Praying from the balcony
Call it a moment of mooring in a time where everything feels adrift.
In normal times – that is, in times before the coronavirus – whenever one of the five books of the Torah is completed on Shabbat morning, the congregation traditionally shouts out, “Chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,” which means, “Let us be strong, let us be strong, and let us be strengthened together.”
But these are not normal times, and with the doors of all the country’s synagogues ordered closed for the first time in the state’s history, I thought that these words would not be shouted out this Shabbat morning.
I was wrong.
In one of the unique ways that Israelis – as opposed to Italians, Americans and Chinese – are coping with the virus, balcony minyanim have sprung up in religious neighborhoods around the country, where a quorum of 10 men from a few adjacent buildings stand on their balconies, or in staircases, and join together to form prayer quorums.
It doesn’t happen for each of the daily services; it is sporadic and depends on the weather – but it is happening.
It happened in my neighborhood on Shabbat morning, and provided a welcome sense of normalcy.
The COVID-19 virus has dislocated our lives in ways both huge and tiny. From not being able to work, to not being able to see and hug one’s children or grandchildren, to not being able to go out for a cup of coffee, everything has been knocked off kilter.
For the religious, it also means not being able to pray in a synagogue in a minyan. All of a sudden, something that for many is such an elemental part of daily life – something that some feel guilty if they miss – is unavailable, unattainable. This creates a sense of detachment.
I never thought I would miss so much the people in my minyan – some whom I never even talk to, some who even annoy me when they lead the prayers – than when I
the centers on designated buses with no more than 25 at once. The registration process will be carried out in open spaces with all recruits maintaining a distance of at least two meters.
Significant adjustments have been made to training bases, and recruits will be briefed on maintaining the proper procedures in fighting the virus.
Medical teams have also been reinforced and trained to identify recruits who are exhibiting initial symptoms of the virus and all units have been provided with vehicles equipped to evacuate soldiers who need to quarantine and be provided with medical care.
Since Tuesday, the Health Ministry has been performing over 2,000 tests per day, marking a significant increase from previous days. On Friday almost 2,500 tests were performed.
The Defense Ministry announced that it delivered to the Health Ministry a shipment of 3,000 tubes of liquids for coronavirus testing. This material is an essential component that was missing from the 100,000 coronavirus test kits brought to the country in a Mossad operation on Wednesday. The tests were later found out to be incomplete because they were missing a patented liquid into which the testing sticks need to be dipped before a screening can be administered, a Magen David Adom spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post.
MDA announced on Saturday night that it would set up another three drive-through testing stations for the coronavirus in Jerusalem, Beersheba and Haifa, after the first one which began operations in Tel Aviv on Friday, according to Ynet. The report added that in Jerusalem the station will be set in the parking lot of the Teddy Stadium in Katamon.
In an interview with Channel 12, Netanyahu talked about rolling out a new coronavirus test that will allow the country to deem if someone had contracted the virus and built up immunity so that he or she could go out to work and resume life as usual. But he acknowledged that such a test does not yet exist and that medical professionals are unsure if one can build up an immunity to coronavirus.
Over the weekend in many parts of the country the weather was pleasant and Israelis left their homes in violation of Health Ministry regulations, sparking a warning by the ministry and Prime Minister Netanyahu that if Israelis continue to break quarantine, then restrictions will be tightened.
The Health Ministry has issued guidelines that order Israelis to remain in their homes unless it is absolutely necessary to leave. Visiting parks, beaches, pools, libraries and museums is prohibited, as are all social interactions. Work that can be done from home should be. However, going for short walks in the area of one’s home is permissible, leading to instances in which it was unclear if the activity violated the guidelines.
Currently all “essential” services will remain open, including supermarkets, pharmacies and most medical services. In addition, while Israelis are encouraged to work from home, employees who need to travel to work will be able to do so.
However, Tel Aviv’s Carmel Shuk and Mahaneh Yehuda market are ordered closed as of Sunday.
More than half a million Israelis have already signed up for Bituach Leumi (national insurance) unemployment benefits.
Prime Minister’s Office acting director-general Ronen Peretz and secretary-general of the Israel Teachers’ Union Yaffe Ben-David are scheduled to meet on Sunday to discuss the progress of remote learning. The parties will continue to talk in the coming days as further decisions are made about necessary restrictions across the country.
As of Saturday at 11 p.m., more than 304,030 people were infected across the world and over 12,977 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Rachel Wolf, Maayan Hoffman, Anna Ahronheim and Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report. •