| “This year’s Passover will be different to all Passover celebrations,” an Israeli friend recently told me. “We all will be celebrating it household for household and family for family. No extended family visits are allowed.”
The new health regulations to curb the spread of the Coronavirus have changed for the first time many ancient Passover traditions for the Jewish people in Israel. Passover observances were usually big family gatherings where everybody came together to celebrate this major feast of the Lord. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared in his annual pre-Pessach address that this year’s Passover will be different: “… we will adopt the celebration of Passover like our forefathers in Egypt – Passover at home! Every father and mother will celebrate Passover with the children that live in their home.”
As my friend spoke to me, I was reminded of the very inception of Passover, when Israel was in Egypt. God commanded the Israelites: “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.’” (Exodus 12:3) |
