By Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg
EDISON, New Jersey — People are worried about jobs, rallies, protests and yes riots. The real question now is it more important to open up the world than to live.? Is it worth partying on the beach, drinking alcohol in mass at a bar or living for a future time? Young people are dying and many are killing their parents by bringing the virus in their homes. Wake up. It is your life. Do not take it for granted. And this advice applies to those considering High Holy Day services as well.
Yes, people need to get back to work and life and communal prayer, but be careful.The entire world is seeing another breakout.
Those who protested and in many cases rioted around the world are in the midst of killing themselves and their families and friends as many did not wear masks and certainly did not distance themselves from each other. Many young people gather in crowds without masks on the beaches or merely walk the streets ignoring safe distancing and wearing a mask. Our president should never have held the rally the other day.
In Philadelphia in late September 1918, the U.S. had entered World War I the year before, and the city had planned an enormous parade — It would stretch two miles — to raise money for the war effort. The 1918 pandemic, which would eventually kill an estimated 675,000 Americans, was in its early stages, just beginning to jump from military bases, where it began, to the broader population.
Several doctors urged the city to cancel the parade because the hundreds of thousands of onlookers it would attract would surely cause the virus to spread widely. John M. Barry, in “The Great Influenza,” describes what happened in the city after the parade:
“On October 1, the third day after the parade, the epidemic killed more than one hundred people — 117 — in a single day. That number would double, triple, quadruple, sextuple. Soon the daily death toll from influenza alone would exceed the city’ average weekly death toll from all causes — all illnesses, all accidents, all criminal acts combined.”
In the current pandemic, most police officers either wore face shields or masks, but most protesters did not. They crowded together, stumbled over one another as they ran from the police, engaged in shoving matches and more, ignoring weeks of warnings about the importance of social distancing.
No, people are asking what should they do for the High Holidays. Synagogues are now earnestly discussing this. My advise will be controversial. Reform and Conservative congregations should use ZOOM since it is permissible for them to do so. Orthodox congregations should either find a halachic reason to use Zoom, which so far is not available, or at least hold services outside under a tent with masks and distancing. As a senior I fear being in crowds inside a building with the virus in existence. Perhaps the young can be more flexible. One can always pray alone at home. One should follow the advice of their own rabbis but as for me, I will pray at home.
I can blow the shofar for my wife and myself. However, I will skip delivering a sermon to us.
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Rabbi Dr. Bernhard H. Rosenberg is rabbi emeritus of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, New Jersey and is the author of Theological and Halachich Reflections on the Holocaust, among other books. He serves on the New Jersey State Holocaust Commission and chairs the Holocaust Commission of the New York Board of Rabbis.