Better Together

Everywhere one goes these days, there is only one topic: What’s going to be with Rosh Hashanah? Every question directed to the shul gabbaim receives the same answer: “We’re working on it, but we don’t know. We’re waiting to hear from the government.”

One proposed solution in one shul in which I daven involves alternating which tefillos members can attend, in order to keep within the government guidelines on overcrowding. Meanwhile, various smaller minyanim — under buildings, outside in the street under a canopy (temperatures are now hovering in the mid-90 degree F.) — are forming and baalei tefillah and baalei tokeia being recruited.

The uncertainty is giving rise to panic. The unspoken fear on every face is the same: “I can’t do without my regular Rosh Hashanah. Yes, I’ve gotten used to davening b’yechidus during the lockdown, and even an occasional Shabbos davening. But Rosh Hashanah is different. We all desperately feel the need to be together with the tzibbur, with the familiar niggunim and baalei tefillah.”

Even if the technical question of hearing the tekios could be taken care of, no one feels that would be enough. I have yet to hear a single person suggest that they could daven better at home on Rosh Hashanah, without a mask and without worrying about the numbers of those who wander too close during davening.