First thing I'll say about this week's parsha is that HaShem does a beautiful job modeling social distancing by calling from inside the tent to Moshe who is outside the tent about how the people can get closer to HaShem - without of course ever making contact, lest they get zapped!
The ritual/mechanism for bringing humans and G-d "close" is the korban. Most of the korbanot are meat, some we serve specially for G-d alone and some we share in as well. And with any good meal you don't just have meat, you need a few side items. G-d apparently likes a side of grain seasoned with frankincense...
(1) When a person presents an offering of meal to the LORD, his offering shall be of choice flour; he shall pour oil upon it, lay frankincense on it,
Of course, it goes without saying that G-d deserves the highest quality we have to give, in the times of the Mishkan and then the Temple, most of our rabbis believed the best was the solet mincha, the organic GMO-free pastry flour of its day (my teacher Rabbi Dr. Ben Sommer believes that the solet mincha may actually have been coarser flour, but I digress...).
This week, my best friend and I ordered a week's worth of groceries from the store. When it was delivered, we opened the bag and found 12 onions, a bottle of off-brand ketchup, and a six-pack of beer. Everything else was sold out.
Next we tried Fresh Direct. No available delivery slots. Same for Amazon Whole Foods.
With regard to this famine it is related that Marta bat Baitos was one of the wealthy women of Jerusalem. She sent out her agent and said to him: Go bring me fine flour [semida]. By the time he went, the fine flour was already sold. He came and said to her: There is no fine flour, but there is ordinary flour. She said to him: Go then and bring me ordinary flour. By the time he went, the ordinary flour was also sold. He came and said to her: There is no ordinary flour, but there is coarse flour [gushkera]. She said to him: Go then and bring me coarse flour. By the time he went, the coarse flour was already sold. He came and said to her: There is no coarse flour, but there is barley flour. She said to him: Go then and bring me barley flour. But once again, by the time he went, the barley flour was also sold. She had just removed her shoes, but she said: I will go out myself and see if I can find something to eat. She stepped on some dung, which stuck to her foot, and, overcome by disgust, she died.
All across the Jewish world, folks are trying to figure out how to socially distance AND Pesach. Will we Zoom seder second night? Will we take up kitniyot if it's hard to stock the pantry? Every decision is hard. I can't speak to what it means for families who only see each other during Pesach to go a year without it; or what it means for vulnerable people to eat alone; I only share my heart and my love.
But as for our religious obligations, for anyone worried about not giving HaShem the appropriate cavod/"finest flour" (by whatever halachic leniencies they may need in this moment), I am reminded of my favorite mishnah.
אָמַר רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא, אַשְׁרֵיכֶם יִשְׂרָאֵל, לִפְנֵי מִי אַתֶּם מִטַּהֲרִין, וּמִי מְטַהֵר אֶתְכֶם, אֲבִיכֶם שֶׁבַּשָּׁמַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (יחזקאל לו), וְזָרַקְתִּי עֲלֵיכֶם מַיִם טְהוֹרִים וּטְהַרְתֶּם. וְאוֹמֵר (ירמיה יז), מִקְוֵה יִשְׂרָאֵל ה', מַה מִּקְוֶה מְטַהֵר אֶת הַטְּמֵאִים, אַף הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מְטַהֵר אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל:
(9) Rabbi Akiva said: Happy are you, Israel! Who is it before whom you become pure? And who is it that purifies you? Your Father who is in heaven, as it is said: “And I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean” (Ezekiel 36:25). And it further says: “O hope (mikveh) of Israel, O Lord” (Jeremiah 17:1--just as a mikveh purifies the unclean, so too does he Holy One, blessed be He, purify Israel.
Rabbi Akiva reminds us that the exacting G-d who demands our purification is also the loving G-d who purifies us!
We might not be able to give G-d the seder or the chag we have in the past. But it doesn't matter because G-d is both the caterer and the guest of honor.
We all want to give G-d solet mincha/semida. But Marta reminds us we don't need perfection to be the enemy of the good; G-d doesn't want us to suffer.
. זֶה הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה ה'. נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ. זֶה הַיּוֹם עָשָׂה ה'. נָגִילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָה בוֹ.
This is the day of the Lord, let us exult and rejoice upon it. (Psalms 118:21-24)
For all the ways this Pesach will be different from all other Pesachim, this is the Pesach that G-d has made, and I hope that it will be filled with overflowing joy, great health and peaceful acceptance of our human limitations, for as the mishnah says...
(ב) אֵין חוֹשְׁשִׁין שֶׁמָּא גָרְרָה חֻלְדָּה מִבַּיִת לְבַיִת וּמִמָּקוֹם לְמָקוֹם, דְּאִם כֵּן, מֵחָצֵר לְחָצֵר וּמֵעִיר לְעִיר, אֵין לַדָּבָר סוֹף:
(2) They need not fear that a weasel may have dragged [chametz] from one room to another or from one place to another, for if so, [they must also fear] from courtyard to courtyard and from town to town, and there would be no end to the matter.
May we all strive to do our best AND be at peace with what we decide. And may we emerge from our narrow places quickly and discover a renewed world filled with redemptive possibilities we've never before imagined.