Skip to content
  Thursday 26 May 2022
Trending
19 October 2015The Broadway Shopping Centre Announces Launch Plans 14 March 2018A Tribute Night with the Stars 12 November 2021National Chicken Soup for the Soul Day 25 July 2021The Grammar School At Leeds 4 July 2021Ian Joseph on his new book, Magic Mazik 28 August 2019Teamwork Makes The Dream Work at Manchester Maccabi Family Fun Day 28 November 2018All Night Long 1 June 2016Ciao Bella! 31 March 2022The Arium 2 November 2016My Chanukah
  • VISIT JLIFE MANCHESTER
  • VISIT JLIFE LEEDS
JLife Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine Issues
  • Content
    • Features
    • Community News
    • Blog
    • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Advertise in JLife Manchester
  • Featured Businesses
  • Contact – Manchester
JLife Magazine
JLife Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine Issues
  • Content
    • Features
    • Community News
    • Blog
    • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Advertise in JLife Manchester
  • Featured Businesses
  • Contact – Manchester
  • VISIT JLIFE MANCHESTER
  • VISIT JLIFE LEEDS
JLife Magazine
  Features-Manchester  No Passive Passovers
Features-Manchester

No Passive Passovers

jlifejlife—28 February 20210
FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedInTumblrRedditVKWhatsAppEmail
More stories

Passover Comment by Rabbi Daniel Walker

9 March 2020

Home Entertainment

28 February 2021

Pass It On

28 March 2017

Seder Word!

27 February 2018

The past 12 months have bombarded us with dilemmas. Some, like the balance between lockdown and economic stability, have serious implications on our society, while others may seem trivial, but haunt us nonetheless. It’s in this spirit that I raise a seemingly inconsequential Zoom dilemma. Do we turn our cameras on and parade our faces on the screen, or do we turn our cameras off and retreat, leaving our names as our only identifying mark? I’ve noticed a pattern over the last year. When we first entered the Zoom age, we were super keen to be seen and as the months have slid by, the black boxes in the gallery view have increased.

What’s behind that faceless box? My guess is probably a well-justified couch potato. The rigours of a day’s work have taken their toll. The house chores are finally done. The dog’s been for a walk. The kids are in bed. All that’s left to do is put our feet up in front of the TV and unwind. Then you remember that the shul has a Zoom lecture with an appealing title and you decide to join in. Enter our dilemma. You’re in your PJs, well-positioned in the grooves of your couch, comfort food ready to be devoured. Would you really want to turn the screen on? We know the lecturer feels like he is speaking to a ghost audience. We know it may come off as a bit rude to some, but hey, at least we came and at least we listened. You see, TV is great because it allows us to escape our problems.  We can be passive, take a step back and spectate. By day we ponder, pray, and persist with our own issues and by night we turn them off when the remote turns the TV on. The question is, are Zoom lectures the same as watching a televised interview or the equivalent of sitting live in a classroom?

If you are a participant, you are required to present yourself, but if you are a spectator, then you have the luxury to observe without being seen. It’s not for me to answer this delicate question. Each one of us is mature enough to decide, but it does give us an insight into the Seder experience. Maimonides tells us the essence of retelling the story of the Exodus on Pesach night is to bring us to the point where we present ourselves as if we ourselves had left Egypt. The Jew at the Seder is not watching the Exodus through the spectacles of the past. He is not removed from the experience of his forebearers, a passive viewer that has paused his life to be entertained by the Hebrews of yesteryear.

No – the Jew is an active participant at the Seder! He feels the hot sand as he races through the desert and he can hear the agonising cries of his brothers in bondage. When he eats bitter herbs, his life feels bitter and when he gulps down four cups of wine, he indeed feels redeemed and liberated. He eats matzah, not as a memorial to the unleavened bread of the Hebrews, but because he himself does not have time for his bread to rise in his own modern day Exodus tale. On the Seder night, our cameras are metaphorically on (and as an Orthodox Rabbi, I emphasise the word metaphorically). We have zoomed into Egypt and the enslaving, limited factors of our lives. We go on a journey to identify what really keeps us in captivity from growth and then, with the help of our Saviour, we can leave as liberated free people, motivated to move forward with our lives.

If we leave our metaphoric cameras off, then Pesach is not our festival. It is merely an ancient saga of a people long ago.

Jewish CommunityJewish FesitvalsPassover
FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedInTumblrRedditVKWhatsAppEmail
Blood, Sweat and Tiers
Open Wide
Related posts
  • Related posts
  • More from author
Features-Manchester

En Mode

17 May 20220
Features-Manchester

Save it

17 May 20220
Features-Manchester

New Developments

9 May 20220
Load more
Get more stuff

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Read also
Features-Leeds

A Royal Celebration

25 May 20220
Features-Leeds

Home Sweet Home

23 May 20220
Features-Leeds

Out & About

20 May 20220
Featured Business Manchester

Worsley Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club

19 May 20220
Manchester Community News

Charity Launches Support Program

17 May 20220
Manchester Community News

Funding Offered for Film Makers

17 May 20220
Load more
Recent Posts
  • A Royal Celebration
  • Home Sweet Home
  • Out & About
  • Worsley Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club
  • Charity Launches Support Program
    JLife Magazine
    JLife Magazine is a community magazine for the people of Leeds and Manchester. Originally created for the Jewish community, it now has a wider outreach and regularly features news, events and more for the local community & businesses.

    # TRENDING

    LeedsManchesterInterviewJewishNewsCommunity2018CharityBusinessTravelIsraelLJWBNorth LeedsHealthLifestyleUJIAJLifeThe FedTheatreArt
    © Copyright Nuts for Print 2021, All Rights Reserved
    • About Us
    • Terms and Conditions