In the lead-up to Passover, Jews scattered across the globe turned to the Internet to answer their holiday-related questions on everything from the proper arrangement of a Seder plate to the deeper meanings of freedom.
Scholars Around the World Respond to Increasing Flurry of Questions
In the lead-up to Passover, Jews scattered across the globe turned to the Internet to answer their holiday-related questions on everything from the proper arrangement of a Seder plate to the deeper meanings of freedom.
For the group of scholars affiliated with Chabad.org’s Ask the Rabbi service, the spike in requests was all part of life in the Information Age, although they themselves were busy with their own Passover preparations at home.
Chana Benjaminson, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of New Bedford, Mass., and coordinator of the Ask the Rabbi program, marveled at the more than 70 percent increase in queries in the days and weeks prior to Passover.
“I am amazed at how one can literally be on the other side of the world and be able to assist a person in a practical or spiritual way,” she said, “all with a few strokes of a keyboard and an Internet connection.”
Users’ questions spanned a gamut of topics, from those based on the first Passover account recorded in the Torah to more practical inquiries on the applications of the prohibition against all leavened products, known as chametz.
“Would we still really be slaves if we would not have left Egypt?” asked one questioner.
“Can I take my medicine on Passover?” posed another.
Others turned to the site when they found themselves without a Seder to attend.
