Sign In Forgot Password

Coronavirus Updates

03/15/2020 03:53:54 PM

Mar15

March 15 2020 message from Rabbi Minkus

I hope each of you is doing as well as one can expect right now. These are unprecedented and unsettling times without clear answers to the challenges the Coronavirus has posed to our emotional and physical needs. One thing that has been fully brought into focus has been how much we need each other in all of the obvious ways but also the subtle ways as well. I want to write so that you can understand where our thinking is right now and be transparent about how difficult it is to lead responsibly while being fully transparent. 

For the time being, and that phrase is ever-shifting, we will not be having our daily minyan or Shabbat services (our HIAS Refugee Shabbat will be rescheduled). Rachel and I are working on offering live-streaming and recorded tefillot/prayer services and classes, so please stay tuned. The need for the warmth of our services and the joy we experience in them has not gone away and we are working on finding the safe and appropriate venues to experience them. We will be updating our website and Facebook pages with them.

The other reason for this email is equally important. If you are unable to go out to purchase food or other essential items, please email me and our new chesed committee chair (chesed@rodfei.org) to let us know if you need any help. 

Also, equally important, if you feel comfortable venturing out and doing some shopping for others, please email us; I have been heartened and inspired that several of you already have done that. Please keep this up. Remember our needs are just as great as our neighbors’ and because our physical distance has grown, we must increase our emotional nearness while raising our heartfelt sensitivities. 

The past couple of days have already been hard and that will continue, but this will pass. We must remember what our Rabbis said in the Mishna, that we must “not separate ourselves from the community.” We will not be together physically but I pray that our other forms and means of connection grow. 

Sincerely,

Rabbi David Minkus

Thu, March 28 2024 18 Adar II 5784