Yom Kippur Under Covid Teaches Togetherness

Do you call it Covid or Corona? Or just the plague – or maybe an expletive?

While the past six months have been closely associated with isolation, lockdown, and quarantine, one of the central lessons of this experience is that we are all in this together.

That’s a strange thing to say when most people are not coming together, and, when we do, we are socially distanced.  But it’s true.  Coronavirus has taught us the critical value of our interdependence and interconnectedness.

On a pragmatic level, more than ever, we can appreciate how essential are the people who keep things moving – who deliver goods to the stores, who stocks the shelves, and who finally gets the paper towels restocked.

On a social level, we have founds ways to be together.  Zoom.  Outdoor visits.  Shofar on street corners.  I find myself always saying: These past months have taught us how to stay connected even when we are apart.

Judaism emphasizes the need to be connected.

It’s an existential need.

וַיֹּאמֶר ה' אֱ-לֹהִים לֹא־טוֹב הֱיוֹת הָאָדָם לְבַדּוֹ אֶעֱשֶׂהּ־לּוֹ עֵזֶר כְּנֶגְדּוֹ׃ 

The Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make a fitting helper for him.” (Bereishit 2:18)

It is also a religious obligation to remain connected.  It’s a sin to separate from the community.

In Pirkei Avot (2:5), Hillel teaches: Do not separate yourself from the community.  Rambam (Teshuva 3:6) views separating from the community as a sin that leads one to lose one’s share in the world to come. 

וְאֵלּוּ הֵן שֶׁאֵין לָהֶן חֵלֶק לָעוֹלָם הַבָּא אֶלָּא נִכְרָתִים וְאוֹבְדִין וְנִדּוֹנִין עַל גֹּדֶל רִשְׁעָם וְחַטָּאתָם לְעוֹלָם וּלְעוֹלְמֵי עוֹלָמִים...וְהַפּוֹרְשִׁין מִדַּרְכֵי צִבּוּר

And, the following are they that have no share in the World to Come but suffer excision and loss of identity, and are damned for ever and ever for their exceeding wickedness and sinfulness: …seceders from the congregation.

Damned forever.  Exceeding wickedness.  There are strong words because remaining connected is so essential to who we are.

Just how connected are we?

One of my favorite teachings is one I heard from Rabbi Avi Weiss quoting Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik’s explanation of the famous expression, kol yisrael areivim zeh ba’zah – all Israel are responsible for each other.  The key word is areiv, which means to guarantee.  An areiv, as an example, guarantees repayment of a loan.  Understood this way, kol yisrael areivim means that each Jew is a guarantor for every other Jew.

Rav Avi then said, “If a Jew anywhere in the world is not keeping Shabbos, that is your problem as well.”

This is not just a nice Jewish engagement idea.  It is the basis for one Jew’s ability to make a beracha to help another Jew fulfill a mitzvah. Even if I made Kiddush already, I can make Kiddush for someone else who needs my help, and it is not an unnecessary blessing.  We are responsible and must guarantee the Jewish practice of other Jews.  Non-observance or ignorance or disillusionment of any Jew is the responsibility for every Jew.

We are incredibly interconnected.

These past months in isolation have only reinforced this value.

Marcelo Gleiser, the 2019 Templeton Prize Laureate and philosophy professor at Dartmouth College, recently wrote:
 

Covid-19 will change us as a species…A tiny organism is forcing us to revisit our values, our divisions, our choices as we barricade within our homes with our closest family members and consider what will come next.  We would be foolish not to embrace the central message of our predicament: that we must come together to survive….We must think collectively as a human hive, each of us playing an essential role… 

Our mission as we begin a New Year under corona is to double down on what it means to be a community – even when we can’t gather as one.

How can we feel closer together – especially while apart?  It starts with listening. 

כֹּל אֲשֶׁר תֹּאמַר אֵלֶיךָ שָׂרָה שְׁמַע...

            Whatever Sarah says, listen to her voice. (Bereishit 21:12)

The Chasidic interpretation of God’s advice to Avraham to listen to Sarah extends to each of us.  One should always pay attention to the speaker’s voice to understand what the speaker needs.

We need moral sensitivity and a sense of empathy.  This sensitivity is the backbone of Jewish communal life.

Elie Wiesel once asked: What does it mean to be a congregation?  It means to care about each other.  

Pray?  We can pray at home.  (As we all know so well this year.)  We come together as a congregation in order to share in each other’s lives and in order to share in the life of the Jewish people’s past, present, and future.

Wiesel recounts the story of the Gerer Rebbe, who decided to question one of his disciples: “How is Moshe Yaakov doing?”  The disciple didn’t know.  “What!” shouted the Rebbe.  “You don’t know?  You pray under the same roof?  You study the same book?  You serve the same God?  You dare tell me that you don’t know how Moshe Yaakov is, whether he needs help or advice or comforting?  How can that be?!?”

We have been cut off from community for so long.  Even some of our tenuous steps back do not compare with the fullness and richness of being together that we all know and love.  At the same time, the disruption and isolation of corona also provides us with a reminder and a nudge that what matters most is togetherness.

Let us double down on our feelings of responsibility, empathy, care and concern for each and every person we encounter.  Let’s listen more closely to their needs.  Let’s be more understanding of how we can respond.

May God listen more closely to our needs and give each of us what we need: a year of health, happiness, peace, and a return to togetherness.