| These last four or five months have been particularly challenging for people of faith who gather regularly to pray in their churches, synagogues and mosques on a weekly or, even, daily basis. Many faith leaders have done a magnificent job in using distance communication tools and techniques (like Zoom and Facebook Live) to give us the opportunity to pray together virtually. It is no small feat to make that kind of experience meaningful and inspirational and I applaud their efforts and remarkable successes.
As a Jew, my Sabbath (Shabbat) is defined by separation. The weekdays are filled with the secular – work, shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry and the like. These days they are also filled with news and discussion about the pandemic, the upcoming elections, race relations, immigration, police brutality and even murder hornets, locusts and toxic dust clouds. Sabbath is meant to be a time and space where these everyday chores and challenges are closeted away so that we are truly able to rest and renew ourselves.
Last Friday evening I participated virtually in a service welcoming Shabbat that was broadcast by a synagogue community thousands of miles away. The setting – their beautiful sanctuary – gave me comfort because of its familiarity and the memories it evoked of the time I have spent in my own synagogue sanctuary. The Cantor and his son sang beautiful melodies set to the Psalms and prayers that welcome Shabbat into our lives each week. Like so many Conservative synagogues these days, they also used instruments (guitar and piano) to enhance the musical experience, something that works so well for me.
The setting, the prayers and the music were just what I needed to secure the separation between the week just completed and the serenity of the Shabbat ahead.
To my dismay the Rabbi and Cantor felt the need to punctuate the service with frequent comments that reminded us about about the secular and the other-worldly situation in which we find ourselves. “As we gather this Shabbat in physical isolation from each other…”. “In a time in which our country is being divided and in which hate and anti-Semitism are on the rise…”. “While the pandemic prevents us from hearing each other’s voices as we pray...”
These are but a few of the ways in which the serenity I so needed was interrupted – not intentionally, of course. I believe clergy who integrate comments about what is different and troubling about these times are doing so in an effort to bring comfort and hope – an important role for religious leaders. I think I can be certain that some people truly want to hear their clergy speak about what’s happening to us and around us.
After five months I can say I do not want or need to hear those reminders. I’m acutely and somewhat painfully aware of how different my life and relationships are now. These days are unlike any I’ve experienced before in my 70 years. I am made aware of that every day.
Maybe what’s needed is a better balance when our religious leaders speak – acknowledging that times are different and at the same time uplifting the real purpose of Shabbat to allow us to be separate and serene.
We all yearn for our lives to go back to “normal.” Until then, let’s try and make Shabbat as normal as possible.
I’d like my sanctuary back – both the physical space where I am used to praying and the spiritual space where I can recover once a week. That can happen on Shabbat only if we collectively honor the separation.
-Saul Rosenthal, Cantor Emeritus
Congregation Rodef Shalom, Denver, Colorado
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