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I remember Purim last year, when we all sat in shul listening to the Megillah. No one thought about “social distancing” as we broke our fast together in packed social halls. The term hadn’t been invented.. Those successive urgent email messages from the Agudath Israel hadn’t begun yet either. And masks and gloves were still primarily worn by doctors and nurses. But before too long, the world as we knew it had completely changed, and we started to wonder when it would ever be the same again. Remarkably, our lives began to transform in good ways, too. We became more focused on davening, and our learning had more meaning than ever before. We rose to the challenges that Hashem put before us and forged ahead.
And here we are a
year later. We continue to weather the storm, doing what we have to do. Purim
is around the corner, and we now know that it won’t be the same as last year.
What will it be like? I spent some time talking with esteemed rabbis as well as
to members of our community to find out.
Rabbis Inspire
Rabbi Jonathan Seidemann,
Rabbi of Kehilath B’nai Torah, says his shul is working on a contingency plan
to accommodate all members for the Megillah
leining. The greatest challenge is
doing this while maintaining social distancing. Rabbi Seidemann urges us to
have “tremendous hakaras hatov to the
Ribono Shel Olam,” Who gave scientists and doctors the ability to create a
vaccine in a few months, rather than the several years it would normally take.
It’s nothing short of miraculous,” he says. So rather than feeling sad that we
have to celebrate Purim in a COVID atmosphere, Rabbi Seidemann thinks it’s
better to look at this Yom Tov as “the greatest chizuk, the greatest reassurance, and the greatest strengthening in
serious times such as these,” because although it may seem that Hashem’s love
is hidden from us, His love for us is here.
We can add meaning to the mitzvas we do already, says Rabbi
Rose. “Shalach manos has turned into
a checklist of sorts where boxes are checked off the list as we drop them off,
a drop-and-run kind of mitzva. It’s not really what this mitzva is supposed to
be. It’s supposed to be a vehicle for engendering closeness. A suggestion is to
think differently about our shalach manos,
to pay more attention to bringing shalach
manos to someone who is lonely or alone. Or visiting with a neighbor we
never pay much attention to. Walk over to their house and spend five or ten
minutes speaking with them while standing safely outside. Turning shalach manos into more of that kind of
mitzvah can be very meaningful.
“What we shouldn’t do is to tell ourselves that we’re
not going to spend the 24 hours of Purim to its fullest,” Rabbi Rose concludes.
“There’s too much potential for us to just say ‘not this year,’ and not to take
advantage of the potential Purim has to offer. It’s different this year, and
there’s so much room for growth. It’s a very special day and we have to make
the most of it in whatever way we can.”
Rabbi Motzen related some Purim thoughts: “There’s a
Rambam which is often quoted that says that it’s more important to give to the
poor than to give more mishloch manos.
There’s no greater simcha than doing so. This is not limited to gifts to the
poor. Broadly speaking, it includes looking out for people who would otherwise
be isolated. Purim is an opportunity to reach out…and on a Purim like this, all
the more so.
“We’re all suffering, we’re all struggling, and everyone
is having a hard time. There are people who may have certain challenges and
difficulties. Through COVID, Hashem has presented us with an opportunity to
think a little bit differently about how we reach out to those people.”
Individuals Step
Up
For 40 years, Rabbi
Moshe Juravel, founder and director of the Megilla Connection, has been
recruiting volunteers from all over the community to lein the Megillah to
people who cannot go to shul. During usual times, Rabbi Juravel arranges about 40
leinings during Purim. Last year,
with the start of COVID, that number jumped to 60. The criteria for entering
someone’s home to lein have changed. The
person has to have had COVID within 90 days or already have antibodies. Rabbi
Juravel hopes that as more people get the vaccine, more people will attend the leining in shul. He is not sure how
people will feel this year about letting members of the Megilla Connection come
into their homes. Time will tell.
Mordy Goodman,* in
his unassuming manner, collects money each year during Purim to give to a
single family in need of assistance. Focusing on only one family gives Mordy a
tremendous opportunity to significantly impact someone’s life. He speaks to
several rabbanim before Purim and
asks them to choose a family that would benefit from his help, insisting that
the beneficiary remain anonymous.
Interestingly,
Mordy does not collect door-to-door . He has a system, figured out over the
years, of how to be at the right place at the right time, according to the
schedules of each minyan. COVID is going to have an impact on Mordy’s
collecting this year. He is not sure if shuls will welcome non-members on
Purim. He isn’t convinced it’s the correct thing to do during COVID anyway. On
top of everything else, Mordy will have less time to collect money because
Purim this year falls on a Friday, and the Yom Tov day will be much
shorter.
Mordy’s not sure
at this point exactly how he will collect funds. He may stop and ask people for
donations while driving around his neighborhood. But even doing that is tricky;
these days, no one wants to be approached. Because of this unusual situation,
Mordy says he may notify some people in advance. But whatever the difficulties,
Mordy is determined to figure it out. With his upbeat personality andtenacity, Mordy
Goodman won’t stop until he finds a way to ensure that one family in our
community receives the help they need this Purim.
Community Members Make Plans
Yehudis Barer is
expecting a subdued Purim. Although she usually enjoys baking cookies for shalach manos and giving them to friends
and family, this year she will be buying treats and giving them only to her
family. She wonders what the shuls will be doing for Megillah leining and notes
that probably no one will be letting bachurin
into their homes to collect tzedaka.
“Purim is going to
be different but not depressing,” says Yehudis. “It’s going to make people
think that the previous year was our last little bit of normalcy.” Yehudis
notes the contrast between this year and last year. People were thinking of
COVID last year, she says, but it hadn’t hit home here in Baltimore, so no one
was really worried about it. It makes us think that we just don’t know what’s
coming our way. “We don’t know what life has in store and what Hashem has
planned for us. You can’t take anything for granted. I think we’re at the one-day-at–a-time
mode of thinking.”
For many years,
Rochel Berman, has attended the Purim seudah
in her son and daughter-in- law’s home. Since COVID, she has only seen her
family once and that was outside in their sukkah. Throughout the pandemic, her
son and family have followed the advice of one of the rebbeim in their shul,
Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, who is Chief of Infectious Diseases at Mount Sinai South
Nassau. Rochel will be vaccinated by Purim and her son will ask a shailah to determine whether she will be
able to attend their seudah.
Rochel said her
children’s Purim seudah will not be
the same as it was before COVID. Her son and daughter- in-law plan on keeping
the seudah small but will be sure to
make it festive for their children. The whole family will dress up in an
organized theme. The parents will not make shalach
manos this year, but, depending on the rabbinic decision and the rules of
their school, the children may be allowed to make limited packages for some of
their classmates and teachers. Although this day will be dramatically different
from other years, one major component will stay the same: Rochel Berman’s
family plans on being b’simcha this
Purim.
Well, it remains
to be seen what Purim will actually look like this year in Baltimore. We know
it will be different, unlike any one we have ever seen. I have a sneaking
suspicion though, that we won’t be let down. Perhaps we can go above and beyond
to try and make this a Purim to remember – maybe not in ways we are used to but
better than ever. We’ll just have to wait and see.
*Name has been
changed.