The rest of us: Some small congregations & prayer groups trying to survive the COVID-19 pandemic *also* ran HH services

The reports, questions, requests for advice, etc., were all over Facebook, particularly on the Dreaming Up High Holy Days 2020 page.  The sighs of relief, as well as the thank-yous now that Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) is over, are also all over Facebook.

Large synagogues have rabbis, cantors, staff, and technical help, paid for by their large numbers of members and donors.  

And small congregations and prayer groups have . . . what?

Pre-recorded music from a choir?  What choir?

Pre-recorded musicians?  What musicians?

Musicians piped in from other rooms?  How many rooms do you think we have in our tiny, windowless basement?  We can barely accommodate a minyan in our chapel, and the other rooms are full of mostly-no-longer-used machzorim and megillot books, not to mention a freezer and a second refrigerator, 'cause, ya know, Jews like to eat.  :)

Clergy safely distanced in sanctuaries that can accommodate hundreds of people (under normal circumstances)?  With at least two separate cameras capturing the services?  Are you joking?

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, some prayer/community spaces have had to sell their meeting locations, and some of them have no place to return to after the pandemic.

And some small congregations and prayer/community spaces have lost most of their "donations" (from people borrowing their facilities for non-synagogue activities) as a result of being closed due to the pandemic, and are barely above water financially.

Do you know what it's like to run High Holiday services with *no* full-time staff, *no* full-time clergy, and only one (part-time) cantor who's, um, less than stellar, all the while worrying about whether your synagogue building will still be there in six months?

Do you know what it's like to have some of your "hard-core regulars" unable to join you on Zoom because they're so low-tech that they don't even have cell phones, much less computers, and don't feel like holding a landline phone for an hour and a half?  It's no fun, "discriminating" against people just because they're over 80 and don't want to learn a new technology.

Do you know what it's like to spend months as volunteers creating e-mail lists, e-mailing information and Zoom links to congregants and friends, trying to figure out what to include and what to exclude from Zoom services, studying nusach, practicing Torah readings, and writing sermons, only to have High Holiday services with such a small attendance that we never had more than 30 people on the Zoom at any service, and couldn't even get a minyan on Shabbat Shuvah?

It's not that large congregations aren't terrifically challenged by these difficult times.  It's just that the problems of large congregations are often completely different from those that some smaller congregations/prayer groups have to deal with.  Congratulations to all of you whose services went well, and my sympathies to those who ran into technical or other difficulties.  But while you folks with resources are busy congratulating yourselves and one another, how about giving some recognition to the rest of us?

*Of course* the Trump acceptance speech took place on White House property

This may be obvious, but where else could Trump have gathered hundreds of people who weren't wearing face-masks and who weren't socially distanced without running afoul of local or state governmental regulations?

Central Park (courtesy of a trip to my dentist across the street)

 

Bridge & fancy apartment building on Central Park West

 

 

 Lake view and another snippet of Central Park West (further downtown)

View from over the wall at the entrance to the R subway train

Shira's Shots, Monday, August 10, 2020

 

I haven't been to Central Park since at least March, before New York State went on "shut-down" due to the COVID-19 pandemic--social distancing on a subway train or bus can be difficult, if not impossible, so I just avoid public transit unless necessary, and we don't have a car.  I don't expect to be back there until my next dentist appointment.  Unfortunately, that will be in about two weeks--I need another crown.  There goes the family budget.  :(  But at least I'll have an excuse to get on a subway that will take me straight to Central Park.  :)

Stop that dancing up there! :( And try something else :)

It goes without saying that we can't go Israeli folk dancing one-four times every week in the middle of a pandemic.  :(  And that was our main form of exercise.  :(  We didn't know whether we should even leave the apartment.  But our old friend the Physician Assistant said that getting some "sunshine Vitamin D" was essential to our health, so out we went, all masked up.  At first, we walked along the local highway because it isn't the main shopping street and the sidewalks are relatively uncrowded.  More recently, though, New York City, in cooperation with local volunteers, has closed a 26-block stretch of a local street to vehicular traffic every day from 8 AM to 8 PM--the volunteers move the barriers onto the street every morning and remove them every evening.  When the weather is nice, we've been known to take a stroll as long as 34 blocks round-trip on the pedestrian street.   That's more exercise than I've gotten in years!  And my husband sometimes leaves me at our corner to walk further at his own much-faster pace. Much to his surprise, my husband has actually lost weight within the last month or so!

