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...

          Well, today isn't just Thursday.  Today isn't only that we are heading towards our second Shabbat in this "new normal". Today (and tomorrow) is also Rosh Chodesh, it's the end of one month and the beginning of the new month, the month of Nissan. In case anyone had looked outside into the night sky, the moon and its light have been noticeably absent. Tonight and over the next several days we should begin to notice the moonlight. Normally I don't get too excited about Rosh Chodesh, but everything seems to have taken on the heightened meaning given the circumstances of our lives. Maybe a bit of boredom has set in. Maybe we are just looking for anything to reassure us that no matter how bad things are, Rosh Chodesh reminds us that the moon waxes and wanes. seasons change, and Pesach is in two weeks. Of course, when I finished davening and I joyfully wished her a Chodesh Tov. It's Nisan, It's two weeks until Pesach. It is the Zman Cheiruteinu, the...