No one— not a one!— tried to get out of paying by saying, “It’s not really a chiyuv,” or, “The cost is outrageous”
There was no denying it on that Hoshana Rabbah morning this past October 9: the machlah was back. Two of our neighbors were in the hospital fighting for every breath, and even on this joyous Succos Yom Tov, we had been ending each tefillah with heartfelt Tehillim.
And now, the gabbaim of our local shul faced the last days of Yom Tov and Simchas Torah with important choices to make. Our small kehillah had taken the precaution of splitting up. The members who had not yet been struck by the disease were now gathering in their own minyan outdoors in a backyard tent. We who remained inside the shul felt confident, as a strictly “antibodies” group, that we need not subscribe to every stricture being put forth. But what should we implement? Shorter hakafos? No hand-holding during dancing?
Finally, taking into account the many kollel yungeleit and yeshivah boys of our shul who look to Simchas Torah as a day of inspiration that provides chizuk for an entire year of intense learning, we chose to eschew anything that might diminish the simchah. But we did move the hakafos outdoors, where the fresh air provided the antidote to the fear of spreading Covid-19 germs — the main concern in our basement minyan, with its low ceiling.
A nearby backyard was deemed large enough and the fences separating it from the shul were taken down to allow direct access and keep the proceedings out of the view of any passersby.
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