Dear Kol Rinah Family,
“Pikuach nefesh docheh et Shabbat—Saving a life takes precedence over Shabbat.” With this principle in mind, Kol Rinah is cancelling all services for this Shabbat, including services Friday night, Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon/evening, including Brotherhood Shabbat and Rhythm ‘n’ Ruach.
We will resume minyan as usual Sunday morning in the chapel. However for the immediate coming days, there will be no breakfast or gatherings after minyan, and we ask people from minyan not to go into the Sara Myers Community Room.
Sunday’s Kolot Atidenu program at 2pm will occur as a video conference call, with details for how to connect to be sent out soon.
Monday, because of electrical work being done by Ameren, the entire building (including the Kol Rinah Early Childhood Center) will be shut down, although minyan will continue as scheduled.
Kol Rinah’s Early Childhood Center, which provides a critical function for our families, will remain open today and reopen Tuesday, unless we receive recommendations to close.
We have not made any decisions about next Shabbat, or for how long these measures will be in place.
These decisions are coming only from a general concerns about Covid-19, and particularly the danger it poses to older people and people with respiratory issues. As far as we know, we do not have anyone in our wide community who has tested positive, but we are also aware that testing has been limited.
Candle lighting tonight is at 6:48pm. Shabbat ends at 7:47pm. Services are not happening, but we encourage you to pray on your own, to study Torah on your own, and indeed to have a Shabbat shalom. If you have specific questions or concerns, feel free to call or email any of us.
Please look at our congregant Rabbi Tracy Nathan’s beautiful d’var Torah in this week’s St. Louis Jewish Light, available here.
If you have specific concerns, St. Louis County’s Covid-19 Hotline is 314-615-2660, and we encourage you to consult the websites below for more information.
LOCAL INFORMATION: https://stlouisco.com/Your-Government/County-Executive/COVID-19
CDC COVID-19 General Information: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
As we prepare to enter Shabbat, may the words of poet Lynn Ungar inspire us:
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love–
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
–Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
Finally, we offer the following prayer, by an unknown author, as we remember how this pandemic is affecting people differently around our nation and our world.
May we who are merely inconvienced remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home remember those who must choose between
preserving their health or making the rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips remember those who have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country, let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other, let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbor.
Shabbat shalom, and we wish we could see you in shul,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
Rabbi Scott Shafrin
Randi Mozenter, President
Sherri Sadon, Board Chair
Barbara Shamir, Executive Director |
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