Erev Shabbos Message - Coronavirus can try to isolate us, but we are more together than ever!

my heart is extraordinarily heavy right now as we're going into Shabbos at Boca ratone synagogue and for the very first time closing the halls closing the doors closing the campus of our shul a place that welcomed so many each and every day especially every weekend eight different manana man diverse populations who came together with love and community and people and to say that instead this room is going to be empty that nobody will be here to fill these seats and these pews nobody will be here to experience a crea cetera nobody will be here to fill this room with song the Shabbos is really heavy on our hearts and difficult but I want to share with you a couple quick thoughts as we go into Shabbos the last 48 hours have been long and difficult we've deliberated we've agonized we've researched we've asked and ultimately we had to come to the conclusion that so many others have come to which was that the safest thing to do to slow a spread god forbid of this horrific virus is simply to close our doors now doing so is painful to not come to shul to not davin but see board to not be able to connect with community is as if to remove one of our organs it's to take a piece out of ourselves and yet it's what's demanded of us and something that today occurred to me that's giving me some some sort of support and comfort is this thought coronavirus seems to be something pernicious and it's spreading and we don't know where it ends or how far it travels or the danger will present that so much a part of this is how much we don't know but it seems according to experts that for the average relatively young and healthy person even if one were to contract coronavirus it would not be terribly dangerous or lethal you could recover quickly you may not even know you have symptoms so why are we taking these extraordinary steps and measures do I have Jewish communities everywhere why is the world that the global population taking these steps well it's to slow down its progress and to ensure whatever resources whatever hospitals whatever intensive care unit beds we have would be available for those who need them the most vulnerable population so what occurred to me is that we're all collectively doing the mysterious nefesh the self-sacrifice of giving up community and giving up convenience and giving up comfort is something we're doing not even to protect ourselves in most case but really to protect and to be there for those who are vulnerable and needed most and somehow somewhat paradoxically it feels better and it's more comforting to know that we're doing something not for ourselves but for others and if we think about it in that way and we teach that to our children that all these extraordinary measures are not about only keeping us safe though they're that - but they're about ensuring that the most vulnerable and fragile among us that the resources that would be needed for them won't be needed or that they will be available to them and that this mysterious nefesh is really not even about us so ironically even as we're a part and separate from one another we're displaying great commitment and connection to community to people to nation that even while we are isolated we've never been more together because what we're doing is for our greater whole much more than the sum of our parts and hopefully that is a source of comfort and consolation a quick thought on our partial because for us Samus is characterized by Schewel by coming Schewel davin into russia youth group shall should as socializing activity there's so much part of of what we identify with the Shabbos experience but that's not all Shabbos is about our parsha tells us as chakra shop so site ich Meru annex abaca bailiwick of the Meccan berg points out that's the plural shop so sigh why are there two Chavez's there's really only one every week at the end of that week there's 25 hours there's one Shabbos so why is it referred to in the plural shop so psy and he has a brilliant insight that I think is particularly relevant for all of us the Shabbos who were unable to congregate and unable to come to shul to be able to celebrate shop so Solly says there's the there's the Shabbos of the goof we have to rest and relax on abstain from 39 acts of creative labor our body goes through a Shabbos mode things that we normally or normally do we refrain from we abstain from we experienced the rest and the passivity of Shabbos that's the passive part of Shabbos that happens to us whether we welcome it or not we're obligated in whether we recognize it or not Shabbos comes and we are bound by it but there's a second shop in the shop suicide - Maru says the cassava kobold is the Shabbos we create there's the Shabbos that we make what kind of kiddush will kind of shell in my life and what kind of ism you know so what kind of different Torah what kind of energy what kind of atmosphere and this sham is more than others we need to step up and not just observe a passive Shabbos which is placed upon us but we need to actively improve ly create in fashion and mold we need to embrace a sense of a shops to sing Kabbalah Shabbos with our family to let our children choose the tunes we need to be able to sit at the table and make it more joyous and more festive we need to complement we need to fill the void that we won't have from community and shul ourselves and so we should find comfort in what we're doing for one another and you here at so and I offer it feel a heartfelt prayer for all of us that this is only very temporary very short-lived that we're able to return to our our shoes and our schools and our normal life that those who have been afflicted be healed and that we and all be healthy safe and secure wishing you a peaceful and a restful Shabbos the Shabbos in which we take this extra time and extra time at home for the things we claim we never have time for time with our family time learning Torah time reading time resting and that we come out of this even more rejuvenated and inspired than ever have a wonderful shops