For those who want to observe Passover at home:
Rabbi Wirtschafter and musician in residence Lorne Dechtenberg produced a playlist of videos to use at home for your seder. The Rabbi conducts the service so you don’t have to, and you can sing along with him and Lorne. The segments are sequential and captioned; you may watch them in order or pick the ones you want. Click the icon at the top right of the video screen to access the playlist.
Virtual Passover Seder - recorded in 2020
To follow Rabbi Wirtschafter on the video seder, a copy of the service is available to download and print. (The service was compiled years ago by Rabbi Marc Kline; some pages are printed crooked, but all are complete and readable). Click here for the download. |
Who Put the Challah in the Dryer?
10 Drops of Blessing: A Passover Ritual for the Plague of COVID-19
Each year at the seder when we come to the second cup of wine, we remove 10 drops from our glass signifying how our joy is diminished by the suffering caused by the 10 plagues upon Egypt. This year, amidst the suffering of the COVID-19 virus, we are called upon to cherish the ways in which our joy can be increased. Rather than refilling our cups in a single motion, as we normally would do between the first and second cups, let us refill them via 10 distinct acts of pouring, assigning a reason for each.
(Participants should feel free to modify the 10 themes/values that follow as they wish.)
God of Our Ancestors, God of the fortunate and unfortunate, healthy and unhealthy, happy and unhappy, God of survival and solace, relief and regret, deliverance and despair. We turn to You not because we believe You have ordained this current plague but because we believe in your power to guide us through it. Help us, we pray, not only to count our blessings but to make out blessings count.
1. We fill our cups with the blessing of joy.
2. We fill our cups with the blessing of gratitude.
3. We fill our cups with the blessing of holiness.
4. We fill our cups with the blessing of memory.
5. We fill our cups with the blessing of learning.
6. We fill our cups with the blessing of freedom.
7. We fill our cups with the blessing of family.
8. We fill our cups with the blessing of hope.
9. We fill our cups with the blessing of healing.
10. We fill our cups with the blessing of peace.
Baruch Atah Adonai, ha’tov v’ha-may-teev. Blessed are You, O God, Source of Goodness who calls on us to do what is good.