Sunday, April 5, 2020

Shopping for Corona or Seder?

https://www.jta.org/2020/03/30/opinion/should-we-be-shopping-for-passover-or-the-pandemic

Shout out to Rebecca Obedian who shared this with me. It is an excellent question? Do we fill out houses with the storable hametz that will see us through the pandemic or do we clear our houses of leaven and get ready for Passover.

My Three Thoughts


  1. Get Corona supplies! Now is not the time to focus on the strictures of Passover.  Now is the time to make sure you have enough supplies that you have to leave the house in the most limited way possible.  Health first!You can still sell your chametz here www.woodburyjc.org/passover and then it will be available for you after the holiday. 
  2. On the other hand... Is this so much worse than the many plagues, pogroms, and slaveries the Jewish people have endured.  If they could attempt to celebrate passover in the camps surely we can do with less and make it work. Perhaps this is exactly the moment to test our resolve. Perhaps we should clean house despite the pandemic and show ourselves what really matters!
  3. On the other other hand... perhaps these should be two conflicting values that we hold onto at the same time.  We could buy supplies but make sure to donate some of them to a local food pantry. We could still set them aside and have a full passover.  Perhaps it is in this balance that we show ourselves and the world exactly what Judaism has to offer. We accept and interact with the world as it is, but we also struggle and dream of the world as it could be.  

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Are we really Zooming?

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I saw this on facebook and I suddenly felt seen! Here are my three thoughts on spending my life in zoom.


  1. We live in amazing times.  At this point its mostly cliche to praise all of the technology at our fingertips but I just can't help to be amazed at this relatively inexpensive, (not free and still hard to access for so many in this country), high powered, and functional communication infrastructure that exists.  The number of cables, satelites, wireless towers, server farms, coders, and companies involved in making this reality so that i click a button and can see so many people it is unsafe to see otherwise is nothing short of miraculous. 
  2. It still sucks! Yes, it's amazing and awe inspiring.  Yes, it's better than nothing. Yes, it even begs the question of how many in person meetings are really necessary.  Yet, with all of those truths it still sucks.  It is impersonal, it is hard in a group to get a word in edgewise.  Two dimensions loses all the depth of 3 dimensions.  It loses the ability to flow smoothly between different sub groups.  It is very often functional, it communicates information, it reminds others that you care but it just isn't the same. On top of that is very often like wanting a real pina colada and being given a virgin pina colada.  (this is kind of a footnote but i've done a couple of meetings that were "lunch" meetings.  It is truly unpleasant to watch myself eat)
  3. Now that I've told you how amazing I think it is and I've confessed just how unsatisfactory it all is where does that leave me? Zoom leaves me every day fighting to stay in the "gratitude" space.  It leaves me spending way too much time thinking about who should be muted when and other such nonsense.  It leaves me challenged.  I know how lucky I am in so many ways.  Can the frustrations of this "distancing" be ignored? Can I continue to wake up in the morning and look at the world and feel blessed.  I hope so!