CTJC Bulletin Pesach 2021

From the Editor Jane Liddell-King Dear All, Firstly, a huge thank you to all of you who have made this magazine possible.

As I sat savouring the hamantaschen so kindly delivered by Chana and Reuven in the beautifully packaged Mishloach Manot, I realised that a whole year had passed since I’d sat at a neighbour’s table with friends: Purim 5780. What will we make of this past year of uncertainty, grief, separation, comfort eating, screen fatigue, countered by extraordinary heroism, resourcefulness, and acts of unexpected kindness? How will we explain it to the children with whom we are about to celebrate Pesach?

How fortunate that adaptability is written into our DNA. As a friend has it: “If we can fold our tents and move on, surely we can change our mindset”. And so we have mastered virtual meetings, greeted neighbours from a safe distance and generally resisted nostalgia.

Nostalgia was the undoing of those in the wilderness who, craving Egyptian spring onions and forgetting the reality of slavery, kvetched about the monotony of manna. Understandably though, a place with no familiar furniture and no signposts was bewildering: the past felt safer.

I see the year as a masterclass in adaptability. Early on, Rosalind Landy substituted beer for yeast in her challot. Only this week, Jo has sent me heartening messages as I battle with a dysfunctional computer. We have schmoozed online. In a virtuoso on-line performance of Megillat Ester, Yoav and his daughter, Ayala, answered the needs of the wider Jewish community. Sudden change has not fazed us.

We have grieved together and we have witnessed astonishing medical advances in the rapid production of vaccines. As we receive these, we can face a new version of normality.

May I wish you all ‫חג פסח שמח‬.

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