Living in coronavirusworld 11: shabbat in corona virus time

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...blooming...

At 6:30 PM I join my friend Steve for the 30 minute musical warm up before his shabbat service.  I sing my song about this coronavirusworld, Listen.   Steve recently had one of his original “virus”pieces featured in Vanity Fair. (https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2020/03/a-lockdown-letter-from-new-york?fbclid=IwAR0cfo8CnD_aJhYY5pNhEITj5znNMgIWkO2HgiAYKw_JJFBCu7Meyc-gTHk). 

We try singing Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” like we’ve done live together. It’s a bit 

odd not being in the same room together attempting harmony.  Then in honor of Bill Withers, who died today, "Lean on Me.” (You can check out the music and service at https://www.facebook.com/stevenblanemusic/videos/355062968766109/?eid=ARCBH3MBjJAkzLqfKq7z7m4EgVzQCWggA3_4gKg7lVyPHJE-yCTJtczUogs7_KyRACrfX6d9ih5QB8XH).)

Then it’s time for “Shabbat in Corona virus time” with Congregation Sim Shalom. But at At 7PM, just before the service begins, I hear through my window the nightly salute to emergency workers: medical workers, delivery people, clerks, transit workers…the people keeping us alive. With cheers and rattling of pots and pans like Latin American caserolazas, only in praise, not protest. Even in the streets of  Harlem it echoes and I hear  through Steve’s window as well.  The online service unfolds just like usual. Only it’s not usual. The community gathers from around the world, even Cuba.  Steve greets them as they tune in. He asks me to share some reflections.  I begin by talking about my experience with Ecclesia and the homeless people in Marcus Garvey Park. And the refrigerator trucks in Brooklyn. And the tents in Central Park. We are literally walking through the valley of the shadow of death. How hard it is not to fear. I talk about how as hard as it is being “quarantined,”  it’s not all that uncommon. How my son’s wife had to spend days with her parents in their basement during the Serbian bombing of her home city.  And how my Serbian friends hid in basements for 78 days while NATO mobbed their country. Or Jews hiding in tiny crawl spaces for years during World War II. We have done that to each other. We have lived through it and survived. We need to draw on those legacies.  To get through this. And I of course I finished by talking about gratitude. Resistance begins with gratitude. What happened today that I am thankful for? This Shabbat, the prayers for healing and the mourners’ kaddish has special meaning tonight.

Steve at one point makes reference to holocaust and one of the  congregants objects.  He apologizes for having offended the congregant, acknowledges that for some, no comparisons can ever be made. And then says, I wasn’t there for that holocaust. But this is my holocaust. It’s everyone who is vulnerable. There may be a million dead already. And my wife and my family are in danger  revery day. It’s enough…. This is very untypical for Steve who in his service believes that for  most of us, our lives are so demanding that we need a weekly break, we need a  weekly moment of comfort and peace, a shabbat. Someone else tries to extend the controversy but Steve wisely moves on. We move on to the final prayers, a word of peace. And the service is ended. Back to the solitude of our homes.

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I visit with my friend who had the virus.(On facebook, live..) She’s back in the land of the living. Color in her face again.  It is good to see each other, I haven't  seen her face since, well, before…. Wondering how long until that might actually happen again….