A weird dream. Or maybe not

There I was, standing at a cash register looking at my receipt when I realized that I'd done something backwards:  I'd already paid for my groceries, but I didn't actually have them--I'd have to go down the aisles and find my groceries on the shelves.  End of dream.

After I woke up, I realized that that weird dream actually made perfect sense--since our son has adamantly insisted that we do all of our grocery shopping online to try to avoid catching COVID-19, we haven't gone to a supermarket since March.  So we are, in fact, paying for our groceries without actually going through the aisles to find them.

The Divided States of America

It wasn't enough that Trump deliberately sought to divide whites from blacks by "accusing" President Obama of having lied about being born in the United States and refusing to refute the racist rioters one of whom killed a protester in Charlottesville, Virginia as well as other racists threatening or perpetrating violence.

It wasn't enough that Trump's first election "rally" deliberately sought to divide Mexicans from others by accusing them of being rapists and murderers, and that he's since imprisoned thousands of Latin Americans at our southwestern border for the "crime" of seeking asylum.

It wasn't enough that Trump deliberately sought to divide people of other religions or no religion from Muslims by accusing all Muslims of being terrorists and seeking to ban Muslim entry into the U.S.

It wasn't enough that Trump deliberately sought to divide heterosexuals from the LGBTQIA+ community by banning transsexuals from the military and and depriving them of medical coverage.

It wasn't enough that Trump deliberately sought to divide women from our own lives by taking away funding for women's health care.

Now, Trump has pulled the previously-unthinkable stunt of weaponizing a pandemic, turning people who believe in science against those who prefer to cling to the fantasy that COVID-19 will simply disappear without any effort on the part of anyone.  In the process, he has divided the states even more than they were divided during the Civil War, forcing individual states to compete against one another and/or to band into regional groups to try to protect their own residents.

As if all of that weren't bad enough, Trump has done everything within his power to turn the police and the armed forces against American civilians, encouraging the use of weapons against peaceful protesters, and has made every effort to turn Americans against the truth itself, insisting that any journalist who disagrees with him is a liar and that any news organization that disagrees with him is promulgating "fake news."  Trump has made it clear that he has no interest in supporting the First Amendment.

"Divide and conquer" seems to be Trump's chief, or perhaps only, strategy in seeking to gain and stay in power.

Trump is destroying his own country from both within and without, and he doesn't care.

I am a 71-year-old American citizen born and raised in the United States, and despite having lived in the U.S. my entire life, I've never experienced anything like what is happening to my country.   In the roughly three and a half years since Trump's election, my country has gone from being a world leader and one of the great democracies to an international laughing stock and a candidate for dictatorship, from a leader in the fields of science and medicine to a death trap.  I'm in shock and in mourning for what we once were.

Pandemic turns people into movie actors against their will

Comedians complain that it's weird to work without an audience.

Musicians lament that they're exhausted after giving an online-only concert.

Even some educators can't give an online-only lecture without their spouse in the room.

So many people went into their current line of work at least partly because they enjoy the response of a live, in-person audience.

Now, all of a sudden, and through no fault of their own, all they can do is talk/sing/etc. into a camera.

If you get energized by a crowd, how do you cope when there's no crowd?

I imagine that it must be a real challenge to avoid "phoning it in" when talking to a camera, or recording a video of just one part of a multi-person song on a cell phone, is all you can do.

And yet, somehow, they manage to put on a real show.  Kol hakavod/my respects to all the fine folks who are keeping our spirits up.

Pandemic causes pause in some prayers

Pity my poor husband--he's been leading P'sukei D'Zimrah for probably more than a decade, yet no matter which Zoom or Livestream service we "attend," this section of the morning prayers is scarcely to be found.  Some synagogues/minyanim/prayer spaces choose a "greatest hits" approach, reading or singing only a psalm or two, while others skip all or almost all of this section.  We finally realized that, if we really wanted to pray the early parts of the service, we had to get up early enough on a Shabbath (Sabbath) or Yom Tov (holiday) to pray everything (or almost everything) from Birkot HaTorah through Yishtabach by ourselves before the service started.

