From mass to matzo, how Passover and Easter are being celebrated during coronavirus – NJ.com

At the Passover Seder, the youngest child asks a question: How is this night different from all other nights?

Usually, the answer involves the ancient story of Jews being freed from bondage in Egypt. This week, the coronavirus — something comparable to an actual plague — is here to make Passover 2020 different from most.

“This year, we have the opportunity to live the story,” says Rabbi Leana Moritt of Temple Beth-El in Jersey City. “We are literally huddled in our homes waiting for the Angel of Death to pass over us.”

The holiday, which starts Wednesday night and ends April 16, is a celebration of freedom and a meditation on what it means to be free.

Easter, arriving Sunday, tells the story of Jesus’ resurrection — of life enduring after death.

As COVID-19 devastates families and communities, death is never far away. Suffering and trials? Yes. Freedom and rebirth? Try us in a few months. Social distancing means we cannot gather with extended family to celebrate these major holidays.

Still, people are holding on.

Whether limiting big meals to intimate gatherings, using technology to connect with family or deploying holiday themes to cope with our current situation, they are adapting to a new reality.

Tradition in a crisis

For many families, Passover is a holiday where you invite everyone — family, friends, even the spirit of Elijah — to your home.

This year, celebrants can leave those extra folding chairs in storage.

“What we’re seeing today is Passover’s going to occur on a much narrower scale,” says Harold Weiss, executive vice president of Kayco, a Bayonne-based distributor of kosher-for-Passover brands like Manischewitz, Horowitz Margareten, Gefen and Kedem, which make staples including matzo, grape juice and gefilte fish.

“Normally I go to my brother’s house and he’s got 30 people there,” Weiss, 60, tells NJ Advance Media. This year, he’s planning a pared-down observance with his immediate family.

Passover prep got underway before supermarkets began limiting the number of shoppers allowed inside at one time. Now, Weiss says people are likely limiting their trips — who really needs that fifth bag of coconut-covered marshmallows? — but still buying, especially when food like matzo is such a key part of the holiday.

Cardinal Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, says rituals are just as important in pandemics and crises as they are in placid springtimes.

“They’re traditions because they’ve withstood challenges,” he tells NJ Advance Media.

On Sunday, Tobin started Holy Week with a Palm Sunday service at the Our Lady Chapel of the Basilica Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark. The service was live-streamed on YouTube and social media.

Some priests have expressed concern that livestreams will now become the rule, he says.

“I would disagree with that,” Tobin says — creative thinking is the way forward. Families can also use the way the coronavirus has changed daily life as a teaching tool, he says.

“The most important conversations are going to be between parents and children,” Tobin says.

Wondering when we might be freed from our current restrictions, released from worry, sadness and fear?

“There’s a direct tie-in with what we’re celebrating,” Tobin says. The story of Easter, of the resurrection of Jesus, “takes us beyond pain,” Tobin says. “It shows us a way forward.”

“I really feel like it’s a story of faith that boils down to, ‘Love is stronger than death,'” says Julie Byrne, a religion professor who specializes in Catholic studies at Hofstra University. “That is actually not very logical and not very sensible, and that’s why it is faith.”

But suffering, says the Rev. Thomas Dente, is also a part of the resurrection story — “There’s no Easter without the cross. They come hand in hand.”

In a crisis like the one we’re in, something as simple as dyeing Easter eggs can bring us out of a fog, says Dente, of Notre Dame Church in North Caldwell.

“We all have this feeling that time is going by and every day is the same as the last,” he says. “The holy days help you remember.”

A teachable moment

Panic. Isolation. Fear. We’ve sampled them all in the past few weeks. Holidays offer a chance to ease into the familiar.

“Tradition is really something that keeps you grounded,” says Maya Lotan, founder of Days United, a Bay Area company that sells something called Passover in a Box.

The package, which is currently sold out, is designed to be a resource for parents to get children involved in holiday rituals. A wooden Seder plate doubles as a puzzle, and there’s a 10 plagues memory game.

“Whatever togetherness we can create … it’s going to give us a sense of security,” Lotan says.

