Shabbat in April was a strange experience for anyone whose normal routine takes them to shul on Shabbat morning. We had nowhere to go.

When all air traffic in North America was grounded in the days following September 11, 2001, the skies were eerily quiet. And when all, or virtually all, communal prayer ceased in the Jewish community in late March and April, a different type of silence emerged. For some, the silence was filled with the calls to prayer issuing from their screens, coming from rabbis and cantors across the country, seeking to gather a minyan via Zoom or Facebook Live or some other online platform. For others, exhausted by endless meetings in front of screens all week, the chance to relax into Shabbat by withdrawing from screens was a precious retreat away from technology.

For some, the days stretched long, sitting along in the house, waiting for deliveries of mail and food. For others, college age children returned and the house grew busier and more crowded, as each person vied for private space in the house to work undisturbed or perhaps to communicate with friends. When the days blur together, especially for people not used to working from home, it is too easy to become the person whose work takes over life. When you remove shopping, eating out, seeing movies, working out, and running errands, work becomes the routine that shapes the day. And Shabbat can become one of the markers that helps us keep track of the weeks since we felt normal.

Shabbat, for me, became a refuge away from the the things taking over my life in isolation. I finished books and magazines that had been on my coffee table. I took a walk with Marisa. I took the dog for a walk. I waited for the weather to warm up enough to be comfortable riding my bicycle. And I reset my body, emotionally, spiritually, and physically, to prepare for the next week.

Because as I sit and write, I don’t know what our world will look like in May, I’ll conclude by sharing a Prayer for Healing and Strength and Wisdom in Response to the Pandemic.

Oh God, we turn to You at this time of peril seeking Your protection for us, our families and all humanity. We ask that You heal, in body and spirit, all those — in this country and throughout the world — stricken by this terrible new plague.

We ask that You strengthen and protect the nurses, doctors and all others who are placing their own lives at risk to care for the sick.

We pray for our leaders and their advisors at all levels of government and for all others who exercise just and rightful authority, asking that You give them insight, judgment and compassion as they make the many decisions facing our country that need to be made now and in the future. 

We pray, too, that You will guide and grant wisdom to all who are tirelessly working to develop new medicines and vaccines to cure and protect against this virus and ask for their success so that soon it may be defeated and this pandemic ended. 

And finally, we ask that You sustain and help all who, even though escaping illness, are finding their lives and the lives of their families in turmoil because of the consequences to our society of the disease.

As we seek Your assistance, support and mercy, we say, AMEN.   

© 2020 Roger Leemis
Permission to reproduce with attribution granted.

Hebrew Words of the Month:

• bidud – isolation
• Mageifa – pandemic
• N’gif – the pathogen behind the pandemic
• hisun – vaccine