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The Ten Plagues — The Ten Lessons
On the Jewish holiday of Pesach — Passover — we tell the story of the exodus from slavery to freedom over the Seder. But that celebration of freedom must be diminished by its cost in the suffering of others, even our enemies. So we symbolically take out a drop of the wine of celebration for each of the Ten Plagues. Here, I offer Ten lessons for these times to take from the Seder, one for each of the Ten Plagues.
1. Blood
Dam
Like the Nile turned red, the flow of social life we depend on has become polluted — something to avoid.
Let us practice physical distancing, but social connectedness.
2. Frogs
Tsfardaya
Frogs jumped out of the polluted Nile, spreading confusion in their wake, just as misinformation spreads confusion today.
Look to our true scientists for correct information today — those who know what questions to ask, not those who claim to have the answers.
