Usually, we know about the seder months in advance.  We order lamb and the fish for the 20 or so people, empty out our freezers and fridges (since most people I know don’t have extra freezers), check for dishes and glasses, buy missing pieces before they run out.  Sometimes even matzah runs out in the grocery, and sometimes eggs are scarce.  But we always know.  This year it’s harder.  We don’t believe that the freedom we’re feeling will last – that as soon as the elections are over, everything is going to be closed down again and we’ll go into the dark ages.  

There’s no real logic to this – we’ve got more than half of the population vaccinated.  The greater likelihood is that we’re going to have a war.  Nevertheless, no one feels comfortable about planning for the future.

That’s why the bat-mitzvah we were at this evening was so unusual.  We were invited to our grand-niece’s bat-mitzvah party months ago.  It was just the elderly relatives on the mother’s side – less than 20 people – but elegantly catered and served.  The caterers return in the morning the father’s elderly relatives and last week was for her friends.  So the parents had planned for most eventualities.  That is the kind of planning I admire.  Reasonable, clearcut, and probably much more expensive.

This is in contrast to our political planning.  Our crisis of the day is with Jordan not letting Bibi fly over their airspace to get to his meeting with the Emirates.  Hasn’t anyone in the government realized that we’ve been irritating the Jordanians for years now in many ways, and payback would eventually come?  Even Seders show more planning than our foreign policy.