Purim and the Coronavirus Era: A Contrast of Times

BY CHANA YAGOD, DAUGHTER OF RABBI YITZCHOK AND REBBETZIN FRIMET SHAYNA YAGOD, CONGREGATION TIFERES ISRAEL, MONCTON, NB

Looking out at the snow through my kitchen window, the scent of fresh bread filling the kitchen, I’m reminded that soon it will be Purim and time to bake Hamentaschen. This brings sharply to focus the memory of last Purim and the contrast in times: last Purim, coronavirus was known but the pandemic hadn’t yet been declared, and no one knew what the year would hold in store for us.

We went on with Purim celebrations naturally assuming the national news of coronavirus would soon fade out and be added to the list of historical news breakers occupying minor space in the global conscious: the Kuwait war, the San Francisco fire, Texan independence, Mt. Sakurajima’s eruption. We were blissfully unaware of all that would follow... the declaration of the pandemic, the virus reaching every country in the world, millions of people getting sick and dying, hospitals suffering medical explosions, the workforces everywhere shutting down and people transitioning to do everything from home and the Internet.

The coronavirus has dramatically changed the world as we know it: everyone conducting daily life on the Internet and people cautious when venturing outside, businesses everywhere employing sanitation protocol, and the entire world conscious of germ spread. Now the year mark and it will soon be the anniversary of the pandemic. And just as 2020/5780 was a year of everything turning over in the most dramatic and unexpected way, May God grant us that 2021/5781 also be a year of everything changing unexpectedly and dramatically for the good.