Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Bill Tepper

When was the last time…? Sharing your pandemic stories

During a recent ZOOM gathering with friends, we found ourselves hard-pressed to engage in any other topic than how COVID 19 has impacted our lives. Try as we might, our digression into movies, television, politics, and family life always seemed to circle back to the pandemic: vaccines, masks, testing, quarantines, and lockdowns. There was no escaping the subject.

That the pandemic has changed our lives is an understatement of vast proportions.   When was the last time we shook hands, engaged freely in hugs, and both offered and received pats on the back?   When was the last time we enjoyed restaurants, cinemas, live theatre, dance, and music, or visited a museum or art gallery? When was the last we shopped without first having to stand outdoors in line? When was the last time we undertook to travel, either internationally or within Canada? And when was the last time we left our homes without protective face masks?

All of the foregoing being understood, Holy Blossom invites you to share your pandemic story. By way of our weekly online bulletins, we offer a portal through which you may recount one or more of the ways that COVID has affected and changed your life. Your story need be no longer than a paragraph or two and may be edited for content and brevity. We hope you will view this as an opportunity for both expressing to and learning from others in our congregational community how this difficult transformation has affected our view of the world and one another – health-wise and otherwise. It’s also a wonderful way for us to stay connected and in support of one another.  And perhaps, we will come to appreciate – if we have not done so already – how there are aspects of daily living none of us will ever take for granted again.

Please send your pandemic story to us by emailing [email protected].