Dear Kol Rinah Family,
Here is some final Passover information as we finish our preparations.
Sell Chametz
It's not too late to make me your agent for selling your chametz. Please fill this out by 5pm today: https://www.kolrinahstl.org/form/sale-of-hametz.html
Passover Schedule
Here is a schedule of Passover dates and times. Print it out and have a copy in your house! https://images.shulcloud.com/7787/uploads/2020-Publicity-Sliders-and-Fliers/2020PassoverKeyDates.pdf
Please note that minyan this Wednesday afternoon (4/8) will be at 5pm (not 6pm like usual).
Eruv Tavshilin
Since Shabbat immediately follows Passover, to be able to cook on Passover for Shabbat, one should make an Eruv Tavshilin. Info and details are here: http://files.constantcontact.com/4f1bc8ab001/85f0c94b-dcc5-44b4-87be-362ac0774db9.pdf
Taanit Bechorot (Fast of the First Born) Siyyum
It is customary for first born to fast on the day immediately preceding Passover (Wednesday, April 8 this year). But if you participate in a siyyum, a completion ceremony for a major piece of Jewish learning, you must eat to share in that celebration, and thus cannot fast. Dr. Wendy Love Anderson will be making a siyyum Wednesday morning immediately following the morning service. The service begins at 7am, and the siyyum (completion ceremony) will begin at around 7:45am. The link for our morning services is here: More info (phone numbers to call in, etc.) is on our website, www.kolrinahstl.org.
Passover/Seder YouTube Videos from Rabbi Shafrin and Rabbi Arnow
Rabbi Shafrin and I have created a series of Seder videos, on the various parts of the Seder, and particularly how to think about them this particular year. You can watch them before the Seder, during, or after! They are available here. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyfdzH6GpY03XwKtBbW14AUOSGPYIytB0
Havdalah this Saturday night
While we have not been gathering regularly on Saturday nights for Havdalah on Zoom, we will have a special Havdalah gathering Saturday evening April 11 at 8:30pm to end the three-day holiday and check in with each other. The link is here and on the Kol Rinah website with more info.
Yizkor
On Tuesday, April 14 at 6pm we will have mincha (the afternoon service) followed by Yizkor. Yizkor is usually recited on the 8th day of Passover, but we will be doing it a little early, so that we can do it together. The regular evening service link from the website will be used for that
Other Passover Resources
There are numerous other wonderful Passover resources available. Here are a few.
Ideas for the Solo (or very small) Seder--this is a really thoughtful collection of ideas. Definitely worth looking at!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11MwOcv1afua_Me9MQkOX2edvW2ZAJ7dz/view
The Cantor's Assembly has a great series of YouTube videos on the different parts of the Seder available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNqtr7W4LakIDft8Q6RAxiJa5Hz0RRgJC
The Rabbinical Assembly also has a fantastic series of YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAUaYjTp5xS4yv6a98vDuVg3Lx0M5L6WI
JTS has a Haggadah Supplement:
https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/04.20%20-%20RA_PassoverHaggadahSupplement_8.5x11_v6C.pdf
And the Rabbinical Assembly also has a Haggadah Supplement:
https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/04.20%20-%20RA_PassoverHaggadahSupplement_8.5x11_v6C.pdf
There are many more resources available out there, and some of them are collected here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cu2FjRN--gYQfW9kj5LYPTxUZP9Cc2kWjjZrESx7pFI/edit?usp=sharing
A Final Thought
This is not the Passover any of us expected a few weeks ago. Rather, we are living in a place of constriction, our freedom has been limited--we are in a kind of Mitzrayim (Egypt)--a narrow place.
This can be so painful, and the suffering that some of us are experiencing now is real. There is the suffering of being alone, the grieving over all the experiences that have been cancelled, never to be replaced, the anxiety about what the financial future holds for us individually and collectively, and the infuriating uncertainty about when life will go back to normal, and what that will even look like. And most of all, the health of ourselves and our loved ones is always on our minds.
We are indeed living in a kind of Mitzrayim.
The Seder is a kind of response, or even antidote, to feelings of living in Mitzrayim, in oppression. Because the ultimate message of Passover, of the Haggadah, of the Seder, is that change is possible--personally, and collectively.
"Now we are slaves, next year we willl be free." "Next year in Jerusalem." "We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt." "It would have been enough. Dayyenu."
These all look to a time when things will be different. And so too must we remind ourselves that this too shall pass, that next year, we will be more free, differently free, than we are this year.
And even amidst this time and experience of constriction, of narrowness, we have the possibility for creativity, joy, relationship, introspection, reflection, and quiet.
The flowering of online Passover resources is but one dimension on the creativity that is emerging.
What for you has been the hardest during this time? And what have been the blessings you have discovered?
Next year, may we be free.
Wishing you a sweet Pesach,
Rabbi Noah Arnow.
