Wow, has it really been 4 years since I posted here? Four years ago feels like a lifetime. We survived two more years of the Trump administration, but that mess's fallout is still on the news every evening. Not all of us survived the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which I guess is still going on, but they don't post the death count on the evening news anymore. After 6.6 million worldwide and just over a million here in the US, many of us lost someone we knew. At a minimum, you know someone who had it if you didn't have it yourself.
The Conservative movement of Judaism (we really need a better name) pivoted relatively quickly to allow remote minyanim via Zoom, Skype, or the similar (I haven't seen a Teams minyan yet). My synagogue, as well as many others, started broadcasting Shabbat services each week. I think the shul in Birmingham actually streams every service, including the two weekday minyan services. Now that things are settling down and mask mandates are lifting, I hope things will get back to somewhat normal soon, but it will never be the same.
I think our daily minyan now has more regular participants than ever. Logging in for 20-30 minutes is more attractive to our older retired minyanaires than driving to shul in all kinds of weather twice a day. So if there needs to be a silver lining, I guess that is one.
Last night we lit the 8th candle for Hanukkah. The secular year is slowly wrapping up. Things have changed a lot for me professionally, and I can help the synagogue more financially than before. I am about to go drop two years of membership dues on them when the office opens.
I have a lot more going on that I want to post about but I'm still a little shocked it has been over 4 years since my last post.
