Time to Return

S

ometimes deprivation underscores so much more strongly the positive in what we have. Covid has brought many deprivations in its wake — some minor, some harsher — but it has helped us realize and appreciate what there is.

A communal issue that emerged during Covid was the closing of shuls and the proliferation of living room and backyard minyanim. Indeed, the people who created and maintained backyard minyanim for the last two years deserve a tremendous yasher koach. At a time of crisis and need, they rose to the challenge, expending a great deal of effort and expense, giving up their of privacy, and enduring many other inconveniences, in order to sustain tefillah b’tzibbur. Ashreichem and yiyasher kochachem!

But the initiative opened up a potential Pandora’s box. Firstly, there are some backyard minyanim that stubbornly remain, and don’t seem to have any intention of returning to a shul.

Even among many people who have returned to shul, there still remains the nagging doubt, “Maybe those backyards weren’t so bad?” For the sake of the integrity of our kehillos, it is imperative that we clearly define the absolute need for batei knesses.