Dear Friends,
Ansche Chesed’s weekday morning minyan has been a precious feature of our community for decades. Day in and day out, faithful davveners, kaddish-sayers, yahrzeit-markers, out-of-town guests, searching souls, and those seeking a partner for after-shul breakfast have found a warm home in our chapel.
The pandemic transformed the minyan, like everything else. Covid created a שעת הדחק/sha’at had’chak, an “emergency time” that called for an emergency measure. Since March 2020, we have constituted the minyan quorum of 10 by including those physically present as well as those visibly connecting over Zoom.
The emergency is over.
It is time to return to the venerable norm of constituting the minyan from those physically present together.
We know Covid itself has not vanished, and not everyone feels comfortable coming in person. We will continue to have a Zoom link to weekday morning minyan (and LiveStream on Shabbat, of course) so people can connect when they are sick, or immuno-compromised, or out of town, or when they face limited mobility. But our communal imperative is to return to constituting the minyan פנים אל פנים/panim el panim, face to face, even if some of those faces choose to remain masked.
I appreciate that this may take a little time to rebuild our strength, our behavior patterns, and our commitments. For the rest of December, things will proceed as they are now, with minyan constituted by both those in the room or on Zoom.
Then in 2023, let’s proceed in two steps:
Beginning Sunday, January 1, we will have in-person shaharit services on Sunday (8:30 am), Monday, Thursday, and Friday (7:30 am). Only those physically present will be counted toward the quorum of 10. We will continue to welcome others to connect remotely as we do now. During this time, we will continue to have Zoom-only services on Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 am.
Beginning Tuesday, February 21, which is Rosh Hodesh Adar, the Tuesday and Wednesday services will return fully in-person as well, counting those present toward the minyan, and welcoming others to connect remotely.
To all in the community who have joined morning minyan in the past – or who have always wanted to but never quite made it – please make a regular commitment to constituting the minyan, enabling fellow members to say kaddish and read the Torah. For some of you, it will be a couple of days per week, or once per week, or twice per month. We will be glad to see you every time.
We will soon introduce an electronic method for signing up, so we can keep track of who is planning to come and recruit enough for a minyan. Please keep your eyes open for this information.
Warmest wishes,
Jeremy
