Rosh Hashanah is less than three weeks away. No doubt, you’ve been wondering how this year’s Yamim Nora’im (High Holidays) will play out. What social distancing and other precautions will be taken in various shuls? Will there be a women’s section? If I don’t go to shul, how will I hear shofar blowing? Is hearing the standard number of shofar blasts even a requirement this year?
Our concerns and
questions are shared around the world. It seems certain that fewer people will
be attending shul this year, and the typically overflowing shuls grapple with
adapting their services in this uncertain COVID era. Planning can’t help but be
fluid up until Kol Nidrei and beyond
as restrictions are constantly changing.
I just read an
article in the Jerusalem Post mentioning
the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur plans of the Ramban synagogue, located in
Yerushalyaim’s Greek Colony neighborhood. Since the maximum number of people in
an indoor space is currently limited to 20 in
A bit closer to
home, a Yeshiva World Coffee Room discussion headlined, “Will you be in shul on
Rosh Hashanah?” is a hot topic, boasting close to 60 posts. The first commenter
questioned, “Based on what you know now
regarding the risks of COVID infection, would you be willing to daven for
extended hours inside a shul that opens its doors next month, even if it tries
its best to maintain social distancing, or are there reasons (weakened immune
system or elderly family members, etc.) why you will daven at home this year? I
suspect most Coffee Room readers will be glad to get back into shul even
knowing there are some residual risks but was curious as to the current
sentiments.”
The can of worms
this post opened is indicative of how very personal and sensitive this issue
is. I am proud to live in
Although their
logistics will be different this Yamim Nora’im season, shuls are
promising just as uplifting, meaningful, and inspirational an experience. Whether
services are held indoors or outdoors – on shul grounds or at satellite
locations – they will enforce COVID-safe protocol. All minyanim, both indoors and out, will observe proper six-feet social
distancing and require face masks, although household members will be seated
together. Some of services will be “more efficient in length,” and most will
not have babysitting or youth groups.
Women at Home
Meanwhile, many members of the community will be creating
their Yamim Nora’im experience by themselves within the walls
of their homes. Rav Moshe Heinemann advises those who are not going to shul on
the Yamim Nora’im to ask their rabbi ahead of time which parts
of davening they should say at home. This advice is especially relevant to
women, many of whom deal with this issue every year.
Rebbetzin Rochel Naiman has some suggestions to increase
motivation and inspiration in the home setting: “These days are all about
building a relationship with the King,” says Rebbetzin Naiman. “We can do
that anywhere. We need to go ‘within,’ focusing on the power
of the imagination to take us to a mindset of gratitude, praise, and
relationship.
“Stop before saying the Amidah,” continues Rebbetzin
Naiman. “Imagine yourself at the Kosel. Feel the breeze and the sun’s warmth.
See the stones in your mind’s eye. Feel gratitude fill you – that you are where
you long to be and that you are a member of Klal Yisrael.
“We often say, ‘I have to daven,’ Try, instead, to think and to
say, ‘I want to daven.’ Point to each word with your finger or
close your eyes – whatever helps you. And if your mind wanders, do not beat
yourself up over it! Take a slow breath, and continue.
“Davening at our own pace,” concludes Rebbetzin Naiman, “out loud
– noticing the messages that pop out at us from the pages of the machzor
– is a very powerful davening.”
Man Plans…
As is par for the
COVID course, the Yom Tov arrangements of the shuls may be obsolete by the time
we go to print, but, as of now, this is what a few of them are planning.
Shomrei Emunah: Rabbi Binyamin Marwick,
along with the shul’s team of medical advisors, Executive Director Shira
Glickman, the shul board, and several volunteers have been working diligently
for numerous weeks to devise a plan of what the 5781 holidays will look like.
The shul plans to
hold seven different minyanim starting
at various times, beginning with neitz (dawn).
Only members of Shomrei Emunah – no friends or non-members – are able to
purchase seats for the Yamim Nora’im, this year. Davening will be held in both
indoor and outdoor locations (open tents equipped with lights). Anticipated baalei tefilah have been announced for
each location. Children ages 11 and up will be allowed to reserve a seat and
are also required to wear a mask for the entire davening. There will be no
babysitting or groups for children this year. Shomrei will have an outdoor
shofar blowing on the second day of Rosh Hashanah for those who do not attend
shul.
There are some
caveats for placing online seating reservations. Before clicking “submit,”
members have to agree to 1) not attend the minyan if they are exhibiting any
signs of illness (including fever, rash, cough, muscle pain, headache, sore
throat, loss of taste and smell); 2) wear a mask covering their mouth and nose
at all times while attending minyan; and 3) inform the Shomrei Emunah office,
Rabbi, or president immediately in the event they test positive for COVID-19.
Should this be the case, that information will be shared with the other people
who attended the same minyan.
“I’d like to
express deep appreciation to our volunteers on the Yamim Nora’im committee,” says President Kenny Friedman on the
shul’s website. “In a normal year, fielding and seating 1,000 reservations is
an overwhelming task; all the more so this year.”
Suburban Orthodox Toras
Chaim: Together
with local healthcare experts, and under current guidelines, Suburban Orthodox
will be offering two concurrent minyanim,
indoor and outdoor. After members’ seating request deadline of August 24,
seating is opened to non-members. Immediate family of members visiting from out
of state may reserve a seat at Suburban, with the exception of those from
The Ner Tamid
website advises those who are in a high-risk population to check with their primary
care doctor to ensure that it is safe to attend. There will not be groups this
year, and children under the age of nine will not be allowed to attend. To
maintain proper social distancing, all attendees are expected to remain in
their seat during the entirety of the services other than using the restrooms.
