Rant #2,496: I Believe

Good morning to everyone. 

I hope that your last days of summer were good ones. 

Summer has now ended, and we are beginning the fall season. 

The High Holy Days period continues for Jews, and while Rosh Hashanah has ended, Yom Kippur—the holiest day on the Jewish calendar—is right around the bend. The holiday begins on Sunday at sundown. 

Although I did not go to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, I thought that it was very interesting how the holiday was held this year, the year of the coronavirus. 

Based on what I saw in news reports on both TV and in the newspapers—and also what I saw passing synagogues in my car—the coronavirus forced temples to think a bit outside the box, and they seemed to handle this misfortune with a lot of grit. 

Some temples handled the holiday as the always do, having services inside, but they were completely socially distanced affairs, with maybe 25 percent capacity and people not sitting near each other, other than families. 

Others held their services completely outside on the grounds of the synagogue, as it is thought that congregations of people are safer outdoors rather than indoors. Social distancing was used outside, too. 

And others simply had their services in their temples, but streamed the proceedings on the Internet. There have always been televised and broadcast High Holy Day services on TV and radio, and during the past few years, streaming has been used to broadcast these services, too, but this year, with the coronavirus raging among us, streaming and broadcasting on radio and TV took on even greater importance. 

The way that the blowing of the shofar was handled was also quite interesting. The blowing of the shofar is a Rosh Hashanah ritual that is very significant during these proceedings. The shofar blowing represents many things to Jews during the High Holy Days. Among other things, it heralds that God represents the creative energy that sustains our world and it heralds God into our lives as Jews, as our leader. 

The Shofar is blown for many other reasons: to rededicate us to Torah study, to remind us to correct our ways, and it also reminds us of the destruction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem many generations ago. 

That being said, how was the ritual blowing of the shofar handled during the pandemic? 

It takes a lot of gusto and verve to blow the shofar for 30 times, and to sustain the blowing of this instrument, which is basically a ram’s horn. 

As with any wind instrument, air must be expelled from the mouth to blow it correctly, and in times of the coronavirus, this expelling of air is thought to carry the virus, and anybody near those blowing the shofar, or at least within a short distance, could be open to catching this virus because of the particles coming out of the shofar blower’s mouth. 

So how do you handle the blowing of the shofar, perhaps the signature symbol of the entire High Holy Days? 

You do it responsibly, that’s how. 

I saw it done in a variety of ways this Rosh Hashanah, but in each way, it was done safely. 

One way that it was done was for the shofar blower to leave the indoor sanctuary and do it in a hallway or someplace in the temple where no one was standing or sitting during the proceedings. I read where one congregation actually had the shofar blower go out to the area where garbage was being held for pickup to blow the shofar. 

Another way was for the shofar blower to simply go away from his or her congregation and blow the shofar, close enough for the congregation to hear its rasp but far enough away where no one could get infected. Another creative way was for the shofar blower to literally put a mask or a covering on the end of the shofar and to then blow away. The congregation would still hear the shofar, as its bellows are great, but less particles would escape the shofar with the mask on—much like people wearing masks to prevent transmission—so it was thought to be safer. 

So Rosh Hashanah went on, unabated, but it was held a bit different this year. 

I am sure other religious institutions have had to adapt their services to what is safe and what is not safe during this pandemic, so changes were not just akin to Jewish services, but to all religious services. 

However you follow your religion, the coronavirus has taxed us, has forced us to change and to adapt, and we have done that. 

It just goes to show that religion is stronger than this scourge, and one way that we will beat this thing is to keep our religious principles, and perhaps bend them, but not break them, to adapt to this horror we are all going through. 

I am not a religious person, but I believe that God is mighty, and God will help us get through this.