“The Rabbis do not teach us to praise or to thank God for the bad. Praise and thanks for suffering is a game for masochists and fools. We are only taught to bless the Eternal, to humbly bend our knees and to present this gift of our understanding to the Holy One, Blessed Be.”
In the days leading up to the lockdown, the Milanese Jewish community behaved “like good soldiers,” Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, director of the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation (CDEC), tells Moment, respecting public health ordinances and avoiding scenes reminiscent of those coming out of Brooklyn and Bnei Brak of minyanim gone rogue.
If people don’t feel safe going to the polling station, or if large gatherings and close contact are still deemed dangerous, why not allow all voters to fulfill their civic duty through the mail?
“Any sacrifice to save human life is, by definition, vital.”
Though the number of Jewish births in the UK has outpaced the number of deaths since 2006, the community continues to skew older. Those over 60 are at a far higher risk of becoming sick or dying from the coronavirus. In addition, the majority of British Jews live in and around London, where the outbreak in Britain has been most pronounced. The city remains weeks away, reports suggest, from the coronavirus’s peak.
Meetings and classrooms have been disrupted by blasts from pornographic films and, in one case, a shouter interrupted a Massachusetts school class meeting with profanities, and then disclosed the teacher’s home address.
Iran also faces an additional complicating factor in battling the virus’s spread: A comprehensive set of U.S.-led international sanctions, which have crippled Iran’s economy, limited many services in the country, and imposed tough restrictions on the nation’s ties with the world and its ability to trade and import goods.
With best Passover wishes from my kitchen and family to yours, here are some recipes and food essays to tempt your palate, expand your repertoire and help bring you into the delight and meaning of the holiday, this year of 2020/5781, as we revisit Mitzrayim (Biblical Egypt) from our own narrowed places.
