Ripple in Still Water

          We went to a wedding yesterday. Well, not exactly. We huddled around my wife's computer and attended a zoom wedding. With two phone cameras on tripods one under the chuppah and one six feet away, we watched on split-screen while a friend officiated the weddings and the young couple performed the rituals beneath the chuppah. One set of parents stood on a neighbor's lawn and the other set of parents stood on the other neighbor's lawn. The couple was beaming. She circled him, they drank from two cups of wine, he placed the ring on her finger, he broke the glass and everyone watching screamed mazal tov. I know.  some are wondering how a wedding took place during the Sefirat Ha'Omer, during the counting of the Omer (The Counting of The Omer) when customarily this sad period of time is marked by NOT conducting weddings. Because Pesach just concluded last Thursday night and we are still in the Hebrew month of Nisan (until this Friday and this Shabbat); w...

          I am always amazed at how three days can be so exhausting: the first two days of Pesach and then Shabbat, three days of praying, eating and taking walks.  Now we have a couple of days until the last days of the Pesach which are also a Yom Tov. No, there are no more seders to prepare for, rather just Pesach food. One of the additions we make to the liturgy is the same addition we make when it is Rosh Chodesh and when we say Birkat HaMazon. We add the prayer Ya'Aleh v' Yavo . Throughout the prayer, the word V'Zichron appears throughout. Other forms of ZaChaR also appear including Zichroneinu and Zacharnu. Throughout the prayer, ask God to remember us. A few nights ago, when we sat at the Seder table, the Hagaddah reminded us to see ourselves as if we were slaves and we were the ones leaving Egypt. Well, in the narrative of Yetziat Mitzrayim,  we are told that God heard the cries of Bnei Yisroel and remembered his covenant with the patriarchs....

As Pesach preparations wind down, I am reminded just how different this night is from all other first night of Pesach. On all other Sedarim, children, grandchildren parents and friends sit together and ask questions, tell the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, sing and eat too much. This year borders are closed, families who are concerned for the welfare of those at risk remain physically apart. This year, when we say the Eser Makot - the 10 plagues, we now can empathize with what a plague means. This year, we can understand the commandments relating to the last plague. They were told to mark their doorposts and remain inside their homes until the plague passed over. So we will remain sheltered in place, and hopefully, remain safe.  This year when we say: "Next Year in Jerusalem", we can now appreciate the sense of looking forward to a future Pesach that is more complete and I suppose, just "more". So my Bracha for all who are celebrating Pesach and participating in a Se...

          Under normal circumstances, at the conclusion of Shabbat, I turn on my phone to check the scores of my favorite teams.  These are not normal times. Our family finished Havdalah and there were no sports, no favorite teams, no scores to check. In fact, I dreaded turning on my phone and the television. I knew that the first thing I was going to check, was the increasing number of infected, and the increased number of deaths from this plague. I looked in Toronto, and then New York and California. The number only seems to go up and go up faster.  After spending 15 minutes catching up on the news, not much of it too good,  I turned to my evening project. With Pesach beginning on Wednesday, my first task was Family Shlepper. It is my job to bring all the Pesach boxes from the basement up to the kitchen so my wife can begin the monumental task of making our kitchen kosher for Pesach as well as begin cooking. However, my task is the first task of...

          My sister lives in New York with her husband and their ten-year-old daughter on the Upper West Side near Central Park. Normally, we speak maybe once a week. Yesterday was my sister and brother- in-law's anniversary.  After I wished her a "Happy Anniversary", I joked asking her if she and her husband went to some fancy kosher restaurant. Obviously, the answer was "no". She cooked dinner. I asked her if it is as really bad in New York as it appears on the news. She said it is probably worse. She knows many people who have the Covid-19 virus. She mentioned that a hospital was recently put up in Central Park. They work hard to keep things as normal as possible for their daughter amid what my sister describes as like living in a Third World country. Then she started telling me about the various moments of kindness that she has seen and experienced.  The moments she told me about were not necessarily moments that she had experienced personally, the...

