Spring has sprung, which means not only is Pesach on the way, but, alas, the dreaded “t” word: yes, taxes. Groan ….
Shortly after we had sent the sundry paperwork to our accountant and thought that it was a done deal, we were informed we also needed to send the letter 6419 from the IRS, which stated how much we received in Advanced Child Tax Credits as well. Uh oh, we could not find it, and without the IRS receiving this information, well, no refund.
Thus began my saga of trying to get in touch with the IRS to get a duplicate copy of what is known as Letter 6419. This began with a few calls that all met with the recorded message that “due to volume we can’t take your call at this time.” After several calls with the same result, I got a new message, that I was “…being transferred to an agent, please hold.” Cue the background music, interrupted periodically with recorded apologies for making me wait and that my call will be serviced in the order it was received. While soaking in that invigorating elevator music, I used this time to start taking care of my laundry until, after 20 minutes, I finally heard a human voice on the other side.
After requesting a copy of letter 6419, the person told me she would transfer my call to someone else to help me. No sooner had she transferred me when a recorded message told me that, due to heavy call volume, my call could not be received, goodbye! Click. Sighing, I repeated the process yet another time. After navigating through the maze of recorded requests, resulting in a wait of thirty minutes (which, if you are keeping track, gave me an extra ten minutes to continue doing my laundry) a different person finally answered my call. Here comes the punch line: “Unfortunately, the IRS can not mail out duplicates of letter 6419.”
When I asked then how I could provide the information to the accountant, the person did say if the Advanced Child Tax Credits were sent via direct deposit, then I could get copies of the checks from the bank and send them to the accountant for the necessary data, because letter 6419 is but a summary of the amount received from all the checks.
Ultimately, this is what I did. And the worker at the bank who was procuring copies of my checks and I got a laugh out of this, as I recounted that the IRS did state on their website that the figure in the letter, for a host of reasons, might not even be accurate. What is the point of spending so much time and money mailing out a form that, even though the data is a crucial element of the taxation process, is useless at the end of the day? Three cheers for bureaucracy!
Well, at least I learned a very important lesson for the future: never discard any check from the United States Treasury, or at least make copies of them, in case one needs them for tax return purposes. Yes, I had another manifestation of life handing me a lemon from which I made lemonade. So, although I had over an hour of frustration from dealing with a not-so-efficient system, I did walk away not only with a viable solution, but a good strategy for seeking to avoid this problem in the future. Remembering this frustrating experience will ultimately give me the satisfying feeling of having a positive plan. As I was reflecting on this afterwards, I realized that there is an appropriate perspective of always seeking a silver lining which I can take from this experience to apply to the upcoming Pesach Sederim as well.
To a large degree, one of the main purposes of the Seder, with its various commandments, rituals, customs and so forth, is to attempt to relive Yetziat Mitzrayim, the Exodus from Eygpt. Thus, much of what is read from the Haggadah, taking from various areas of the very rich labyrinth of our sacred texts, emphasizes the point that we were once slaves in Egypt.
A similar idea is present with consumption of maror, the bitter herbs. More subtlety, one of the reasons that beitzah, the hard boiled egg, appears on the Seder plate is that it is a traditional food associated with mourning (indeed, some have a practice to eat hard boiled eggs at the seder as well) and thus it is an allusion to the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash, which is further bolstered by the fact that the first night of Pesach is also on the same night which Tisha B’Av occurs, which is the supreme day of mourning on the Jewish calendar (as recorded by the Rema in Orach Chaim, citing the MaHaril, 476:2).
Of course Tisha B’Av is the date upon which each Beit Hamikdash was destroyed. Now, the Seder is, of course, a joyous event when all is said and done. So why so much focus on the fact we were slaves and/or have any connection with perhaps the supreme tragedy of our history at this time?
One reason may be that, in order to appreciate the freedom that Yetziat Mitzrayim afforded, one must recall how bitter, harsh and unpleasant it was to be under the yoke of slavery. Thus, recalling and reliving the unpleasant experience of being slaves can not only enhance the exultation we can gain from the Seder, but is also the starting point of the happiness itself.
Rabbi David Blum provides pastoral care throughout New Jersey as part of the Rabbi Chaim Yosef Furst Chaplaincy Program, which is conducted via Congregation Ohav Emeth of Highland Park, and the Joint Chaplaincy Program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest. He resides with his family in Highland Park, and may be contacted at [email protected]
