Dear JCOGS family,
Yesterday at our monthly board meeting, one of our board members remarked how far we have come in one year since the pandemic struck. One year ago, as he visited homes to drop off some matzah, houses were closed and greetings given through shuttered windows. One year along, while for many, doors may still be closed, all of us can feel the sense of new hope and possibility coming.
Spring is in the air. There’s mud under our boots. Another Passover is on its way. Another virtual Pesach, for sure, for many of us. But there is something new. Something different. Some of us will even sit at the same table as one another. Simple joys of breaking the simplest of breads together—matzah—are coming back.
10 days ago, I learned that I became eligible for the vaccine. My first reaction was one of a sense of both privilege and responsibility. This morning, I was lucky enough to receive my first dose of the vaccine. Copley Hospital provided 400 vaccines just yesterday. As I drove up to the hospital, just moments from my house, the possibility of a new reality began to set it. It set in that much more when they administered the vaccine.
The exodus story we tell on Passover is one of uncertainty. The Israelites did not know where they were going. They only knew that a new reality was possible, a reality free from slavery. Some thousands of years later, the road ahead is still uncertain—but that’s just it. The road ahead is always uncertain. We mostly just ignore that reality in our daily lives. This pandemic, like other times in our uncertain history, has us confronting the unknown with ferocity. In that uncertainty, we must seek possibility.
For us at JCOGS, possibility means visits with you all, shared simchas for upcoming life cycles, services in person, Canadian JCOGS members coming back to Stowe for long awaited visits—and much more. That’s why JCOGS is actively planning our reopening. We can’t wait.
Much remains uncertain, so even as we all make plans—at JCOGS and each of us in our daily lives—we must take it one day at a time. One icicle melting. One bird returning. One last run on the mountain. One day of each of the eight days of Passover at a time.
Will you join us for our Freedom Singing Seder & Discussion on the second night or the other myriad of upcoming Passover events? This year, we shall sing: Next year in Jerusalem. Next year in person! Perhaps even this year for some of us. We celebrate milestones along the way towards possibility and freedom.
Tihiyu bri’im, stay safe, be well. Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi David
