Digital Resources for this Unusual Passover

"Why is this night different from all other nights?" That' line has never applied to any Seder more than this month! Our Passover Seders will necessarily be different due to the emergency situation of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

For everyone's health, we must not have any guests in person at our Seder, but only people who are living in the same household already. Those of us who are liberal Jews can have online Seders (such as on Zoom) to include family and friends! (In fact, even some Orthodox Israelis rabbis took the unusual step of permitting people to include grandparents at their Seder via Zoom.)

If you are going to have some guests online, and want to share a digital Haggadah, there are several to choose from. Here are some ideas:

Bayit, a Jewish educaitonal organization, has shared a variety of digital resources for Passover, including the popular Velveteen Rabbi Haggadah by Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, and some social justice-themed Haggadot: 
https://yourbayit.org/resources-for-pesach-in-a-time-of-quarantine/

For families with young children, or who want a simple illustrated Haggdah, you can get one free by signing up with Kveller, a website for Jewish parents: https://www.kveller.com/haggadah/

If you would like a mystical/Hassidic version, you can get the Breslov digital Haggadah: https://breslov.org/free-breslov-haggadah-download/

Update: And here's one more that has an environmental emphasis--and you can get it as a power point (great for zoom sharing): 
http://neohasid.org/zman/pesach/InnerSeder/

Here are some ideas for using a digitual Haggadah: 

If you use the digital Haggadah on zoom, you could send the link to everyone before hand, they can download and they can look at it on their screens. Alternately, the leader can share their screen. I suggest just sharing some pages briefly for a prayer or reading, and then stopping the share to allow for "face to face" discussion.

Mostly, I suggest keeping your Seder simple. The Seder is not just a script to be read, it's a framework for discussion. You might ask each person to share something they are grateful for or to prepare a song or discussion topic.  We certainly have a lot of topics to discuss this year: about plagues, about freedom, about our hopes for the future. Whichever Haggadah you choose, use it as a starting point, not a script. We can try to think of what we have and not what we are missing this year.

It's also interesting to note that even in Biblical times, people couldn't always celebrate Passover appropriately at the correct time. Maybe this year we will celebrate as best we can this month, and have a modern version of the "Pesach Sheni," a second Passover, by gathering in person at a later date, God willing.

Wishing you all a good and meaningful Passover, and "Next year--together with everyone again!" 

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