particularly when stay-at-home mandates have pushed us to make lists, think fully about the bare minimum of what we need for a week, two weeks, a month, or more.
鉴于不确定性未来的谎言 - 在纳什维尔，我住的地方，我们的“更安全的家”订单已经延长一次，直到4月24日;在感染的指数率在其他城市，我希望它被再次延长。该CMA音乐节，纳什维尔最大的音乐派对，这通常是在六月初举行，是取消为48年，那么，谁知道的比我认为人们在第一时间，我们就可以了，而在室内。我写这篇文章，超过163,000 people in the U.S. have been证实或推测阳性with COVID-19 and美国官员曾建议美国死亡总人数可能接近24万。鉴于这些严峻的可能性，我不觉得我应该抛弃干面条的那四分之一杯袋现在。在逾越节的八天，我不会吃它，但它会使其进入一个通心粉汤作为住所就地继续。
当我传递消息给我的法师共同探讨一下怎么做我的问题我发酵剂this year, the first thing I told him was that I don’t want to be within six feet of anyone so that I can sell my half can of Panko bread crumbs and Red Star Yeast packets. That’s when he outlined the online option.
“找一个地方，你可以锁定了整整一个星期，”我的拉比建议。“放在发酵剂there. Close it. Sell it. Done.”
我很欣赏他，帮助我们调整我们的一年，其中没有什么感觉习惯海关的能力 - 以及他的快速和简洁的方式 - 但它仍然没有觉得自己像一个“完成”这笔交易给我。所以，我决定不在今年所有承接清洗仪式。我不会收拾这一切。我不会冲下马桶。我不会被代理提交在线表单“卖”了。
Right now, it feels hollow to have a ritual of rebirth, to clean while stockpiling, to care about crumbs when the worries are so much bigger, to acknowledge a demarcation of a change when nothing immediately will be different.
在几年前流行的过程cleaning every last crumbof发酵剂in my house felt good. My tradition has been to listen to Yiddish comedy and folk songs like “I’m a Litvak-He’s a Galitz” from the “Songs for the Jewish-American Jet Set” album, as I flipped couch cushions and unearthed granola bars I had tucked away in my car’s glove box. I wiped down cabinets and planned my seder meal, thinking about how we’d tell the story of uncertainty, slavery, and exile, and how we’d connect the lessons to current discussions of social justice and freedom.
一世抛光奶奶分银碗，我每年使用咸水和香菜的东西，而关于光栅礼仪辣根，切碎的苹果的思维charoset, and the magic of combining sautéed mushrooms and onions into a crowd-favorite vegetarian chopped liver. I would think about the desserts my guests were making, banking on somebody bringing a little more matzah toffee than we could polish off that night.
对我来说，也许对于其他人，准备逾越节超越春季大扫除。这是冥想，精神的，和准备。但我不会跃跃欲试今年多。是的，我在帮主办变焦远程家宴 - 我希望看到我的电脑屏幕上的26面。但是，我们不能打破matzah的，斜倚，并啜食汤在同一个房间。我们不会看狗帮助孩子找到afikoman。而且，我们不会说谁得到其中鼠疫手指木偶。
我们将按照戒律来讲述这个故事我们出埃及记从埃及, albeit in different ways than we’re used to. The word “seder” translates to “order,” and this year, our ceremonial meal will have equal parts disorder. If I were to clean and prepare, then only to remain quarantined, isolated with a laptop, a box of Shabbat candles, and a freezer full of carrot soup for several more weeks or months, will my tradition feel fruitless?
一世’m not naive enough to think our collective end-of-COVID-19 will be a Passover-worthy tale of freedom: “Let my people go!” we’ll shout out as we throw open the doors, while bluebirds zip in to carry off our masks, and we dance into the streets, tossing Lysol cans aside as we go.
当这个充满挑战的时代结束后，当我们到车站分开同居，我们仍然有悲伤的，我们失去了，还有我们的生活已经永远颠覆的作品 - 就业，企业，关系和度假计划。我希望能够以纪念这一集我们的集体患病的结束以及我们与一些明确的集体悲哀。我要救的感觉我就会在逾越节准备，当我需要它。
一世find the most affirming part of being a Jew is the permission it gives me to question everything. To question what we believe and how we turn those beliefs into action. Cleaning发酵剂从我的房子不是用羽毛鳍d crumbs or worrying about whether I missed a box of Trader Joe’s Fig & Olive Crisps on a top shelf. It isn’t about finding someone to keep my sourdough starter alive. It’s about doing something in concert with Jews all over the world, when we mark the end of one thing and the beginning of the next.
我可以节省清洗一个晚上，又是一年，当我跃跃欲试的节日四个问，没有一个当我们提出的问题是无限的。
图片由丹尼尔Grizelj /盖蒂图片社
