The Pesach Quarantine

The Passover seder  celebrates the  exemption  - of the celebrants of the ritual  - from the plague of death for the firstborn.  The Israelites were told to shelter in place, not leave the house, on the night of the scheduled epidemic.

 לֹ֥א תֵצְא֛וּ אִ֥ישׁ מִפֶּֽתַח־בֵּית֖וֹ עַד־בֹּֽקֶר׃

 None of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

 There was an important element of isolation in that first Passover. The quarantine was intended to avoid a plague...like ours. The memory of its success is preserved in our tradition.

The  progression of the plagues of Egypt are also similar to the evolution of Covid 19.  The second set of three plagues (the Adash of  R. Yehudah ) tell us that there was an invasion of  exogenous animals (Oraiv).  Per Jared Diamond ( Guns, Germs and Steel)  it is easy to imagine that these unfamiliar animals brought with them new infectious microbes. Diamond argues that the introduction of bew germs by livestock was one of the methods by which herders decimated hunter gatherers and dominated parts of the world. 

 The very next plague , dever, was zoonosis,  an animal epidemic.  A new microbe, possibly a virus, established itself in the endogenous, domesticated animal population.  Next, Shichin, a human disease characterized by rash, an exanthem  like measles ( which came from a rinderpest, a disease of cattle)   or smallpox, spreads through the population, affecting even the royal court of the Pharaoh.  The plague of the firstborn could have been yet another mutation of one of these viruses that originated in the invasion of animals. 

עַד שֶׁדְּרָשָׁהּ בֶּן זוֹמָא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת יוֹם צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ. יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הַיָּמִים. כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הַלֵּילוֹת. וַחֲכָמִים אוֹמְרִים יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה. כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ לְהָבִיא לִימוֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ:

until Ben Zoma explicated it, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 16:3), 'In order that you remember the day of your going out from the land of Egypt all the days of your life;' 'the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked during] the days, 'all the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked also during] the nights." But the Sages say, "'the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked in] this world, 'all the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked also] in the days of the Messiah."

This is a famous enigmatic argument . It does not sit well in the mind because the answers seem not to be parallel. Ben Zoma is talking about a period in the 24 hour day.  The sages are invoking a longed for era.

 Ben Zoma is talking about a daily occcurance: night. The time when our most vivid and defining sense, sight, does not operate.  A time when the rules cannot be enforced, when a person is threatened and  is rightly fearful; a time when we do not know the outcome will be favorable. Rashi on Exodus 12:22, the verse that prohibits going out on the night of the plague says:

וְלַיְלָה רְשׁוּת לַמְחַבְּלִים הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "בּוֹ תִרְמֹשׂ כָּל חַיְתוֹ יָעַר" (תהלים ק"ד):

nighttime is the domain of the destroying agencies as it is said, (Psalms 104:20) “[Thou makest darkness and it is night], wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth”.

 The Sages  are evoking  the longed for salvation. The time that the persecuted, no matter how severely, no matter how lightly, hope will speedily arrive.  A time when things are at their peak.
 The Sages tell us that we must also remember the Exodus in the Messianic Era, even in the best of times.   The joy of the good times is seasoned by the memories of the less fortunate past. The memory of Egypt becomes the pungent component of the incense. 

 Ben Zoma says that we are to remember the Exodus in the day and the night. Ben Zoma has us remember the salvation from Egypt as a source of hope for our salvation from our tribulations. 

The "night" of Ben Zoma is the gloom of misfortune, maybe even Elie Weisel's Night. Ben Zoma may be saying that even in the moments when the Exodus is an almost  incredible memory because of the ambient misfortune,  it must be remembered. The ancient rescue from the overwhelming plague is an enduring source of hope under all circumstances. 

These two aspects of the Exodus: suffering and hope, are also reflected in the 4 questions.  The first two center on the suffering: matzoh ( the bread of affliction) and the bitter herbs ( which recall the suffering of slavery).  Asking why we eat them  is a question only in the good times.  In the bad times you don't ask why we are eating these dry and bitter foods, you are just thankful that you have food.

The second two questions assume opulence.  Why are there two hors d'oeuvres ( instead of the usual one?); why must  we  lounge  at dinner tonight?  These questions are more poignant at moments of difficulty. They are reminders of comfort in the  past and comfort that will come again.

Our salvation from this plague will come.  It will be an enduring memory.