Busy, Teaching, Learning, Thinking, Observing, Connecting, and Counting Blessings

Hoping all in your world are well and safe. This has clearly been a time with its challenges. Too many people have died and we have all lost friends, relatives, neighbors and fellow members of our human family. We are not in gatherings, we are not traveling, we are mostly running our worlds from limited boundaries. Some of us are definitely stepping up our game in using technology. We are socially connecting in new ways at physical distances. We are all waiting for a return to some type of normalcy, even though we are all aware it probably will not return to what we are used to. What will our lives look like going forward? What blessings and lessons from this time will we take with us, helping us to live further enriched and meaningful lives, protecting ourselves, each other and our world better?

Within this surreal situation, I am one of those people who has blessed to be able to move my life onto on-line formats -- teaching, meeting with various groups and colleagues, planning programs (including our Multi-Faith Council’s upcoming Annual IFTAR Gathering this coming Wednesday, May 6), and going to lots of Zoom events – and thinking about the reality that we are indeed all in this together. Zoom Rooms are now our club house. Neighbors out for a walk are always stopping for conversation and many of us are actually meeting in a meaningful way for the first time. Within all of this, we all take note of the graduations, personal milestones and special occasions which will not be happening now, but I have begun to suggest that again we think of how to recapture these moments later – perhaps high school and college graduations the end of fall semester when people are home, a later celebration of a Zoom wedding, or …? On the other hand, exposure is increased for those of us on line --- The classes I teach which normally in physical space can attract between ten and twenty-five people at one time are now being seen by as many as several hundred, when they are archived. These are the opportunities of the moment. In some groups I teach, I have people “in the same room” from Canada, California, the Mid-west and the East Coast….

This week is a particularly busy one as I reconnect with my younger Torah scholars, students at Perelman Jewish Day School. One of the things we learn together is the weekly Torah portion. When we last met, we were still in the historical narrative and beginning of being a communal entity in Sefer Shemot (Exodus). Now we are in VaYikra (Leviticus) – a book of laws of purity and action. As we look at where we are at this moment in time, we have just hit the mid-point of the Torah narrative this past Shabbat. We read the Holiness Code in Parshat Kedoshim, reminding us how we are different than other peoples and how we are to maintain our identity and standards of behavior no matter what we observe others doing. This is always an important lesson for all of us – the understanding and embracing of our moral compass. How do we maintain proper behavior and standards of health and well-being in a world in which such may not be the bar by which all is measured? Additionally, the book of VaYikra is about purity and cleanliness and keeping our bodies as well as our souls clean and healthy. This lesson is clearly relevant for our time and the connections to be made are obvious. What may NOT be so obvious is the notion of touch-contamination, clearly discussed in our Torah reading of two weeks ago and greatly expanded in our Talmud and other Codes of Law. I will actually begin this week’s lessons with these children as well as my adult Torah study groups with these lessons – in which we are reminded that the walls of our houses, material of our clothing, surfaces on which we work, etc. can all carry various Tum’ot – those impurities that have physical as well as spiritual consequences.

Too often, people think of religious codes as only dealing with religious observance standards, per se. Yet, as I have shared often enough, our Jewish texts are concerned about business ethics, how families and friends treat each other, not cheating in our daily actions, treatment of our animals, our earth and so much else that contributes to the well-being of our physical realm – all of which is considered sanctified ground. I really think of this as one of the greatest blessings of all – the notion that all we are and all we do has potential to heal, strengthen, validate and so much more, if enacted properly.

When we do begin to re-enter the larger realm of activity in our daily lives, in hopefully what will be intelligent and graduated steps, let us consider how to think of all those and all that is around us – and how our footprint and touch impact on all, as taught in our religious and legacy texts. Here’s to considering the reality and potential blessings of a post-COVID 19 World informed by the lessons we are learning now!