          As we continue to hunker down in our home. I have noticed something very troubling; it is something that has now happened several mornings.  Our son wakes up in time for his online class. He sits at his desk in his pajamas. He comes downstairs, he davens he eats and he returns to his classroom. Several hours later, he returns to the kitchen to eat lunch. He is still in his pajamas. Later in the afternoon, he may come down to get a snack or he may remain in his room until late afternoon. More importantly, he hasn't changed out of his pajamas. He eats dinner and this routine has gone on for several days in a row.           At the very end of Shacharit, we recite several verses from Psalms that have been designated as Shir Shel Yom, a Psalm of the day, sort of thing. Each psalm of the day begins with a formulaic statement: HaYom Yom Revi'i B'Shabat Sh'Bo HaYu Levi'im Omrim B'Veit HaMikdash - Today is the fourth day of the ...

              We are only on day 8 of this new reality. Thankfully we are all healthy, yet as we live with social distancing; it seems like this has been going on for weeks. While we were watching the news, my wife innocently asked how long do I think this will continue. I think that this will continue through the summer and into the fall.  I'm the one in the family that "prepares for the worst and hopes for the best".  Our kids asked me if they thought they would be back in school. I told them that colleges and universities have started to cancel their graduation ceremonies. No, they aren't returning to school. I suggested that they prepare for the possibility of no summer camp.  Needless I didn't win any popularity contests. I can't watch the news without wincing at the numbers when we watch the news, It is hard not to wince when we hear about the impending shortages of masks, gowns, and ventilators. With my sister and her family in Ne...

          In our home,  I usually am the one who wakes up first.  Typically, I try to be incredibly quiet so as not to wake my wife.  For approximately 30-45 minutes, the house is normally, quiet. I can turn on the news show that I enjoy. For a few minutes, no one needs me to do "this, that or the other thing." So this morning, I quietly get out of bed, I descend the stairs and there is a light on in our family room already. There's my wife, on the sofa, with her computer, trying to master various computer programs that are designed to facilitate her conducting and "on line" kindergarten class.  She couldn't sleep. She had been up for hours. "I guess I am a bit anxious" she smiled through her worried eyes. I know that the anxiety will lead to her being tired later today. I thought about all those upon who we rely, who we cannot afford to become tired. I thought about health care workers, lab clinicians, farmworkers, those who are going manufa...

            As I watched the sunrise this morning, clear, crisp,  with the sky changing from a dark blue to a magnificent sky blue (or as my mother who grew up in North Carolina would say "Carolina Blue" in reference to her the University of North Carolina Tar Heels), I thought about what had transpired last night and what I was about to do this morning.  Last night, when Shabbat ended, one of our teenagers prepared for the Havdalah service. She poured a cup of wine, took out a special multi wicked candle, and a spice box filled with cloves and cinnamon. I looked outside into the night sky and saw the requisite three stars we began. The final blessing of the that very short yet incredibly spiritual service concludes with the Bracha: Baruh Atah Adoshem Elokeinu Melech Ha'Olam, Hamavdil Bein Kodesh L'Chol, Bein Or L'CHoshech Bein Yisroel L'Amim Bein Yom HaShvii L'Sheshet Yemei HaMaaseh. Baruch Atah Adoshem HaMavdil Bein Kodesh L'Chol - Praise are yo...

It's early Friday morning. It is still dark out. For now, the house is quiet. Coffee is brewing and I have a quiet moment to spiritually breathe. It has been a long time since I have looked forward to Shabbat as much as I have this week.  It has been a trying, difficult week for the world. For me, I have conducted 9 funerals over the past 11 days. 9 different lives, 9 different narratives, 9 families grieving for the loss of a loved one. My wife, sensing that I needed to see or experience something happy, hopeful and life-affirming showed me a very unique wedding that happened "down south" on the Lawrence& Bathurst section of Toronto. A wedding, in this environment? Yet there it was. With neighbors standing on their porches, and cars lined up in the streets, there were perhaps 15 people outside, practicing social distancing  and parents walked their daughter down the sidewalk on to their driveway, there was a chuppa and there was a Chata. They stood there and a weddin...

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 Seud...