Tefilah Bitzibur during COVID-19
Based on a shmuess from one of the Gedolei Hador who shall remain unnamed as I wrote it in my own words and may not have given it over exactly as intended.
It would seem there are four levels of businesses. First are ones that are essential for survival, such as groceries and pharmacies. Second would be those that life would be very inconvenient without, but very much survivable, such as home goods. Third are those that are definitely extra, but not yet classified as luxuries, such as liquor stores. And lastly are those that are totally unnecessary, such as restaurants, shoe stores & toy stores.
NJ has deemed the first three categories permissible to be open during COVID-19, and has only banned the fourth category. And obviously, even those that are allowed to be open are only with set preconditions of social distancing, masks, and gloves.
The govt, understandably, included places of worship in the fourth category. Understandably, because why would any non-religious person understand the importance of prayers. But what about us, we that remained silent, almost agreeing that our Shuls fall under the category of totally unnecessary. Could we not try to explain to the govt that to us, that believe the healing of this virus will only come from Above, not any doctor or vaccine, that our Shuls are just as essential as pharmacies? Or at the very least, that they’re on the same plane as liquor stores, as they’ll calm our nerves during this trying time [the very reason liquor stores are allowed to be open]?
Can’t we be trusted to implement the same measures as Target & CVS? Just as every grocery has hired a guard, taped distance markings on the floor, require masks & gloves, and limited the number of people entering at once, so could our Shuls. We could have had an appointed gabbai for each shul to arrange many smaller minyanim, with prior registration required for the maximum capacity of mispalallim within the safety guidelines per minyan. We could have taped distance markings on the floor, hired someone to make sure the rules were being followed, & hired another to sanitize tables & chairs between each minyan.
If we had truly valued Tefillah Bitzibur, and recognized that Tefilah is the only way we will survive this virus, and that davening Bitzibur is more vital now then ever, would we not have raised our voices begging, explaining, demanding that our Shuls can keep social distancing guidelines as well as any store, and should not be treated any worse than liquor stores?
But let us say we were not successful in convincing the powers that be, and the govt insisted that all places of worship be closed, what has absolved us of making every effort to Daven with a minyan.
Many made what has now been termed “porch minyanim”, only to find pictures of these minyanim show up on social media in an anti semitic context. They were being used to show how we Jews did not care about the virus or killing people, would totally disregard any guidelines put in place by the govt & medical field, and were probably the cause of it’s spread in NJ.
This, despite almost every minyan meeting every social distancing guideline, and then some. Definitely better than many other communities were adhering to them. It was pure nonsense being spread by anti Semites.
Yet, we were told that this was causing Eivah.
Let’s pause here for a second to recall other anti semitic social media postings and our reaction to them. When RUOC or Toms River Strong [yms”h] posted about developers non stop building and over crowding the infrastructure, did we suggest they stop building because of Eivah? When Brick posted about Jews invading their parks, did we suggest we be more careful to keep it clean etc.?
Or did we shout from the rooftops Anti Semites, shut them down, hate speech, etc.?
When someone shouted an anti semitic statement at an extremely luxurious car driving by did we say maybe we shouldn’t be shteching arois di oigen of the poorer goyim as we are in galus, or did we respond anti semite, etc.?
When the media reported in anti semitic terms how we closed down streets for events, got rules bent for our benefit and other similar things, did we stop and remember that we’re in golus, or did we demand an apology for the hate speech?
Yet, when anti semites post about our minyanim, our reaction is to stop davening bitzibur? Are our priorities so skewed?
We are more in the right now then in any of the above scenarios. We can have minyanim following the most strict of guidelines suggested, but because of some anti semites twisting the facts, we decide to follow guidelines restricting far too many people from participating in these “porch minyanim”? Do we really have such a lack of appreciation for davening with a minyan? Are we really machsiv Tefilah Bitzibur so lowly on the totem pole?
