When we planned our first pandemic Zoom seders a year ago, none of us imagined that we would be preparing now for a second season of our liberation locked down at home. There s a sense of emotional and spiritual heaviness. We are all so tired, and so grief-soaked, and so ready to be with each other in person again. We yearn to feel free, but we re not there yet. Whatever gets in the way of the work is the work, as my poetry mentor Jason Shinder z l used to say.
Before we can experience liberation at Pesach, we need to begin where we are. When the Bayit Liturgical Arts Working Group met to begin planning our offering for this second COVID Pesach, we decided to offer materials that could be a bridge or doorway into seder: starting where we are, and bringing us (we hope) to a place of readiness to approach freedom.