By Rabbi Mario Rojzman
Note: This blog post was featured as part of our #HeshbonHodesh: Nisan monthly newsletter.
As I prepare to write these lines, my friend and congregant journalist Andrés Oppenheimer tells me that Japan has just created a Ministry of Loneliness to deal with the growing crisis of despair, drug addiction and suicides that has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Remote work and the cancellation of social gatherings during the pandemic have worsened loneliness-related mental health problems.
Japan, Andres told me, has followed in the footsteps of Great Britain, which had already created a Ministry of Loneliness in 2018, amid a growing wave of depression and mental illness that experts link to technological isolation.
The United States is not exempt. It is believed that 130,000 people will die during the pandemic due to the plague of solitude and hopelessness (overdose, suicides and deaths from sadness).
What do we Jews have to offer as an antidote to depression, loneliness and hopelessness?
Two very powerful weapons: the community and the calendar.
Pesah is on its way.
The name of the Pesah festival is inspired by the name of the sacrifice offered by our ancestors on the eve of the Passover, on the 14th of Nisan, in the face of the imminent liberation from pharaoh's tyranny.
The lamb was set on the table at the evening banquet, and was eaten by the assembled company.
What always draws my attention is that the sacrifice had to be consumed in its entirety.
How does a person or family eat a goat or a whole lamb and make sure there will be nothing left?
They invite people to share!
And what sensations do we have when we share? What happens when you congregate? (Virtually for now and face-to-face as soon as possible?)
I think we are receiving and providing the ancient Jewish vaccine against depression, loneliness, and hopelessness (of course I do not say that it is enough but I believe it generates antibodies).
In each other's faces we can find and give hope.
In community we can fight together the unbearable loneliness this pandemic has created.
Once we have enough vaccines to control the COVID-19 pandemic, we will have to address the aftermath of despair, depression and loneliness that it has left in many sectors of society.
Until that day comes, while celebrating Pesah, without the necessity of sacrificing an animal, let’s commit to an extra effort to give hope to combat other people's loneliness and understand that the freedom FROM Egypt was given to us to build the freedom TO elevate the dignity and hope of those around us.
Read the Other Blog Posts in This Series:
Rabbi Mark J. Bisman: Freedom from the Perspective of Retirement
Rabbi Sandra Kochmann: Freeing Ourselves from the "Always" and the "Never"
Rabbi Eliav Bock: Connecting with the Divine in the Outdoors
Rabbi Ervin Birnbaum: The Story of the Exodus Ship
Rabbi Danielle Upbin: צא ולמד - Our Body as Teacher: A Spiritual Journey Through the Hebrew Letters
Rabbi Mario Rojzman (Seminario, 1987) is Senior Rabbi at Beth Torah Benny Rok Campus, North Miami Beach, FL.