The New Normal
This is the first full week back to virtual school for the kids since Passover break. They are all on their various virtual programs, using zoom, WhatsApp video chat, email, google classrooms, and a few other electronic formats. They manage to keep busy most of the day, and I help them often with the computer connections and with some of the hebrew translations. I have to give the teachers credit – it must not be easy for them to maintain all this virtual programming.
They are just starting to ease some of the restrictions here, however there is still nothing to do since most stores are still closed. The biggest things affecting the communities here, other than peoples individual jobs, are the ongoing school and synagogue closures and nobody yet knows when they will open up. During this lockdown time the city has had a roving truck with music and a DJ that comes around every week or so, and people come out on their balconies and dance together.
We are lucky that we live near a path that runs along highway 4 that we can walk along. Its somewhat isolated so we are able to walk there while maintaining social distancing. Its very beautiful and a nice break from being cooped up in the apartment all the time.
I have been davening shacharit (morning prayers) with a zoom minyan, virtually, since this began. In the past I always just did my morning prayers by myself since things were too rushed for me to actually get to a shul on the way to work. Strange how it worked out that only now with the virus I’ve started davening with a minyan, albeit virtual. For those that know a bit about the rules of morning prayers, we are doing the mourners Kaddish and the barchu but we are not doing the repetition of the Amidah or the Kedusha. On Mondays and Thursdays we do the Torah reading but someone just reads it from a book, and there are no blessings or aliyahs. And every morning at the end of services we add on a short prayer to end the plague, sent out by the Chief Rabbinate:
It reads (my very rough translation – and yes i’m sort of trying to impress you with my Hebrew, to show you that after being here for this long I’m starting to be able to actually understand the prayers directly):
“May it be your will, God of mercy, healer of all the sick of Israel, You are the true healer – send healing, lengthen and raise up your kindness and healing to all those who are ill and who have been infected with this disease. Please God, have mercy on all your people and on your nation Israel. Please stand and move from your throne of judgement to your throne of mercy and take away from before us the line of the law, and remove from us all harsh decrees. “And Pinchas arose and prayed, and the plague was stopped.” [that’s a quote from the bible] And decree on us good decrees, salvation, and consolation from your mercy, and remove the harshness from the decree of your judgement. And recall before you our merit. Stand and help us from your mercy. Hear the voice of our petition, because you hear all prayer. Blessed is the one who hears prayer. May it be your will, the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, my strength and my redeemer. And you will raise us up, as it is written, “All the sicknesses which I have put on the Egyptians I will not put on you, because I am your God, your healer.” [another quote from the bible]”
And one other thing. Earlier this week was Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Rememberance Day. There were several video ceremonies from the kids schools and also from some of the shuls and from the city of Raanana as well. All of the local TV stations broadcast interviews with survivors and talked about their stories. At 10:00AM the siren sounded. It was our first time experiencing that. It was as strange and beautiful as they say it is. People just stood on their balconies. We could see what few cars there were on the highway pull over and stop. It is a serious and unmistakable event here.