Blog

We are about to enter the High Holiday season of 2020. This year will be different from our last several years in many ways.

We will not be at the corner of Wilkins and Shady in our building. We will not be at the Calvary Episcopal Church, which was so welcoming to us in 2019. We will not even be together in the same place celebrating the New Year. We will have virtual services, each of us in our own homes on our computers or phones.

We will not have as many honors for congregants as we have had in the past. There will be no Ark to open or close. There will be no parading around carrying the Torah. There will be no Aliyahs over the Torah before we read it. We will have Rabbi Myers and Sarah Nadler leading services for each of us as congregants to join in with our families or friends.

We will not be able to wear our new fall clothes. We will not be able to talk with our friends or offer “Happy New Year” to our fellow members. We will only be able to see smiling faces around us on a screen, not in the Sanctuary or in the church. We will not be able to hear everyone’s voice joining in prayer or in song. We will be able to sit comfortably at home. We will be able to see each other and will be able to gather in virtual “Kiddush rooms” following services. Most importantly, we will be able to have a meaningful experience celebrating Rosh Hashanah with our immediate families and our Tree of Life family.

I wish you each a happy and healthy New Year. I hope that we will be able to be physically together more in the near future. I know that we must be patient, and we must have faith that things will improve. Call upon me, Rabbi Myers, Barb Feige, Alex Speck, and Vice presidents, Alan Hausman and Irwin Harris, as well as on members of the Board of Trustees and our past presidents, if you have questions about what is happening at Tree of Life or if you need something with which we can help you.

Remember, we are all part of Tree of Life. We are all members of the congregation working and praying together, no matter where we are physically. We are all working together to realize the vision of a re-built Tree of Life that will not only help each of us, but that will also help our community to cope with the world and issues that we are facing each and every day.