A Passover Message from Jodi Danis
Freedom Revisited
As I think back to where we were last Passover – that scary time of uncertainty and isolation – I can’t help but be thankful to be on the other side of things. Not that all has returned to normal, of course, but we are finally tasting freedom again. And oh how sweet it is! Even in limited doses, it is a welcome salve to the woes the world has faced from the pandemic plague.
A year ago my husband and I had our first “solo” Passover, our kids in their own places, family and friends afraid to be near one another. I wrote in last year’s AJT Passover reflection that although our seders would be apart from others, we would still be together thanks to the modern miracle of Zoom. Yes, it was different, as we all know and experienced. But we survived, we adapted, and here we are again.
Thanks to the miracles of science, we now have effective vaccines and the promise of freedom again. Despite the ups and downs we may still encounter, that promise and that hope sustain us. Many of us have been riding an emotional roller coaster, so it is a welcome relief to finally see light at the end of the tunnel. I am certainly not the only one who cried after an aging parent or loved one received a vaccine dose. I not only wept tears of joy for my family’s wellbeing but also bitter ones for those who faced a battle too big to survive.
This Passover still won’t return us to 20-person seders, at least not in my household. But we are on the road to freedom again, something which so many of us took for granted pre-COVID. Wherever and however you celebrate the holiday this year, may it be a joyous and meaningful one for you and your family.
Jodi Danis is the business manager for the AJT.
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