A woman I met in a Zoom break-out room last week pointed out that there was a good reason for this omission--long Zooms hurt people's eyes.  Consequently, baalei tefillah (prayer leaders) and/or rabbis are cutting services to the bone to spare the worshippers' vision.

Even when congregations open their doors again, I think that many will continue to keep their services short to reduce the exposure of the attendees to possible infection.

What will this precautionary measure do to the piyyutim (liturgical poetry) on the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays)?  I think that many of them will temporarily disappear.  :(

Jewish prayer and current events

Rav todot--many thanks, to Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, whose class in Tefillah this past semester inspired this post.

In the beginning . . . (or close to it, in Birkot HaShachar/Morning Blessings), we praise HaShem for spreading the earth above the waters, and next, we praise HaShem for providing for all of our needs.  I think it makes sense that those two b'rachot (blessings) are in that order--if climate change raises the waters so far above the earth that we don't have enough land available to raise our food, all of our needs won't be provided for.  :(

In the Baruch Sheh-Amar prayer, we praise HaShem for having compassion on the earth and for having compassion on all creatures.  Between climate change and the coronavirus, we could use some compassion on both, at the moment.  :(

When we get to the Amidah prayer, there's this interesting line-up:  Somech noflim, v'rofei cholim, u-matir assurim--HaShem supports the fallen, heals the sick, and frees captives.  With healthcare workers exhausted, they could certainly use some support in healing the sick, and if enough of the sick are cured, we may, eventually, be freed from our current state of "house arrest."  (Speedily, in our day.)

We ask HaShem to grace us with knowledge, understanding, and discernment (Chonen HaDaat).  Medical researchers could certainly use all of the above.  I think that HaShem is our Rofeh Cholim, the One who cures the  sick, because HaShem enables both healthcare workers and medical researchers to take care of the sick.  "Lo bashamayim hi, it is not in heaven"--HaShem has assigned the power to heal to us humans, and we dare not decline the responsibility to heal or to support those who do.

I'm going to work my way backward in the siddur (prayer book) for a moment to make mention of what I find one of the scariest biblical quotes in the siddur:  " . . . va-avad'tem m'heirah mei-al ha-aretz ha-tovah asher HaShem notein lachem--and you will perish swiftly from the good land that HaShem is giving you." (Second paragraph of the Sh'ma, from Numbers 16)

Call me a cockeyed pessimist and I'll plead guilty as charged, but I can't help thinking that if climate change doesn't kill us, COVID-19 will.  :(  That is, if we don't die from being turned violently against one another, instead.  :(

Too soon :(

There aren't many advantages to being a super-small synagogue--it's a great way to go broke--but at least it's easy to contact all the "regulars" when there are only about 18 of them.

So when Governor Cuomo authorized gatherings of not more than 10 people, the president got on the phone.

A number of our congregants--mostly those over 80--refused to come to Shabbat (Sabbath) morning services because they didn't feel safe.

They were the smart ones.

Those who managed to make the cut--we had a few too many volunteers, so some had to be asked to stay home--followed all the rules, which were established with considerable guidance from the Orthodox Union that was forwarded by a synagogue member.

We were instructed to pray from the earliest blessings--Birkot HaTorah through P'sukei D'Zimrah-- at home.

Everyone wore a facemask.  And we were socially-distanced up to here--or rather, out to there--sitting in assigned seats that were two well-spaced rows apart, and sitting at opposite ends of the rows.

No one except the cantor was allowed on the bima (prayer platform).

The service was shortened as much as possible.   We started at the Shochen Ad prayer and did a heicha k'dushah for both Shacharit (Morning) and Musaf ("Additional") services. 

