Covid -19 : Concern For The Jewish Community

In yesterday's NY Times (March 18,2020), Michelle Goldberg talked about the Covid -19 virus, and the devastating effect it will have on the close-knit Persian Jewish community of Great Neck, NY. ( https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/16/opinion/coronavirus-new-york.html) Friends of mine from San Diego have a daughter who married a young man from Great Neck and she lives there. Indeed, it is a close-knit community. However its not just Great Neck, NY.  Every viable and active Jewish community that is at risk including my home of ten years in Toronto. It is every Jewish community where the word community is as important as the word Jewish. Where there are Jews who practice Menachem Aveil (comforting the mourner); where there are Jews that practice Bikur Cholim (visiting the sick); where there are Jews that gather to celebrate Shabbos, or Jews that most recently gathered on Purim to hear the Megilla read, delivered  Mishloach Manot, or gathered with others for a Purim Seudah, Jewish life is a communally oriented life. My wife and I chose this life, we have raised our four children in this type of life and we now have to be spiritually nimble enough to remain communally oriented yet remain safe. Towards the end of Shacharit, the morning service, I said Tachanun. It consists of the verses from Psalms 6:2-11. Do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chastise me in Your rage. Favor me, God, for I am feeble; heal me, God, for my bones shudder. My soul is utterly confounded... The language of "me and you" or as Martin Buber would have explained, "I and Thou". There is nothing communal about it.  Rather it is completely individually focused. This is far different than the vast majority of the liturgy which is communally oriented. As we hunker down, as we home shelter, as we practice a safe social distance, I find myself struggling to find the balance in this "new normal",  finding alternative ways to remain connected.
Rav Yitz



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