Our rabbis did too little, too late to ease Pesach

The bond between the Queen and her people seemed unshakeable on Sunday night. She instinctively understood what people need to hear in these unprecedented times, and in just four minutes reassured, supported and uplifted. In our hour of need, she showed true empathy and leadership.

Few Orthodox rabbis have shown such a deft touch with the community over the last two weeks. There are many individual well-meaning, hard-working rabbis who have done their best. But as a group, the Orthodox rabbinate has proven to be out of touch with the people they serve, and unresponsive to their needs.

 
For an observant Jew, the timing of the lockdown could not have been worse. Pesach cleaning is time-consuming and exhausting at the best of times. Buying Pesach goods is a significant expense. And taking extensive time off work can be stressful and costly too.

This year, who has strength for all this? Families are under unprecedented strain, stuck at home, struggling to homeschool children whilst the adults try to work. Many have lost jobs or income. Leaving the house to shop is literally to endanger your life. All of us have friends and even family ill with coronavirus. 

We are alone. We are lonely. We are afraid. Most people are hanging by a thread.

Given this dire emergency, the rabbinate should have been bending over backwards to find every leniency to help people make Pesach as easily as possible. The rabbinate should have been preaching, day and night, that for once we must hold ourselves to simpler standards on Pesach. They should have been working hard to find halachic solutions for vulnerable people stuck by themselves on Shabbat and Yomtov. And they should have repeated ad nauseum that under no circumstances must people endanger their lives, to keep Pesach.

The community was crying out for this. On social media, traditional people confessed that this year, they just can’t make Pesach. Fully observant people were begging for rabbis to cancel or significantly ease second day Yomtov. People were desperate to find safe times to do Pesach shopping, and struggling to plan Pesach menus without basic ingredients. And there was dread at the thought of spending three days even more cut off than normal. 

The rabbis seemed to accept this only begrudgingly. Following public pressure, the London Beth Din released a list of products which do not need Kosher for Pesach certification. The list was much shorter than the American equivalents, and included items like bottled water and toothpaste which most US members would not seek a Pesach hechsher for anyway. They neglected to allow Ashkenazim to consume kitniyot, legumes which are permitted for Sephardim, though this would have made Pesach much easier. Had consumer needs really been their top priority, they could have gone much further. 

Some rabbis released the same old advice they repeat every year, not to confuse Pesach cleaning with spring cleaning. Only a handful, like Ohr Yerushalayim synagogue in Manchester, really got it: “In the current situation, our priority at home must be to ensure that we are able to look after our children with as much peace of mind as possible,” instructing people to keep Pesach cleaning to three hours.
Most people never heard this message. Without emphatic orders to keep cleaning to a minimum, there were even people looking to hire cleaners, endangering lives. 

The only ones making a serious effort to help people with fragile mental health were a group of Moroccan rabbis in Israel, who allowed families — under certain circumstances — to have Seder together on Zoom. Rabbis whose traditions around use of electricity are different could not be expected to endorse this ruling, and Chief Rabbi Mirvis issued a sensible suggestion for families to connect via Zoom before Yomtov begins. But there is no evidence that the rabbinic leadership grappled with the issue of mental health much further (except perhaps on a case-by-case basis). On the contrary.  Eleven Chief Rabbis signed a letter asking people to switch off electronics on the Shabbat before Pesach. One wonders whether they really understand that for many isolated people, technology is currently the lifeline to sanity. 

At times like this, people look to the rabbinate to provide extraordinary leadership, understanding and help. They failed — and people noticed. Given that the coronavirus is the greatest challenge of our lifetime, this chasm between the rabbinate and their flock will not be fast forgotten.