My husband, who's the acting rabbi, overruled the president and insisted on having only a Triennial-Cycle Torah reading for the first time in our synagogue's history, not only to shorten the service, but also to spare the cantor--it's no picnic leading an hour-and-a-half service through a facemask.  Everyone took their aliyot from their seats, and, when it came time for the Mi Sheh-berach prayer for the sick, we recited their names to ourselves, silently.  And yours truly read less than half of the haftarah.  My husband gave what was probably his shortest-ever d'var Torah (sermon, more or less), mostly to give the cantor a chance to sit down for a few minutes.

We thought that service went pretty well.

Until we got home, where we were greeted by a very upset son.

He pointed out that he hadn't known that we were going to shul until we were practically halfway out the door.

That's not surprising--when had we ever had to tell him in advance before?

But this pandemic has changed all the rules.

Our son pointed out that, by not discussing with him our decision to go back to synagogue, we had endangered his health without his knowledge or consent.

Ouch.

Fortunately, the president was also having second thoughts--when my husband called him on Sunday, he readily agreed to shut the shul again, mostly on the grounds that almost all of our "regulars" are over the age of 50, and, therefore, at higher risk.  By the end of the day, he'd called almost all of them to tell them the bad news.

Heaven, and/or the Centers for Disease Control, knows when we'll open again.

Congratulate us on the 100th anniversary of the founding of our synagogue . . .  which occurred in the middle of a global pandemic.  :(

Memorial Day: In memory of patriotism (?)

The Greatest Generation was willing to put their lives on the line for freedom.

My family had three branches of the U.S Armed Forces "covered" during World War II:  After being rejected for pilot training by the Air Force (Army Air Corps?) due to flat feet, my father ended up serving as an Army ambulance driver in the Philippines; my uncle served in the Navy on a ship in the Pacific; my mother volunteered for the Women Marines and served in Washington, D.C.

Thousands died defending the freedom of folks overseas and protecting the U.S.

For what?!

So that a vocal contingent of U.S. citizens can walk around with signs that say, "We won't give up our freedom for your safety"?

So that some people can consider themselves *better* Americans if they *won't* wear facemasks?

So that a lunatic fringe can show up in places of government carrying weapons and threatening lawmakers if they dare try to save lives?

During World War II, Americans (and others worldwide) endured thousands of deaths in combat, years of separation, and the rationing of food and just about everything else.

Now, people complain that they can't get haircuts or buy lawn fertilizer.

Do Americans no longer understand the concept of self-sacrifice for the greater good?

Do we even understand what patriotism is anymore?

Yale epidemiologist: Trump's response to COVID-19 'close to genocide by default'

My CPA husband is of the opinion that Trump is playing to his base by trying to re-open the economy while letting the pandemic kill off "minorities" who would be more likely to vote against him, and I think he's right. I've already commented to him and our son that what Trump is doing certainly seems like criminally negligent homicide to me, but this epidemiologist goes even further.  😠

This is as close to Manhattan as we're going to get . . .

. . . for probably at least another month.  :(

I shot this on the thoroughfare on which we try to take a walk when the weather is good--since it's zoned commercial, it has wider sidewalks than the local residential streets, making social distancing easier.

Something-splaining "Sheltering in Place" in an apartment

My husband, our son, and I share a two-bedroom apartment with exactly one bathroom (no "powder room").  Years ago, when some relatives of ours lived in a large house in a New York City suburb, I used to joke that we could fit our entire apartment in one third of their main floor. 

And one of my relatives had to move to temporary housing due to construction--they are currently *sharing* a studio apartment.

Yes, I'm happy that some of you have room to store a month's worth of food.  Would that I could say the same.  We store non-perishable food for Pesach (Passover) on garbage bags laid out on part of our bedroom floor, which creates a safety hazard when we get out of bed.  Where could we possibly store an entire month's worth of food? 

Yes, I'm happy to read that someone's spouse, a doctor, is isolating themselves in their den to prevent themselves from spreading COVID-19 to their family, or that others are self-quarantining in separate bedrooms with separate bathrooms.  Either option would be a great idea, if we had either option.

If one of us gets the coronavirus, it's likely that all three of us will get it, because quarantining oneself for 14 days in a bedroom that one can cross in eight steps (or less, with no street view, in the case of our son's bedroom), and texting a warning every time we have to use the bathroom will be difficult, if not impossible.

