7 minute read
Stay-at-home order changes the way people
Spirit
Some Jews never go to synagogue; some go on festivals or every Shabbat. Some Jews say their prayers in the synagogue every single day. At least, they did until a few months ago.
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The COVID-19 pandemic closed synagogue doors across the world. By late May, constant shul-goers have gone without seeing the inside of a synagogue for more than two months, as long a period without public prayer as they had ever endured.
They still pray. Only now they pray, or “daven,” without a minyan — the quorum of 10 Jewish people needed to pray as a community.
Shul-goers in liberal streams of Judaism attend Zoom services, which have won devotees.
“I have virtually participated in and/or listened to many services in the past eight weeks of being confined,” said Suzanne Levin of Pleasant Ridge, recently widowed. “Some with temples/ synagogues I previously attended, and some with places new to me. I actually attended three seders in three time zones on the first night of Pesach. One weekend I said kaddish for my husband three times in about 16 hours. I have found it comforting.”
Another pleased worshipper, Lena Vayneberg of Hazel Park, also approves of the new virtual format.
“I really, really enjoyed Zoom and Facebook (Facebook more than Zoom) synagogue events. I hope they continue after quarantine is lifted,” she said.
Some shul-goers of the more Conservative streams of Judaism have gone “cold turkey,” replacing public with private prayer. That has been the case for Rebecca Tron of Walled Lake.
“My Conservative congregation (B’nai Israel of West Bloomfield) holds Zoom services on weekdays but not on Shabbat, so that’s when I daven alone,” Tron said. “I miss the prayers that require a minyan, and I miss the communal experience, especially the sound of singing together.”
But, Tron added, “It’s sometimes nice to take my own time on the prayers … and to think up my own d’var Torah.” worked.
LOUIS FINKELMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Prayer During
Lockdown Stay-at-home order changes the way people daven.
PRAYER ENHANCED
Shmuly Yanklovitz, an Orthodox rabbi and dean of Valley Beit Midrash in Phoenix, Arizona, acknowledges the loss, but looks for gains as well. He recently asked his rabbinic colleagues: “In what ways was your davening enhanced (if at all) over these past months?”
The question circulated among shul-going Jews in Metro Detroit and around the world.
Parents of young children struggle to find quiet space for prayer. Nathaniel and Shaina Shevin Warshay, former Detroiters who now live in Jerusalem, tried a few systems before they found one that “with young children at home … we had fallen into showing up late for shul.”
“Nathaniel has been getting up early to daven before the kids get up. For the first few weeks he was trying to daven while kids slowly got up and wanted breakfast, and it was not working so well,” Shaina said.
But young children complicate synagogue attendance as well. Jeffrey Dorfman of Cape Town, South Africa, reports that
Now, saying his prayers at home, Dorfman has “reacquainted himself with old friends”— prayers from early in the service he usually missed when he came to shul late.
Those with quiet homes, though, might miss other aspects of the communal prayer.
“I miss the community of ‘being in shul’ and listening to others while davening,” said Micki Grossman of West Bloomfield.
Barry Dolinger, rabbi of Congregation Beth Sholom in Providence, Rhode Island, reports that when he prays alone, he misses the connection with his local congregation.
“But,” he said, “I feel much more connected to imagined ancestors, whose prayer experience I presume to have mirrored … in relationship to the actual celestial day. And I wish the streetlights would just go off so I could actually see the night sky unabridged.”
Praying with a community imposes time constraints. Prayers start at a certain time and proceed at a certain pace. Without a congregation, some people have decided to coordinate with nature, saying the morning service at sunrise, the afternoon as the day wanes and the evening service at night.
Others enjoy freedom from the alarm clock and pray whenever they happen to awaken. One suburban Detroiter sets his alarm clock to right before the last time for the morning Shema.
For Rabbi Stephen Belsky of Oak Park, Shabbat and weekday services also feel different. He finds it “easier to relax, concentrate and say everything on Shabbos without worrying about getting out of sync with the shul.” However, he finds it “much more difficult to concentrate during the week.”
Robert Buxbaum of Oak Park prefers prayers at home but misses the synagogue. “My main prayers are better at home, I find,” he said, “but there are some aspects of the shul service that I miss a lot: the learning, the camaraderie, the Torah reading.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has loosened Michigan’s stay-athome restrictions to allow for gatherings of 10 — enough for a minyan. However, most shuls remain cautious and have yet to reopen their buildings.
Spirit
torah portion
The In-Between Zone
We all have an in-beleft unfilled. tween zone: the We all lead busy lives. I constant waiting often hear from people who period between two items wish they could do more mitzon our schedule too short to vot and join Torah classes, but make anything productive of they just don’t have the time. it. We humans often spend In 1967, Detroit hosted lots of our life in such zones, the annual Chabad women’s waiting. convention. Following the
In this week’s portion, the convention, the return flight Torah reports of the generous scheduled to take the New sacrifices offered by the 12 York-based group back home princes of Israel for the newly was canceled due to a snowinaugurated Tabernacle. storm. The organizer of the
In addition to their group called the office of individual gifts, the the Lubavitcher Rebbe, princes constructed Rabbi Menchem M. six large wagons for Schneerson, and reported transporting the large the group was stuck in beams and coverings of the airport. After putting the Tabernacle. Rabbi Levi her on hold, the secre
Interestingly, the Dubov tary came back on the Talmud teaches that line: “The Rebbe doesn’t the princes measured Parshat understand the word the precise dimensions Naso: ‘stuck.’” The organizer of the beams and coverings, accounting for how much storage, without an extra inch Numbers 4:21-7:89;
Judges 13:2-25. tried explaining what being ‘stuck’ means; the secretary replied, “The Rebbe understands to spare. The Talmud English. The Rebbe says reports that it was tight and that a Jew is never stuck.” precarious fit, and there was Every moment has a misconcern that due to the tresion, and every situation has mendous weight and pressure its purpose. We are never of the beams stacked on one “stuck.” The next time you another, some of them could find yourself waiting in one of become unstable. those “in-between” zones, ask
This seems to be extreme yourself how you can make penny-pinching stinginess. this moment purposeful. Why be so cheap on material When I was a child, I heard and compromise on conof the Jewish bus driver in venience? Why not gift 12 Brooklyn who completed the wagons, one from each prince, entire Talmud, a tremendous and lighten the load of each achievement even for the seawagon? soned Torah scholar. How did
This question is even more he do it? In those small breaks glaring when you contrast this while waiting: the “in-bewith the evident generosity tween” zones. in their individual offerings. Let us all take inspiration What happened to the spirit of from the princes of Israel and generosity and dedication by never let a single inch of our the wagon donation? life go to waste. There is a
But here is where the Torah whole world of holy potential is begging us to probe deepwaiting for us in the ‘in-beer. The princes of Israel are tween’ zone. Let’s go and dissharing with us that when it cover it. comes to our dedication to God, we should never leave Rabbi Levi Dubov directs the Chabad any “gaps;” no space should be Jewish Center of Bloomfield Hills.
MEL DRYMAN Raised in Detroit, Experienced in Arizona Your Professional & Dedicated ARIZONA REALTOR Mobile: (480) 239-8686 mel.dryman@azmoves.com
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