I love summer. To me, summer means camp, beach vacations to Cape Cod, Boston’s north shore, or Maine, grilling outside, shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops, water gun fights, lazy evenings strumming my guitar, taking refuge from the heat wave in an afternoon at the movie theater, and campfires with toasting marshmallows. It has always been my favorite season.
I’ll still be able to do some of those things this year. And yet, the only summer camp this year is the one taking place in our own backyard. (Ask me about the awesome soccer variations my boys and I created for two or three players!) The Union for Reform Judaism’s responsible but agonizing decision to cancel not just GUCI, but all of its summer camps and experiences, has cost our movement an unbearable amount of money and will therefore cost untold numbers of jobs and careers, adding to the already unbearable suffering that so many are experiencing as the pandemic runs its course.
Like it or not, the State of Indiana has commenced lifting its mandatory restrictions. I get that feeling when emerging from the summer blockbuster: squinting into painfully bright afternoon sunlight, feeling punishing heat, wondering, “Shouldn’t I just turn around for another two-and-a-half-hour movie?”
But now, it’s not just my comfort that’s at stake. It’s our health and our safety, and the health and safety of our friends, families and loved ones, even anonymous neighbors and passersby. I am reminded of the classic Hebrew National commercial: “Sure, the government would allow us to have such-and-such amount of schmutz (dirt) and chozzerai (pork) in our hotdogs… but we can’t! We’re kosher. And we answer to a Higher Authority.”
The State of Indiana would allow us to meet in person this month, just as we did for our last in-person Shabbat (February 28!) and for Purim (March 8!). But with all due respect to the civil authorities, there’s also this one:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life”, admonishes Moses in Deuteronomy, Ch. 30:19, “if you and your offspring would live.”
And so, we wrestle with how to hold in-person Jewish life while still obeying the commandment to choose life. We cannot risk the lives and safety of our loved ones or of anyone with whom we might come into contact.
That means this summer we hope to find a way to gather in person while still keeping a safe 6-foot distance. And that means we’re already preparing for the High Holy Days. I want to avoid any situation where those who feel they can’t take the risk of gathering in person don’t get the same experience as those who do. So I think we owe one another a commitment to make this Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur familiar enough to be comforting, innovative enough to be relevant, and creative enough to choose life, by minimizing our exposure to germs, for ourselves and for our entire community.
Rabbi Justin
!בַּקֵּשׁ שָׁלוֹם וְרָדְפֵהוּ
Bakesh shalom v’rod’fei’hu!
Seek peace and pursue it! — Psalms 34:15