On Saturday at sundown, many Jews will mark a second Passover during this pandemic.
Rabbi Howard Jaffe, of Lexington's Temple Isaiah, said he's thinking about one piece of scripture ahead of the high holiday. He said that in Hebrew, Egypt is called "Mitzrayim," which means "the narrow place." The name refers to Egypt's literal size, Jaffe said,but it's also a metaphor for how the Israelites felt living there in bondage.
Passover marks the Jewish people's exodus from Egypt to a new land, which took adjusting to. Jaffe said that adjustment is similar to what we as a community are experiencing now as we slowly move closer to anew normal.
"We are preparing to go forth individually from that narrow place into a more expansive place, and that is not simply about breathing free," Jaffe said. "One has to get used to what it's like living without the constrictions, without the boundaries. We have to re-learn and maybe re-create what our life is going to be in a lot of ways, because it is going to be so different as a result of this experience — just as it was for us when we left Egypt."
We also heard from Ambassador Meron Reuben, the new Israeli Consul General for New England, about aid efforts and what we can learn from the successful vaccination campaign in Israel.
Click on the audio player above to listen to the full episode.
Segments:
Ambassador Meron Reuben - 1:57
Rabbi Howard Jaffe - 13:55
