Halachic considerations make online broadcasts during Shabbos and Yom Tov impossible for many denominations within Judaism and, at the time of writing, communities in my home town of Tsfat in Israel (and all over the world) are formulating plastic-sheeted and encapsulated possibilities for some kind of communal worship still to take place.
Ritual details of home vs shul davening and attendance, complex indoor and outside regulations, and differing contemporary halachic rulings on minyan requirements in this year’s special circumstances have raised much anger and conflict. Many, otherwise holy Yidden, will continue to refuse to obey health and government authorities and will blithely ignore regulations designed to save life.
And all this mayhem has descended on us at a time in the liturgical year when we ought to be seeking ways to resolve our differences, focus on teshuvah, and be especially aware that all Jews (whether they are religious or not ) are responsible one for the other within the eternal community of Kehal Yisroel.
It is also a time in the year when, according to our tradition, the tiniest of our actions can tip the balance of Divine Judgment one way or the other. And that Judgement is a judgment on All Creation, not just Jews. Our shared responsibility right now is truly a matter of Awe.
I believe we are being asked three things,
(i) To use this year's isolation events as an opportunity to be "Alone with G-d" positively, thus turning the apparent "curse" of lockdown into a "blessing".
(ii) To think communally and globally and not selfishly or tribally. To be inclusive and not to generate or perpetuate division.
and
(iii) To embrace the spiritual core of our religion and its practices when the physical/communal externals are taken away from us by the circumstances of the pandemic.
Ten Years ago, I wrote a message for subscribers to my website on the subject of being alone for the Jewish New Year. I am reposting it now in an attempt to draw your attention to the core function of these special days in Elul and Tishrei:—to restore or create UNITY.
The dates and the details of my previous life in Spain will be out of date now, obviously—but I hope that some of you will gain strength from seeing them in this particular year when so many Jews will be feeling isolated and,chas v'sholom, needlessly alone.
Here then is the
message I wrote in 2010:
“Many of you will now be starting to make preparations for family or community gatherings to celebrate the coming New Year (pm Wednesday Sept 8th 2010). Many, but not all --- Some of you live far from Jewish community centres and may need encouragement "to feel part of the family" as we gear up for the High Holidays.
I spend almost every Shabbos and Festival alone as I have no family, there are no Jews in my town, and the nearest services are not within travelling distance for me. I would love to be able to sit at a Shabbos or Festival table with other Jews, but for purely circumstantial reasons that has rarely been possible.
I am happy to be alone most of the time, and I certainly value my weekday contemplative solitude as a gift and not as a trial.
Despite that I am aware that there are many Jews who are alone on Shabbos or on the Festivals who would desperately wish they were with a family, or amongst other Jewish friends, and who feel this ache especially acutely at times like Erev Shabbos and the Jewish New Year.
These words are for you:
In a UK Machsor of 1985, Rabbi Jonathan
Magonet wrote that on Yom Kippur we stand before God:
This echoes the belief that, through Jewish collective responsibility, all Jews are reliant upon each other in the annual quest for community absolution. We are never truly alone on Yom Kippur.
Isaac Luria said:
“Why was the confession composed in the plural?
Because all Israel is one body and each individual Jew is a limb of that body.
We are all responsible for each other …”
Yesod ha-Teshuvah vi
The High Holidays are a time when all of us stand alone before G-d as we examine our lives and yet we simultaneously all act as “representatives of the community” for each other.
As we are in the closing week of
Elul, many of us will have been examining our consciences and will no doubt be
feeling quite low. Now is the time to
remember that we are by no means alone. We
should not forget that our reflections are not meant to be exclusively
self-centred. Nor are we preparing for
this New Year alone. All of you visiting
this site are part of an extended community and we are each responsible for the
other. This should be a liberating and a
consoling reflection!
In Kuntres M’arat ha-Lev I wrote:
“The contemplative is always in community, whether that be a handful of neighbours, a family, a circle of distant friends kept often in mind, or the people they meet briefly or correspond with. Even if they were in total solitude they would still be part of the community of Creation: Responsible not only for themselves but for everyone. This is not just my own reflection. It is one which permeates the liturgy of Yom Kippur.”
"Cave of the Heart" Part One
(The message from 2010 continues......)
"This year, and every year, there
will be many Jews who are unavoidably isolated and simply unable to attend any
form of communal worship over the High Holiday season. There will be many who, rightly or wrongly,
also feel unwelcome at such gatherings even if they are physically able to
attend them.
But If you are going to be alone
this coming Rosh Hashanah…whether by choice or circumstance…..I invite you to
make a special remembrance for those of us who are also “alone”. This will make of us a special minyan which
would transcend the boundaries of denominational affiliation, geography, and
time.
Even if you are fortunate enough
to have broadband internet (If your denominational affiliation or personal
kind of religious observance permits it) or if you are able to attend services and celebrations “in
the flesh” please make a special mention in your prayers of those who are truly
alone over the Yamim Noraim.
In our prayers during these
closing days of Elul and (even more so) over the approaching "Ten
Days"- may we make a sort of minyan which meets in intention if not
physically."
Each of us alone. All of us together.
©Nachman Davies
Tsfat Sept 14 2020
