A year ago, Purim became the first Jewish holiday to be significantly impacted by the global coronavirus pandemic. Since then, the world has experienced far too much illness, death, poverty and adversity. But throughout the long months of quarantine, lockdown and loss, the Jewish people have soldiered on—in many ways transcending the difficulties by adding in light, hope and compassion.
Forced to dig deep, individuals and communities discovered innovative ways to access and celebrate their heritage and traditions. In a way, it was a year of rediscovering the essence and heart of the Torah teachings and mitzvahs studied and celebrated each year. Gone was the nice but immaterial glitz and glamor, replaced instead with the unadorned diffusion of Divine light into their own lives and the world around them.
The bedrock for transforming adversity into spiritual and inspirational opportunity was laid by the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—who emphasized the importance of recognizing the G‑dliness within challenges and utilizing this knowledge to transform one’s circumstances into an opportunity to do even more good. The myriad challenges of the pandemic have proved no different.
Learning from experiences of the past year, Purim 2021, which begins on Thursday night, Feb. 25 and continues through Friday, Feb. 26 (extending through Sunday in Jerusalem), will be observed with much-needed joy and creativity to ensure everyone remains safe and healthy.
Exactly 40 years ago, just days prior to Purim of 1981, the Rebbe wrote a public letter to the Jewish people calling on each and every individual “to strengthen and expand the preparations for Purim, with a view to enabling every Jew, ‘young and old, children and women,’ to observe Purim in the fullest measure … .” In his appeal the Rebbe stressed the need to involve each and every child, boys and girls, and underlined the need to “care and provide … for the Jews who find themselves in special circumstances[, such as] military service, senior citizens’ homes, orphanages, hospitals [and] correctional institutions … .”
Today, in a world in which nearly everyone finds themselves in special circumstances, the Rebbe’s call to action remains as critical as ever.
Purim 2020
As Purim 2020 approached, a novel virus that had begun spreading in China months earlier was beginning to attract serious worldwide attention. From China, it spread to Italy and its neighbors in Europe, and then cropped up in the United States and the rest of the world. By the time Purim came around, the first deaths in North America were recorded in Washington state, and there was an outbreak of cases in Westchester County, N.Y.
In response, Chabad-Lubavitch of New Rochelle, N.Y., arranged for groups of students to read the Megillah outside people’s homes; prayers, Torah classes and social services increased in Italy. Back in China, Chabad throughout the countrydid everything they could to bring the holiday to the homes of people in their communities who were in quarantine from Shanghai to Beijing.
With communal gatherings canceled, the first quarantines brought with them a new opportunity—and necessity—to directly reach out to individuals as never before. This effort has grown and intensified over the past year.
“Whereas some of our focus had been to attract larger crowds to our holiday events, over this year, everything has become so much more tailored and focused,” said Rabbi Yochanan Gordon, who with his wife, Mushky, is part of the team at Chabad of Munich, Germany. “This has enabled us to reach out to more individuals and families than ever before and in a much more personal way.”
This feeling that relationships had to be deepened was shared by his colleagues worldwide. “Instead of 30 people at a public event, it’s now 30 homes at every event, and you get to interact with everyone,” noted Rabbi Yosef Gluckowsky, who together with his wife, Mushky, co-directs of Chabad of Closter, N.J.
Chabad-Lubavitch’s approach to building community has always focused on the individual—every individual—and with the pandemic, this once again came to the fore. The responsibility to each other as individuals was what the Rebbe taught, and clearly on display as communities were broken down from their sum to their core parts. As institutional buildings stood silent each and every home became a center for Jewish life.
Rising to the Occasion on Passover
As Purim passed and Passover dawned, it became clear that many extended families and communities would not be able to gather for Passover Seders as they regularly do. People who had always been guests at someone else’s Seder would have to make a Seder of their own. If that were not stressful enough, the mass hoarding of basic supplies like toilet paper and cleaning equipment had some worried about broader Passover supply shortages.
Instead, a record-breaking number of Passover Seders took place—many of them led by people who had never before done so. They were assisted, guided and inspired by the world’s largest Passover campaign, first launched by the Rebbe in 1954, which has annually brought matzahs and other Passover needs to hundreds of thousands, with many thousands more joining public Passover Seders hosted by Chabad centers around the world. Through reassuring, guiding and, in hundreds of thousands of cases, providing Passover supplies, in 2020 this campaign would help countless Jewish households making Seders for the first time.
