Dear Friends,

This pandemic has caused us to focus a lot on the things that we are living without. No going to restaurants, no movies, no theatre, no professional sports, no weddings or Bar and Bat Mitzvahs.

But I don’t think that these are the things that we miss most. Rather, what we miss most during these days is contact with other people. And for those of us blessed with children or grandchildren, even if we are granted to experience them from a social distance, we want to hug them. We want to be close to the people we love and care about, and feel their touch as they feel ours.

For sure, this will pass in one way or another, and we will surely have the opportunity to return to life with all of these experiences. Only now, we might be a bit wiser as we come to appreciate our blessings all the more so because of what we have experienced.

Yes, this too will pass, and we will all face the challenge of never going back to life quite the way it was. And maybe there is a silver lining there as we will have a chance to make life better. To live deeper, and to make each day count for more than may have been the case in the past. To live knowing that life, even with its pains and ordeals, is the ultimate gift….and the ultimate challenge.

So may we meet that challenge with courage and vision of how we will live at that hopeful time. In the meantime, I wish you a Sabbath of rest and renewal.

Rabbi David Greenberg