Our cup overfloweth... but not in the good way...
Email from our synagogue sent yesterday:
Dear Fellow Congregants,
We want to update you on some developments at the synagogue with regard to COVID-19 and some new protocols we have decided to establish. As many of you know, the case count is steadily increasing in B.C. and we began to rethink our hope of having a small group of people in the sanctuary for High Holidays as well as some services in the back parking lot. At the same time, the daycare which rents space from us has had an increase in the number of COVID positive cases related to their two initial cases.
The executive met on the evening of September 13, 2020 and out of an abundance of caution and in consultation with medical professionals, decided to close the synagogue to the membership and the public effective immediately, until after Yom Kippur (September 29, 2020). To be clear, while there is no immediate risk to being in the building, closing or greatly reducing the number of people in the physical property ensures the health and safety of all our members.
What Does This Mean for High Holidays?
This closure means that all sanctuary-based High Holiday services will effectively only take place online with a greatly reduced number of service participants leading from the sanctuary and that no shul programs will take place on shul property including programming scheduled for under the tent in the back parking lot. Note that Tashlich and the shofar programs will continue outside as planned. Anyone who has received an honour or will be reading during services will be contacted with guidance on how to continue with these honours online.
I did realize that this probably will not make a difference in what I will be doing this coming Saturday and Sunday - as a leader, I will be in the sanctuary, already having rehearsed keeping to our own spaces and our own microphones. I had a ridiculous anxiety dream about going into the shul to ask the rabbi a question and the place was overrun with kids and a few teachers, and the rabbi standing in the hallway with kids running around her, and we tried to go sit outside to talk but even outside there wasn't a way to be even 6 ft away from another person. It's what you'd call "a normal school day" a year ago. As a dream, I awoke anxious, agitated, uneasy. *deep sigh*
I managed to not email the rabbi to check in with her. She is probably swamped with managing a lot of pieces, me included, and I know she is able to reach out to us as she needs.
I practiced with my co-leader this evening. It went pretty well. I will continue to practice for the next few days. I'm miffed that the full kaddish special melody that I've worked hard on for I'd say maybe a few hours so far, went well in my own private practicing but fell apart entirely while in front of Stewart. I think having someone do the interjections threw me off, the use of Internet causing lag in his responses threw me, and maybe I don't have enough notation, or practice reading only from my notation in my machzor, to get it right. *sigh* It's Tuesday; I have effectively Wednesday and Thursday to practice more in many moments. Friday is a busy work day and then a nice dinner because I really want to, and maybe just treat myself to a good night of sleep on erev Rosh Hashanah.
Also, it's my Abba's 82nd birthday on Friday night/Saturday. (That man is looking old these days.) We're having a family Zoom together Saturday afternoon, calling it "lunch" though to accommodate everyone's schedule, it's at 2 PM PST. Lunch might be a little this, a little that (and we might eat closer to 1 PM so we don't have hangry adults). I haven't planned that far - though probably I should, preferably Wednesday night as Thursday I'm taking off work to prep: shopping, baking, the like.
Goals for Thursday: challah, one with dried and replumpled dried apples and cinnamon, one with pareve chocolate, more this time than the first batch; buying K chicken breasts and the rest of ingredients for a Moroccan chicken dish (artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomato), maybe a few spreads for lunch (hummus, whitefish salad, tapenade for Rick?), ... apples!! Maybe a pomegranate if I can find it? A festive fruit or two. Oh, and make honeycake too.
I'm determined to be in bed before midnight tonight. Posting, then closing the computer. *nod*
________________________ This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/736526.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Dear Fellow Congregants,
We want to update you on some developments at the synagogue with regard to COVID-19 and some new protocols we have decided to establish. As many of you know, the case count is steadily increasing in B.C. and we began to rethink our hope of having a small group of people in the sanctuary for High Holidays as well as some services in the back parking lot. At the same time, the daycare which rents space from us has had an increase in the number of COVID positive cases related to their two initial cases.
The executive met on the evening of September 13, 2020 and out of an abundance of caution and in consultation with medical professionals, decided to close the synagogue to the membership and the public effective immediately, until after Yom Kippur (September 29, 2020). To be clear, while there is no immediate risk to being in the building, closing or greatly reducing the number of people in the physical property ensures the health and safety of all our members.
What Does This Mean for High Holidays?
This closure means that all sanctuary-based High Holiday services will effectively only take place online with a greatly reduced number of service participants leading from the sanctuary and that no shul programs will take place on shul property including programming scheduled for under the tent in the back parking lot. Note that Tashlich and the shofar programs will continue outside as planned. Anyone who has received an honour or will be reading during services will be contacted with guidance on how to continue with these honours online.
I did realize that this probably will not make a difference in what I will be doing this coming Saturday and Sunday - as a leader, I will be in the sanctuary, already having rehearsed keeping to our own spaces and our own microphones. I had a ridiculous anxiety dream about going into the shul to ask the rabbi a question and the place was overrun with kids and a few teachers, and the rabbi standing in the hallway with kids running around her, and we tried to go sit outside to talk but even outside there wasn't a way to be even 6 ft away from another person. It's what you'd call "a normal school day" a year ago. As a dream, I awoke anxious, agitated, uneasy. *deep sigh*
I managed to not email the rabbi to check in with her. She is probably swamped with managing a lot of pieces, me included, and I know she is able to reach out to us as she needs.
I practiced with my co-leader this evening. It went pretty well. I will continue to practice for the next few days. I'm miffed that the full kaddish special melody that I've worked hard on for I'd say maybe a few hours so far, went well in my own private practicing but fell apart entirely while in front of Stewart. I think having someone do the interjections threw me off, the use of Internet causing lag in his responses threw me, and maybe I don't have enough notation, or practice reading only from my notation in my machzor, to get it right. *sigh* It's Tuesday; I have effectively Wednesday and Thursday to practice more in many moments. Friday is a busy work day and then a nice dinner because I really want to, and maybe just treat myself to a good night of sleep on erev Rosh Hashanah.
Also, it's my Abba's 82nd birthday on Friday night/Saturday. (That man is looking old these days.) We're having a family Zoom together Saturday afternoon, calling it "lunch" though to accommodate everyone's schedule, it's at 2 PM PST. Lunch might be a little this, a little that (and we might eat closer to 1 PM so we don't have hangry adults). I haven't planned that far - though probably I should, preferably Wednesday night as Thursday I'm taking off work to prep: shopping, baking, the like.
Goals for Thursday: challah, one with dried and replumpled dried apples and cinnamon, one with pareve chocolate, more this time than the first batch; buying K chicken breasts and the rest of ingredients for a Moroccan chicken dish (artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomato), maybe a few spreads for lunch (hummus, whitefish salad, tapenade for Rick?), ... apples!! Maybe a pomegranate if I can find it? A festive fruit or two. Oh, and make honeycake too.
I'm determined to be in bed before midnight tonight. Posting, then closing the computer. *nod*
________________________ This entry was originally posted at https://avivasedai.dreamwidth.org/736526.html. Please comment there using OpenID.