Hundreds of Chabad rabbis and their wives took to TV airwaves and newspapers to explain that everything needed to make a Seder was available—pointing out that the observance of Passover was needed this year more than ever and drawing on the inexhaustible wisdom in the Rebbe’s teachings on the holiday. In his talks and pastoral letters issued each year before the holiday, the Rebbe would often emphasize how Passover and its story of personal and collective liberation encompasses every aspect of life for every person in every generation, showing us how faith in G‑d and positive action can enable us to overcome all that our minds, our bodies, and the world as a whole can be subjected to.
As the world moved online, Chabad.org—the world’s largest Jewish website—experienced a surge of web traffic, especially people logging on to its Passover sections. Working out of living rooms in 12 countries, more than 50 team members created Chabad.org/corona, as well as Chabad.org/coronapassover, to steer the more than 10 million individuals who visited the web site during this year’s Passover season to learn (in any one of eight languages) how to lead a Seder, gain general holiday knowledge and inspiration, or download DIY tools and guides. Chabad.org’s Ask-the-Rabbi service worked around the clock to keep up with the heavy caseload of questions the team answers every year, specifically those that focused on Passover or COVID-19, providing guidance and a helping hand.
Simultaneously, in response to the Rebbe’s call to ensure every Jew has access to shmurah matzah,Chabad emissaries around the world were creating millions of “Passover-to-Go” kits including shmurah matzah, delivered them directly to people in their homes. For those backpackers who travel the remote corners of Asia and South American (among other locations), Chabad rabbis found ways to provide for their Passover needs once again, as they worked round the clock to contact previous Seder attendees and see how they could help them celebrate wherever they were and took to Zoom to teach their local community about the holiday across more than 100 countries.
As the holiday drew near, the online sale of chametz skyrocketed, and rabbis in larger cities that saw emergency pop-up hospitals rushed to bring matzah and other provisions to Jewish frontline medical staff as well as patients. In New York City, home to the annual “Mitzvah Tank Parade” that distributes matzah to thousands every year, a large roving billboard truck drove around instead, informing residents how to arrange for a matzah package to be sent to them.
As the holiday drew to a close, people were educated online about the customs associated with it, including how to do Yizkor services at home and observe the ”Moshiach meal.”
About, but Not Always Out, for Lag BaOmer and Shavuot
There are 49 days between the second day of Passover and the festival of Shavuot, which are known as the Omer period. During this time, the Jewish people commemorate the many thousands of Torah scholars lost to a plague some 2,000 years ago. And this year, it was the time when the world first began to emerge from underneath a crushing first wave of modern-day plague. Lockdowns, quarantines and closure eased up somewhat to varying degrees across the globe.
Between the two festivals is Lag BaOmer, which, among other things, celebrates the end of that plague many years ago. Typically, a family day celebrated outdoors with bonfires and carnivals, Lag BaOmer, too, was not forgotten. The holiday has gained much popularity in recent years, largely due to the efforts of the Rebbe to promote grand parades of Jewish pride, and that tradition continued in 2020 with hundreds of Covid-safe car parades in cities and towns around the world, giving people a way to connect and celebrate with each other despite the circumstances.
For the holiday of Shavuot, Chabad responded with a bevy of different-style programs. In keeping with the call of the Rebbe that every Jewish man, woman and child should hear the sacred words of the Ten Commandments on the holiday, Torah readings multiplied worldwide — in many cases, brought to parks, street corners and other outdoor spaces. Of course, for those still unable to venture out, and where Torah readings could not be brought to them, the team at Chabad.org published printable tools for reading and internalizing the Ten Commandments on this important day.
Staying up all night on Shavuot to learn Torah is a hallowed tradition and online pre-Shavuot study sessions stood in for in-person classes on the holiday itself. To boost the learning on the night of Shavuot, Chabad.org prepared a plethora of material ready to be printed beforehand, part of their extensive suite of resources for people receiving the Torah this Shavuot in living rooms around the world.
Uniquely Meaningful High Holidays
As the High Holidays approached in the autumn, a second wave of the coronavirus sent countries into lockdown once more. With synagogues shuttered, prayers and High Holiday observances would have to be done outside the walls of the synagogue—and there was already a model in place for that. An online directory, hosted by Chabad.org, with Covid-safe High Holiday events aided millions to hear the shofarsafely in outdoor spaces. These shofar-blowing events were made possible by thousands of volunteers, many of whom had just learned how to sound the shofar themselves. Many thousands of others learned to sound the shofar on their own at homethrough an online Chabad.org course. They joined in what the Rebbe began in 1953, when he launched a shofar campaign, encouraging volunteers to take the shofar out of the walls of the synagogue to ensure that those who can’t be in synagogue would be able to hear the shofar This year, that encompassed the majority of the Jewish people.
Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, drew near, and with it, the somber Yizkor services, which each year draws millions of worshippers to synagogue. To commemorate the deaths of far too many, a pre-Yom Kippur Yizkor event was broadcast internationally, helping many get ready to mark the solemn day at home. Where possible, Chabad synagogues around the world created multiple prayer services, where a minimal number of safely-distanced worshipers could pray together. For the millions who could not attend such services, Chabad.org helped readers prepare for the Day of Atonement with meaningful articles and essays and a special guide on how to best observe the day at home.
Drawing the High Holiday season to a close, Sukkot was ushered in with much joy. A Simchat Beit Hasho’evah ceremony was brought to the public’s attention with a beautiful, printable guide on Chabad.org. While every year sees a “Sukkah Mobile” in cities around the world, this year saw an explosion of such mobiles everywhere, bringing holiday joy—and mitzvot, too, of course—to people in many locales, especially “house calls” to those in quarantine.
Chanukah Light Amid the Pandemic’s Darkness
As the Festival of Lights approached, 350,000 Chanukah-at-home kits were prepared and delivered around the world—just one component of a Chanukah campaign that reached more than 8 million Jews. Instead of canceling their holiday celebrations, Chabad centers around the world adapted them to the pandemic, heeding the Rebbe’s call not to suffice with illuminating just one’s own home, but to ensure others’ homes—and indeed the streets—are lit up as well.
With the Rebbe’s public menorah-lighting campaign having brought Chanukah into the forefront of America’s consciousness—and really, that of the entire world—a pandemic proved no match for such festivities. From the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to the Eiffel Tower—with personal intervention from the mayor of Paris—to Warsaw—where that city’s mayor shared a personal reflection—to state capitals across the United States, and to the living room in million homes—and really everywhere—the light of the menorah burned as brightly as ever.
With the recent normalization deals inked between Israel and a number of Arab states, the menorah was able to shine at the foot of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, as well as in the historic Jewish community of Morocco.
Even prior to the holiday’s beginning, much work was underway to bring Chanukah to every Jew possible. Young ambassadors were given menorah kits to distribute to their circle of friends and beyond, while hundreds of thousands of menorah kits were sent to people’s homes. A billboard seen by 80,000 motorists in New Jersey reminded people of the positive message of the holiday.
Chanukah events were not limited to public menorah-lightings. Chabad utilized all kinds of events to spread the holiday’s message of light. For years, Chabad promoted Chanukah and its message with community car-menorah parades, and this year they were staged in hundreds of locations. Other events included virtual gatherings for military personnel, outdoor concerts for parked cars, a “Zoom Menorah” for those techies who understand such things, and good-old fun at home—for which Chabad.org once again put together a printable PDF complete with activities, inspiration and holiday recipes.
Purim 2021
With Purim 2021 fast approaching, the Jewish people is renewing its commitment to a joyous holiday, once again finding innovative ways to safely participate inthe holiday’s four mitzvot: hearing the Megillah; giving to the poor; sending gifts of food to friends and neighbors; and participating in a seudah, a festive meal. Many Chabad centers are having multiple readings with limited attendance at each reading, as well as more outdoor readings than ever before.
Volunteers are spreading out around the world to deliver mishloach manot packages to the homebound and Chabad.org and Colel Chabad in Israel have partnered to distribute matanot l’evyonim (gifts to the poor) charity for those in need, many of whom will have less direct access to donors this holiday than they usually do, with door-to-door collecting largely curtailed.
And for those who are still isolated at home, Chabad.org has a specialPurim During Covid section that includes How to Celebrate Purim at Home, how toGive Matanot L’Evyonim Online,Purim Foods to Make (and Enjoy) at Home and holiday inspiration from the Rebbe onthe Rebbe on Purim page.
And for the first time, aspecial Purim PDF booklet, packed with uplifting inspiration, information and much more to enhance Purim at home is being widely shared with the intention that people print it and enjoy it over the holiday.
All in all, in a year defined by adversity presented by a worldwide pandemic, the Rebbe’s vision and teachings ensured that the light of Judaism shone forth through every holiday, as well as on every weekday and Shabbat, no matter the obstacles along the way.
“May G‑d grant that just as in the days of Mordechai and Esther it turned out that ‘For the Jews,’” and with them the world, “‘there was light, joy, gladness, and honor,’ in the plain sense of these terms as well as in their inner meaning … ,” the Rebbe wrote in 1981, “so shall it be for us.”
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