By Noga Zivan:
On 7 September, as on every 1st Monday of the month, the Hod VeHadar Board gathered for a meeting. The main topic for debate was the exact arrangements for the upcoming High Holy Days, to allow as many people who want to be present for the prayers, while obeying the corona rules. As this debate is ongoing, I am suddenly seized by a profound sense of futility. What is the point of planning, when we all know we will be under seger anyway? And that the rules for what is acceptable will change multiple times in the week and a half still to go before Rosh HaShana? We will anyway need to plan again (best case) morning of Rosh HaShana eve or, more likely, scrabble to make changes an hour before chag comes in.
These gloomy thoughts must have followed me home, because no sooner did I close my eyes, than I found myself dreaming. It’s Rosh HaShana morning. I am calling up Elisabeth Guth in a blind panic.
“Elisabeth! You must go and open up the shul! You are the only person within 500 meters that can get there! And then you need to run the whole service. All of it. On your own. In front of the live streaming cameras. It’s the only way the rest of us can even HAVE prayers this Rosh HaShana!” And then I woke up, in a cold sweat.
When I told Elisabeth the story, in the morning, she laughed and said it definitely sounds like a nightmare for everyone.
This true story was brought to you courtesy of your hard working synagogue board, thinking about you day AND night these High Holy Days 🙂
September 2020