During the coronavirus outbreak, there are no exceptions to the rules
This applies equally to all religions with no exemptions, including Jews celebrating Passover, Christians celebrating Easter and Muslims observing Ramadan. Everyone.
By MICAH D. HALPERNPolice tape is seen in Jerusalem as coronavirus restrictions are imposed on the city.(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Everyone in the New York area knows the rules: social distancing, no traveling, no gathering in groups larger than 10. And if you do leave New York, when you get to your destination you will be asked to self-quarantine for 14 days.This isn’t rocket science. It’s not complicated. These are just the ABCs of survival, and not just in New York. President Donald J. Trump, for the first time in history, has declared a national emergency in all 50 states. The US Justice Department has announced it is clamping down on religious activities that violate social-distancing protocols.There are and should be no exceptions. This applies equally to all religions with no exemptions, including Jews celebrating Passover, Christians celebrating Easter and Muslims observing Ramadan. Everyone.Our rabbis have reiterated the mantra. They have made it crystal-clear that we should all follow the rules. No groups means no minyanim (prayer quorums) and no gatherings. It meant celebrating the Passover Seder in solitude. No guests. Certainly no co-mingling between grandchildren and grandparents, with particularly care paid around high-risk people, like those with compromised immune systems, diabetes, heart problems or respiratory issues. The restrictions in the United States, even in New York, aren’t as strict and strictly enforced as they are in Israel, but neither are they merely a suggestion.Spending Passover without additional guests was no one’s first choice. It went against the very essence of the holiday. But the restrictions and protocols are in place to save lives. The end game is survival. As one doctor friend said, “The goal is to make it out of this pandemic alive.”According to Jewish law, saving lives is more important than virtually anything else. And more important, certainly, than a frolicking, fun-filled, full-table Seder. However, not everyone agreed, and not everyone followed the rules.So what happens when our friends and family flaunt the social-distancing guidelines? This is more than a simple ethical dilemma or an issue of religious law. Almost everybody knows a family that stretched the limitations set out for us: grandparents who had Seder with young grandchildren who traveled to be with them; children who didn’t want their parents to be alone; friends who came together for what was, in the US, three days of communal praying and dining. These are people we love, people whose opinions we value, whose advice we have sought, people who have made what was decreed to be a very poor personal decision.We also know people who were about to stretch the limits and then backtracked, reversed direction, had second thoughts, succumbed to pressure, did the right thing and followed the rules. There were people who invited guests but then uninvited them, and described a certain relief on their part, and on the part of the uninvited guests. It makes sense. After all, the behavioral expectations were clear.
This is obviously an unprecedented historical moment in history. I’m reminded of a moving depiction in Azriel Eisenberg’s monumental book Witness to the Holocaust.The Warsaw Ghetto Revolt took place on Seder night. A fighter was running in and out of a room where a family was huddled together, blocking out the fighting, doing their best to conduct a Seder with the little they had. The host asked the fighter to join them, and then asked him to please come back the next night for second Seder.So, yes, there have been tumultuous Passovers in the past. But hope and optimism should not be confused with selfishness and sanctimony.For those who flaunted social distancing, I hope their Seders were worth it. The numbers so far are scary. Religious activities, especially going to synagogues, even having private religious events, have been a common denominator for the spread of the virus within Jewish communities in frightening percentages. The number of diagnosed COVID-19 patients in New York State alone is higher than in any country.Frivolous, selfish actions can result in the deaths of others; not just a single death, but possibly the deaths of many. This turn that our lives have taken is not easy for anyone. There is no reason to make it harder by flaunting protocols.The writer is a political commentator who hosts Thinking Out Loud on JBS TV. Follow him on Twitter @MicahHalpern.
