Rosh Hashanah is less than three weeks away. No doubt, you’ve been wondering how this year’s Yamim Nora’im (High Holidays) will play out. What social distancing and other precautions will be taken in various shuls? Will there be a women’s section? If I don’t go to shul, how will I hear shofar blowing? Is hearing the standard number of shofar blasts even a requirement this year?

Our concerns and questions are shared around the world. It seems certain that fewer people will be attending shul this year, and the typically overflowing shuls grapple with adapting their services in this uncertain COVID era. Planning can’t help but be fluid up until Kol Nidrei and beyond as restrictions are constantly changing.

I just read an article in the Jerusalem Post mentioning the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur plans of the Ramban synagogue, located in Yerushalyaim’s Greek Colony neighborhood. Since the maximum number of people in an indoor space is currently limited to 20 in Israel – and only 30 in an outdoor space – the shul is preparing for two minyanim – one indoors and one outside in the courtyard. To accommodate their usual crowd of 300 to 400 men and women, additional space may be used in the gardens and courtyards of various members.

I recently saw a clever ad, a spoof on a Merriam-Webster dictionary entry defining telehealth:

“The provision of healthcare remotely by means of telecommunications technology. Synonyms: convenient; virtual doctor; accessible care. Antonyms: long waits; copays; deductibles; impossible to do from your La-Z-Boy.”

During these COVID times, a lot of things have changed. We’ve had no choice but to work, learn, and shop from home. That list of home-based activities has also come to include getting medical care. Although telehealth – seeing your doctor on the computer screen – existed before the pandemic, it is now big business. According to GBMC’s Medical Director of Primary Care and Population Health, Dr. Robin Motter-Mast, GBMC’s telehealth project was put into place a year before COVID hit hard and was prepared to help patients. In February, GBMC charted 59 telehealth visits; by May, there were approximately 18,000.

What’s the latest COVID scoop in our community? I spoke to two medical experts in the know. Jonathan (aka Shaya) Lerner, the Assistant Vice President of Advanced Practice Providers for LifeBridge Health, is also a volunteer paramedic for Hatzalah of Baltimore and the chair of its Quality Assurance Committee. Dr. Avi Rosenberg is a practicing renal and pediatric pathologist and cell biologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has collaborated on a COVID-related research enterprise to look at antibodies in the hard-hit frum communities (they number nearly 7,000 samples to date!).

Moving presents challenges at any age, but moving later in life – which includes reinventing oneself in a new community – is the hardest. Still, many older people are moving these days to be closer to their children. Among them is Sarah (Moses) Spero, one of our newest community members. Sarah and her husband, Dr. Abba Spero, moved to Baltimore four years ago after living in Cleveland for many decades. This is not the first time that this wife, mother, simcha creator, writer, and ultimate people-person, has reinvented herself. And Sarah – with her customary wit and charm – enthusiastically shared her story with me.  

I am most grateful for living in America and enjoying the freedoms its democracy provides. It’s an emotion under attack these days. But that doesn’t change the warm feeling I have whenever the red-white-and-blue is displayed on patriotic holidays like the Fourth of July, and whenever I stand respectfully for “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the start of a concert or ballgame. I felt that same heartwarming emotion this past February when I toured The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum (aka “The Navy SEAL Museum”), just outside Fort Pierce, Florida. 

It started with toilet paper. It spread to hand sanitizer, flour, yeast, and bottled water. The shelves were bare in the stores, and they were “out of stock” at Walmart and Amazon, too. The public’s shopping protocol and habits have changed as well since Shushan Purim, the last time I set foot in a supermarket, where, I hear, markings on the floor direct you where to stand and walk and shoppers scurry about in masked anonymity. Why does it feel like shopping for my Pesach items is ancient history?

Fear of the virus is bad enough. Now we read about dairies pouring thousands of gallons of milk down the drain, meat plants closing, and agricultural businesses throwing away huge quantities of food, and we are gripped by fear. Will there be a shortage of food? Lest a panic attack strike before you finish reading this article, let me declare the good news and the conclusion up front: We are not going to starve!