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Harvey Belovski, rabbi at Golders Green United Synagogue:

Some religious leaders are fond of exaggeration. ‘This’, says the rabbi, ‘is the most inspirational event you’ve ever attended’. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t. Or the synagogue newsletter announces the greatest Chanukah party in history. Maybe since last year’s party and probably not even then.

I try to avoid this approach, but this Passover, which starts tomorrow night; I’m making an exception. Passover is the great festival of liberation, which celebrates the beginning of the Jewish people as they left slavery in Egypt millennia ago.

Passover lasts for a week, although the focus is on the first two evenings, on which we hold an extended meal at home, called a Seder. We retell the story from a special book, chomp hard matzah crackers and bitter herbs to remind of us difficult times and drink four cups of wine to celebrate our liberation. 

We open the story part of the Seder with the ancient question ‘why is this night different from all other nights?’ And here’s the exception to my rule – this year, Seder night really will be completely different not just from other nights, but from all other Seder nights in my lifetime, perhaps in history.

Seder is very much an experience to be shared with family and friends. It’s often an opportunity for an intergenerational get-together, a way to communicate Jewish identity, aspiration and being. But this year, because of the Coronavirus outbreak, none of these gatherings are possible. Most members of the community will make a Seder, but many will sit alone, isolated from their families, distant from their friends, asking the ancient question to themselves, chewing the bitter herbs with an additional, contemporary sadness.

My community, like many others, is doing its best to reimagine our provision online and finding new ways to reach out to the isolated. I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved. But it will still be really tough for those who love to be with their families but can’t: for them it will indeed be a very different night. My thoughts will be with them as they celebrate alone as best they can. Yet I sense that this Passover will be transformational for us all, one that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I just think it’s too soon to say how.

Have a wonderful Passover.