Ripple in Still Water

          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...

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...