So yes, we go for a walk every day when the weather is decent.  We wear face masks, of course, and try to stick to nearby streets that have wider sidewalks than our own street has.  Our daily walk will get more difficult as the weather gets better, since social distancing will become more challenging as more people come out to enjoy some time in the sun--we (and probably half the neighborhood) will have to try to go out at about 7 AM in the hope of avoiding the crowds.  But apartment-dwellers, especially city-dwellers, particularly those with young children, just don't have a lot of choices.

My family is doing the best we can to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy.  Please don't hold it against us if you meet us--at a six-foot distance--outdoors.

Instant fruit cocktail, pandemic-style

We stocked up on some canned fruit in case we couldn't get fresh fruit.  Unfortunately, I may like pineapple, but pineapple doesn't like me--it's too acidic for a person with acid reflux.  And I also forgot how sweet even peaches packed in unsweetened fruit juice are--I might as well be eating candy.  So I combined a chunk or two of canned pineapple with a few slices of canned peaches, and added some golden raisins, some black raisins, and a date to tone down both the acidity and the sweetness.  And voila:  Homemade fruit cocktail, on the spot.  It's not exactly gourmet, but it'll do.  :)

Good songs for bad times

Here are a few tunes that might help you feel better.

In the humor department:

~See and hear here.  ["Don’t know who wrote this or who is singing it but it’s excellent!!"]

~ "A Spoonful of Clorox"--A Randy Rainbow Song Parody--DO NOT SHOW THIS TO YOUNG CHILDREN!!!

In the heartfelt department:

~Rabbi Josh Warshawsky sings his "Six Feet Apart" 

Trump is another Jim Jones

Why people stick with Trump and Fox News

"Why are Trump supporters so devoted? The simple answer is that they are members of a death cult. Call it the #TrumpDeathCult. Beyond that simple answer, there’s this: When your identity rests on Trump and his party being right, to admit that they are wrong—or worse, that they don't even give a rat's ass about you and yours—requires rethinking everything you are. I guess for some people, dying is easier."

Yes, folks, some people are actually drinking disinfectants because our president said that these might be cures for COVID-19.  These so-called cures are even more likely than COVID to kill people.

I'm old enough to have seen this before--over 40 years ago, the cult created by Jim Jones ended in mass suicide.

Free Zoom tutorials

See here:  https://jccmanhattan.org/search?keywords=zoom+tutorials

Stereophonic sound, academic division :)

In one room, our son is tutoring physics via Zoom.

In another room, my husband is tutoring accounting via Zoom.  Unfortunately, something is malfunctioning--every time he plugs in his headphones, the student can't hear him.  So I get the honor of hearing both sides of his tutoring session.

And, to boot, it's thundering outside.

It's getting a bit noisy around here.

:)

Overwhelmed and underfunded :(

Closing our synagogue was strange enough.

What happened shortly before and since then has been most unexpected.

It seems as if every musician on earth is posting not only music, but even entire concerts, online.

As the French would say, it's an "embarras de richesses."  But it's also embarrassing, because we can't even afford to pay for multiple music downloads, much less these wonderful performances, and all of these fine folks still have to pay their rent, even though they can no longer give concerts with live audiences, teach music students in person, lead services and/or chant Torah at closed synagogues, etc.

What are a retired person and her husband, who's retiring at the end of this so-called semester (such as it is) to do?  *Everyone* needs help, including quite possibly us in the future.  Should we support musicians, soup kitchens and food pantries, broke college students who have lost their dormitory housing and/or their jobs, Federations that support Jewish Community Centers and Ys that have lost a huge chunk of their income and still have buildings to maintain, synagogues that have also lost income from simchas (happy occasions such as weddings) that can no longer take place in person, educational and/or cultural institutions (Jewish and/or general) that are currently providing hours of free programming, etc., online, even, heaven help us, Jewish free burial societies that are now burying Coronavirus victims . . .  The list is endless.  The funds are not.  :(

As my oldest friend once said, "At some point, you become your own tzedakah (charity)."  I'm not sure we're there yet, but we probably will be.  :(  In the meantime, who's on first?