Our Jewish Community After COVID

Over the last six months we have all been divided into two categories. One group has been feeling the heat, while the other has been surprised by the first group. The COVID-19 crisis has, over the course of months, brought to the forefront surprising and deep social divides.

Some are living through this pandemic in an uncompromising lockdown, rarely leaving their homes, while others have returned to close-to pre- COVID-19 life, going to stores, having friends over, and living quite care- free.

This division is not created exclusively by our safety practices but runs deeper. Each side feels confused and baffled by the decisions of the other. Empathy is neither realistic nor fair in the current social climate.

So where does this leave us? What will our Bein Adam Lechavero look like in a post COVID-19 world?

As much as this pandemic has impacted our physical wellbeing, how will it impact our community in the future? How do we repair the divisions that have been created?

Perhaps some ideas from the Torah can offer insight, and encouragement for these tough times.

On the first morning of Rosh Hashanah we read about the exile of Avraham’s oldest son, Yishmael. Haggar, Yishmael’s mother, is an unusual character, who should receive the sympathy of the Sages, like Ruth does. Yet, she is ultimately viewed as an underwhelming, and a disappointing character. Both Ruth and Haggar reject their past (Ruth was born a Moabite, Haggar an Egyptian Princess), to commit themselves to the Abrahamic tradition. According to some, Haggar remains loyal to Avraham long after her exile, even possibly remarrying after Sarah’s death.

When Avraham exiles Haggar & Yishmael, he wakes up early (a prototype of the Akeidah?), provides them with a flask of water and sends them into the desert. The situation spirals out of control. Haggar and her child are lost, they finish their last drops of water, “and she cast[s] the child under one of the shrubs,” (Genesis 21:15) to perish of thirst.

The child cries and God listens, and sends an Angel to intervene. Haggar hears the angel:

If we met an Angel we would be stunned but not Haggar. The Midrash Bereishit Rabba 45:7 points out that Manoach, the father of Shimshon, is overwhelmed at meeting an Angel, whereas Haggar, who interacts with Angels on four separate occasions, is not moved by her spiritual encounters. Rashi (Genesis 16:13), explaining Haggar’s nonchalance towards the Divine, comments that Angels were frequents guests in Avraham’s home and therefore they were an unremarkable occurrence for her.

This brings us to our initial observation on the circumstances we find ourselves in. It may be obvious but is important nevertheless to state, our environment defines our attitude. For Haggar, conversations with an Angel were unremarkable; for Manoach, it was a stunning event. The more we work to see each other’s context, the more we will understand the decisions others make. For many who have been living with uncompromising social distancing, what is normal right now is very different than those who have returned to relatively normal engagements and practices. Our contexts also impacts the magnitude of our decisions. A deeper understanding of the assumptions we all live with will enable us to achieve much more as we slowly begin to reconnect with each other (it will also enable us to be sensitive to the diverse needs of others during these highly charged times).

In as much as recognizing the differences in our environments will start the process of reconnecting, understanding alone will not heal the divisions we are feeling. So how do we build going forward?

On Motzei Shabbat Shuvav, the Pikesville Jewish Congregation will be studying together the Book of Daniel. While the connection to the High Holidays may not be obvious, the messages of this epic under-studied tale are deeply relevant to these awesome days. The Book of Daniel is about vulnerability, arrogance, and prayer - all important themes to reflect upon.

In chapter 3 of the story, the famous King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, builds a massive statue, 60 Amot* high and six Amot wide. The purpose of this statue was to gather the nations of the world in fealty to the most powerful ruler of the time, Nebuchadnezzar. People from all across the globe came to pay homage to this powerful man, Nebuchadnezzar.

It is worth noting that in 2019 Kanye West paid tribute to Nebuchadnezzar through creating a musical bearing the monarch’s name. The New York Times reviewed West’s production after its November 2019 performance at the Hollywood Bowl and saw West’s own struggles with faith and self perception in his Opera, much like the ancient King (though Kanye at the time thought himself more a Daniel than Nebuchadnezzar - maybe his connection with the King came later with his Presidential campaign).

It is also worth noting that Kanye was not the first artist to pay homage to Nebuchadnezzar. In 1841 Guiseppe Verde produced a 4 part Opera titled Nabuccoix, which offered a tribute to the King who thought he was a God. There is something intriguing about the longest reigning King of Babylon that captured the imagination of the artists of his time and beyond. His large statute reflects his large and continued impact upon the nations of the world, even until today.

Nebuchadnezzar faced a challenge. Peoples of the world were gathering at his command, to worship at the foot of the 13-story high idol but he was seeking sincerity on their part. The problem he faced was not one he could solve with instructions or the spoken word but one that required feeling, emotion and sincerity by those he had called to worship:

The command was not simply to worship but to listen to the band, hear the music, and be spiritually moved. Nebuchadnezzar understood that people of different cultures (‘nations of every language’), and interests can be brought together using music. The nations of the world will fall to the ground in worship if they just had an effective kumzitz.

In the 2003 movie School of Rock, Mr. Schneebly, a substitute school teacher masterfully played by Jack Black, wins over his students in his class through his passion for music. After he creates a school band, he invites its members, his students, to repeat the following after him:

Nebuchadnezzar is a student of Mr. Schneebly.

He understands that what was most advantageous to solidifying his leadership, was to unify the nations of the world through music and artistic expression. The world would now defer to Nebuchadnezzar on all issues political and cultural.

In a 2015 scholarly article, ‘Music and language: Relations and disconnections’, shared in the Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Nina Kruas of Northwestern U. and Jessica Slater of McGill U., discuss the neurological impact of music. They theorize that the impact of language is different from music in that language offers us greater opportunity to share specific information while music offers us the tools to share specific feelings:

This year we all come into Rosh Hashanah with concerns, requests, and aspirations for the year ahead. We each come having experienced the last 6 months separated from each other, carrying with us different feelings and experiences. Through understanding that we have been living divergent lives, and recognizing that it is not dialogue that will bring us together but rather song and spiritual experience, we pray that we will, together, have a year of good health, prosperity and unity.

*An ancient Hebrew unit of length which belongs to the cubit family of units, ones based on the distance from the human elbow to the fingertips. Ammāh is usually translated into English as cubit. = 6 tophach. The most probable value is 444 millimeters (17.47 inches), although many scholars prefer 450 mm.

**Kraus, Nina & Slater, Jessica. (2015). Music and language: Relations and disconnections. Handbook of clinical neurology. 129C. 207-222. .B978-0-444-62630-1.00012-3/10.1016