Bubbe Has Entered the Meeting: Families Make the Most of Virtual Passover Seders
No Passover Seder would be complete without an ancient tradition known as the Four Questions. For thousands of years, they have helped Jews get to the heart of this sacred holiday. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Seders this year might come with four new questions: Did someone mute me? Why isn’t my picture working? Can we wash our hands already? And does Bubbe know I’m on my fifth glass of wine?
Just like students and employees learning to work remotely, families are coming to grips with worship from home. Many Jewish families are leaning into the challenge for Passover, which starts on Wednesday, with videochat Seders. The evening involves complicated rituals, intergenerational singalongs and large amounts of horseradish. It took 10 plagues to create the epic story behind the Seder. It took one more to make that Seder completely meshuga.
The challenges are the 2020 equivalent of building the pyramids. Grandparents have to learn how to use platforms like Zoom. Everyone has to figure out whose turn it is to read from the Haggada, the Passover book with songs and prayers. Everyone needs to locate the mute button. And in the same way their ancestors made do with cakes of unleavened bread long ago in the Passover story, Jews in 2020 are making the most of their current situation.
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As it was for Moses scrambling out of Egypt, time is of the essence. Many families’ Seders last between two and three hours, including the retelling of the Passover story, the actual meal and all the discussion in between. Zoom, for those who don’t have access to a paid account, caps meetings at 40 minutes. “The 40-minute time limit on Zoom is the existential crisis right now of Jews,” said Alana Newhouse, editor of the Jewish online magazine Tablet and a new Haggada. “The idea they would be limited in how much they would be able to say and talk feels potentially like a bridge too far.” After fielding a deluge of questions from nervous first-time hosts, Tablet magazine introduced its own daily video tutorials that were appropriately dubbed Seder Academy. Even some Orthodox rabbis, who normally wouldn’t condone using electricity on holidays and the Sabbath, are making special exemptions.
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What doesn’t change is the Haggada, essentially an ancient script for Passover. Even the word Seder literally translates to “order.” Parts are split up between readers. The most frequently ignored piece of the Seder is now everyone’s favorite: Urchatz, the washing of the hands. As it turns out, the recommended 20 seconds of hand-washing matches up exactly with one verse and the chorus of the Passover song, “Dayeinu.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/plastic-forks-muted-relatives-families-make-the-most-of-virtual-passover-seders-11586191534 (subscription)
