The coronavirus quarantine in effect in Israel is unpleasant but as Passover approaches, it becomes clear that it is a powerful aspect of the final redemption, recreating the seder ritual in a prophetic form it has bot taken since the original redemption from Egypt. 

The details of eating the Passover lamb are described in Exodus. One particular section of the Bible describes the seder (the ritual meal eaten Passover night) as it was performed the evening before the Children of Israel left Egypt. Though this version of the seder was only performed that one time, one detail, in particular, is relevant today.

They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they are to eat it. Exodus 12:7

Rabbi Jacob ben Asher (also known as Ba’al ha-Turim), a 13th Century Torah scholar from Cologne, commented on how to perform the ritual.

“[And we see in a later verse that] Aaron and his sons will eat [the offering] in the [Tabernacle] tent and will not come out, here also you will not come out of your house, thereby teaching that the final redemption is like the first redemption”

Similar to the traditional American Thanksgiving feast, Passover is normally a time for family and friends to gather together for a festive meal. But due to the coronavirus, there is a quarantine in effect throughout Israel as well as many regions in the U.S. This means that most Jewish homes will be having an ‘isolated’ Passover seder with few, if any, guests. In other words, this year, the Jewish people will be like the priests in the tabernacle and just like the ancient Jews in Egypt were in their homes – insular and isolated.

Lest the reference by Rabbi ben Asher be classified as vague and applicable to a different era, the Torah continues describing that first unique ‘redemptive’ seder. 

Do not eat any of it raw, or cooked in any way with water, but roasted—head, legs, and entrails—over the fire. Exodus 12:9

In this verse, the Hebrew word for ‘raw’ is נָא (na). The medieval French Biblical authority, Rabbi Shomo Yitzchaki, who is known by the acronym Rashi, commented on this verse:

אל תאכלו ממנו נא. שֶׁאֵינוֹ צָלוּי כָּל צָרְכּוֹ קוֹרְאוֹ נָא בְלָשׁוֹן עֲרָבִי:

Don’t eat it raw: that is not roasted all that is necessary, which is called ‘na’ in Arabic. In Hebrew, “called ‘na’” is pronounced corona.

Two verses further on, the purpose of that original seder and the blood on the doorposts is explicitly described in a manner that is just as relevant today:

And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. Exodus 12:13