Parents, already exhausted from homeschooling, may not want to do any lesson-planning tagged to the spring holidays. But connecting with related themes can be a good way to maintain tradition.

“If there’s any holiday in the Jewish calendar that is directed towards children, it is Passover,” says Jeffrey Lichtman, a psychologist in West Orange and director of graduate Jewish education at Touro College. He suggests having children video chat with grandparents, aunts or uncles to ask, “What was freedom like for you? Have you ever not been free?”

Rabbi Ronald Roth, rabbi emeritus of Congregation B’nai Israel in Fair Lawn, recommends putting the question to kids.

“It’s a good time to say to the children, ‘How is this Passover different for you, what don’t you like? What are you looking forward to once this plague has passed? What do you like about this? Is there anything good that you see in this?'”

For children who can’t be there in person, Rabbi Leana Moritt of Jersey City’s Temple Beth-El proposes an alternative to the usual hunt for the afikoman, the hidden piece of matzo. Make it a global search and play a game of 20 questions so kids can guess where in the world you’ve put it.

Depending up on each family’s observance, the use of electronics during Passover may not be feasible. In that case, Roth suggests setting time aside before the holiday to connect remotely.

“Download some silly songs,” he says. “Try to make it a joyous time for the family members.”

Drive-by bunnies

Early on, Teaneck was home to a surge in cases of the coronavirus.

Steven Mather, owner of Bischoff’s Confectionery, a longtime fixture in town, is thanking his lucky stars that he can still sell Easter candy — and that he recently started accepting credit cards for the first time in the ice cream parlor’s 86-year history.

“If we had been forced to be closed it would be catastrophic,” Mather, 50, tells NJ Advance Media. Though dine-in is no longer an option, Bischoff’s has been sending customers home with chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs and Easter baskets for curbside pickup and takeout. “We’ve started shipping candy, which we never had to do,” he says.

Easter egg hunts, however, are verboten when social distancing — so Searchlight Church canceled its annual EggSearch in Long Branch. The event usually brings out 1,500 people.

Instead, the church, billed as “casual Christian,” is taking the Easter Bunny on the road — three of them. People in bunny suits will wave to children at home on Saturday (their spouses will drive). Staff and volunteers, wearing gloves and face masks, will plant eggs on the lawns of up to 60 families from the congregation, which has locations in Long Branch and Ocean Township.

“We’re asking people to stay inside their house,” says lead pastor Chris Colletti. “Just trying to make it fun and make the best of it.” On Monday, the church pre-recorded its annual Easter sunrise service on the beach, in lieu of a public gathering.

At Liquid Church, a nondenominational Christian church headquartered in Parsippany that has locations in Essex, Union, Somerset, Monmouth and Middlesex counties, services are normally live-streamed, pandemic or no. For Easter weekend, the church is expanding to 13 streams on Facebook Live and the church website.

“The holy spirit still travels through pixels,” lead pastor Tim Lucas tells NJ Advance Media. Typically, the church draws up to 5,000 people in person on weekends, he says. Lately, he’s seen 20,000 people tune in for livestreams. He expects up to 40,000 for Easter. “There’s a huge hunger for connection,” he says. “People are going to church in their pajamas, I guess.”

The church will also be giving out supplies like bottled water, Clorox wipes, diapers and food in “boxes of hope” through no-contact delivery.

“This is a time of social distance, but let’s not relationally distance,” Lucas says.

On April 4, Somerset Hills Baptist Church in Basking Ridge held a drive-thru “Easter at home” bag pickup in the church parking lot. The bags contain palm branches, communion cups, gifts, devotional books and activity ideas. Bags were delivered to those who couldn’t leave home, and some made it to a senior living facility.

“There was just a genuine delight that we were doing this,” says senior pastor Ted Harvey. Worship leader Martha Harvey is also asking members to send in short videos of themselves so people can see each other “at church” online Sunday.

“It’s just forced us to be creative and experiment,” she says. “Sometimes that’s not a bad thing.”

Have a tip? Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.

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