YOHUM KIPUR, To commemorate the conclusion of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year, when the chauffeur is flown at Mandal Ahvath Torah on Monday, its end will be covered with a mask by a rubber band, accompanied by a bizarre scene with the ceremony. Fear of command
“The feeling is that the chauffeur, like the trumpet or something else, is a super spreader (of coronaviruses),” NJwood Synagogue rabbi, Chaim Poupko, told NJ Advance Media.
With masked chauffeurs, New Jersey’s Orthodox Jewish community will be forced to make a series of drastic changes to worship so that they can gather in person despite the ongoing threat of coronavirus. Unlike Reform and Conservative Jews, fewer denominations that were able to turn to digital alternatives for services, Orthodox Jews will enter the Synag sanctuary, outdoor tents and back-to-back service seated in space when Sunday evening begins.
Living comfort and change suggest a dramatic change for the movement based on tradition.
For modern Jewish Jews, especially those who adhere to Jewish law while participating in secular American society, the high holidays present an opportunity to demonstrate the synthesis between tradition and modernity.
“The fact is that we are so preoccupied with the world around us, even in terms of science and technology, that we have been able to find the right balance between following our traditions and being safe and respecting science.” .
But even for ultra-Orthodox communities, such as Lakewood, which are hard hit by the coronavirus, especially due to large religious gatherings, there is a strong tendency among religious leaders that higher holiday services must be run safely.
“This year, everything from prayer books to meetings has changed બેઠક I’ll tell you almost every detail,” Rabbi Andrew Markovitz of the Shomarei Torah in Fairland told NJ Advance Media.
Many rhetorical synagogues have reduced their capacity and found ways to include everyone in the community who wishes to pray individually, following the state’s new expanded guidelines that say 150 people or 25 percent of room capacity, whichever is less. Can be combined for. Religious services.
Contrast services are in stark contrast to the Conservative and Reform Synagogues, many of which have virtual services with the help of video crews for Zoom Up and Rosh Hashanah. The Conservative movement’s religious authority ruled in March that remote participants could count on it. Minian, Ten-person-quorum is required for activities such as reading from the Torah.
The Jewish Jew has not issued any such guidance, as technology such as video-conferencing is not allowed during the holidays.
So the Orthodox left the jeweler with a riddle: how to create worship opportunities for their drawers without people being able to participate virtually from home?
For the temple of Poupco, it meant creating 11 different services and using its vast facility to serve 1,500 worshipers during the Rosh Hashanah. Congratulations were spread across five different sanctuaries, five outdoor tents with about 200 people and six backyard services serving 50-100 people each.
Five length races and two associate rabbis rotated between each service, giving a 5-minute sermon as opposed to the normal length. Like many other traditionalist synagogues, Paupko sought to shorten the service, eliminate too much singing, and find ways to stick to the essentials.
“Some people thought we could have sung more, we could have served longer, we’ve gone out of the house, all wearing masks,” Popco told NJ Advance Media. “But part of the physical distance is also to reduce the way we interact with each other.”
Other synagogues, such as Nativot Shalom in Tinak, also helped coordinate garden part services, eager to create worship opportunities for those who do not feel comfortable participating in the larger service. Congratulations Leperson volunteered his yards to host others in the community with leading services.
“Not everyone is skilled Hazan Or a skilled canter, but it will be like a lot of things this year … as good as it can be, ”Nativot Shalom Rabbi Nati Helfgote told NJ Advance Media.
In addition, many services, backyards or otherwise, require prior registration to facilitate social distance.
“You have to register for everyone Minyan, ”Helfgot said. “No one can just go inside, which is sad because you want to be an open and welcoming community, but you also need to keep everyone safe.”
Chabad in Madford, which Rabbi Yitzhok Kahn said usually has an open, forthcoming policy, was the only requirement. But, Kahan will do his part to bring Yom Kippur service to his community, offering to travel around the city with his chauffeur and travel to people’s homes within a radius of two miles, so that all can fulfill the command to listen to the music.
Other chauffeur-inflators will follow Ahvath Torah in masking their chauffeur as advised by the Orthodox Union, the main religious authority associated with the modern Orthodox movement.
In some congregations, only one person will read and touch the Torah from behind lexiglass-covered podiums. Of course, anyone who gathers indoors must wear a mask and bring their own prayer books and prayer shawls.
And Taslich, another annual high holiday ritual, has also seen adaptations. To throw bread as a symbolic casting of sin, before Yom Kippur, usually congratulations are gathered on a flowing stream of water.
Congratulations to the Shomarei Torah of Fairland on Sunday, September 27, 2020 attending the Yom Kippur Ceremony at the Great Falls in Patterson.John Jones | For NJ Advance Media
Some synagogues held self-guided Tashlichs, allowing people to stay away from others while participating. For those who still have communal Tashlich services, participants were masked, such as the Shomeri Torah, where families gathered on Sunday at the Great Falls on the Pacific River.
Although it means adapting rituals, shortening services and re-orchestrating the building floor plan, Orthodox communities have a new focus on the importance of physical gathering.
“The significance this year comes from something I think we’ve accepted in the past: and that was that every high holiday service was filled in the synagogues,” Markowitz said. “It was given. This year, we’re going to look around the room and it’s going to be emotional, it’s going to be special. “
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Josh can be reached at Accelerod [email protected].