There are no assigned seats within each minyan
option; it will be first come, first served.
Bnai Jacob Shaarei Zion: Bnai Jacob Shaarei
Zion (BJSZ) hopes to offer three Yamim
Nora’im minyan options: their
regular indoor minyan for men and
women; an outdoor tent minyan for men
and women starting the same time as the indoor minyan; and an indoor neitz
minyan for men and a limited number of women, offered on a
first-come-first-serve basis.
Members got first
seating dibs; seating is now open to nonmembers. Childcare and babysitting
groups are not being planned. There will be an additional shofar blowing after
the services. Attendees may choose to sit in a section of the shul with three
feet between seats rather than six feet. Lingering is not allowed in the shul
lobby during davening. The website emphasizes that anyone attending from out of
state should observe the appropriate state regulations.
Khal Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach
Tzedek: Khal
Ahavas Yisroel Tzemach Tzedek’s (KAYTT’s) Yamim
Nora’im preparations, says KAYTT President Salomon Grunhut, include
increasing its cleaning services to deal with maintaining a cleaner
environment. It also renovated all the bathrooms during the shutdown.
The shul will house
two indoor minyanim. For those who
are not comfortable coming indoors, KAYTT plans to provide an outdoor option.
There will be a woman’s section, and children are welcome. Non-members are
allowed to purchase seats. The length of the Rosh Hashanah davening will be
shorter outside and probably inside, as well: an estimated five hours.
KAYTT will be
blowing the regular 100 kolos during
davening, as it does every year. (There is no shofar blowing on the first day,
which is Shabbos.) An additional 30 kolos
will be blown after Mussaf and another 30 later in the day for women who are
not able to come during davening. For those who cannot attend services, the
shul will arrange for someone to blow shofar for them in their backyard on the
second day.
SIDEBAR
Start the New Year
with a Mitzva!
Frank Storch, founder
and director of The Chesed Fund & Project Ezra, has a knack of anticipating
our community’s needs and following through by taking action. As the Yamim Nora’im are upon us in these COVID
times, he is making sure that the sound of the shofar will resonate throughout
our neighborhoods so those who are quarantining will not miss out on the
mitzva.
Mr. Storch thought
about this unique community need several months ago. He then consulted with
rabbanim and purchased 75 shofars. His goal is to provide an option for people
who are unable to attend shul for shofar blowing to be able to hear the shofar
outdoors, right in their neighborhoods.
“We hope to train
recruits from local batei midrashos as
well as from our community to blow these shofars,” says Mr. Storch, who notes
that this year people will not be passing around their shofars. “This is a
great opportunity for anyone who has always wanted to be a baal tokea, and an added bonus is you get to keep the shofar you
use. Our goal is to make a list of every single locale that is in need of
shofar blowing. In the coming weeks, we will notify the community of where and
when shofar blowing can be heard.”
To make this
happen, Mr. Storch has joined forces with Rabbi Juravel and Rabbi Weiskopf, who
will provide step-by-step instructions for a limited number of trainees 18 and
older who would like to take on this mitzva.
“It’s a tremendous
project that will take a lot of coordination, especially since the community is
so much more spread out than it used to be,” remarks Mr. Storch. “This is the
first year ever where you have a tremendous amount of older people – among others
– who won’t chance going to shul to hear the shofar but can go out on their
balconies or porches. We’re fortunate that there is only one day of shofar
blowing, this year. We are hoping that next year it won’t be necessary to do
this again, but we will have our people lined up, just in case. Special thanks
to Menachem Youlus and Rabbi Mordechai Zucker in coordinating this important
program.”
In the meantime,
those involved in this project are busy learning the halachos of blowing
shofar, pertinent to COVID times.
If interested,
please email your contact information to: info@chesedfund.com asap.
Sidebar
Private Prayers of Maturity
by Rebbetzin Bracha Goldberger
From the beginning of COVID, I felt a sense of
release from the ramped-up competition of our times. Competition, in my
experience, is a frontrunner in the destruction of all things good. It is the
breeding grounds for jealousy, which is a bedrock of unfounded hatred – our
number one concern. It seems to me that privacy, which might better position us
to be protected from competition, was, historically, the domain of women. Mishlei
teaches us that “Chochmas nashim bonsa beisa”;
it is the woman who is recognized as the builder of the home, the sanctuary of
privacy. Our original “tent” homes are praised for their modesty: “Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov – How goodly
are your tents, O Jacob” (Parshas Balak), on which Rashi comments that the
openings of the tents did not face one another.
It seems women have run to the public
domain, as if we have lost our sense of value when there is no communal stamp
of approval. I remember this struggle so vividly as a young, new mother. The
tragedy in this is that our value is all derived from the outside, and the
inner person is denied maturation. And so, the immature reliance on outside
opinions marches on.
Privacy, which has been thrust upon us by
the COVID pandemic, is an opportunity for honest maturity. Who am I really when
no one is watching? Who am I when I have only myself to measure up to? What
will my motivation be? And what is my
Yiddishkeit, when I’m not measuring it against someone else’s?
Prayer, which is inherently a private
endeavor between a person and his or her Maker, has not escaped the public
performance. Do we not actually reward students for being “good daveners”? Can
any of us escape the conditioning of being a performer? Ultimately, of course,
any relationship that is true and real cannot be a performance – lease of all
that one relationship that we are all here to acquire, our closeness with
Hashem.
True, it is an uplifting experience to
take our place “among our people” on these awesome days, as the Shunammite
woman humbly replied to Elisha. While I sincerely pray that we will all be in
shul together this Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we may instead find ourselves
in the privacy of our homes. Wherever we find ourselves, our challenge will be to
stand honestly as ourselves before Hashem.
