Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

There is nothing like gathering in shul celebrating Jewish life with hundreds of people on a Shabbat and tens of people at a weekday service.

With the reality of Covid, we have been grateful to live at a time in history when the tools of social media have helped us connect in a virtual manner. For the most part, Zoom and Facebook have brought us together for weekday prayer, and livestream has brought us together for Shabbat prayer. 

Still, there is nothing like a shared physical presence with one another.

Some times, however, technology breaks down without warning or understanding on our part. Occasionally since Covid began, our Zoom or Facebook connection has faulted during weekday services. On the High Holy Days, the livestream audio had faulted for a brief time before it was rectified.

This past Shabbat, for inexplicable reasons, our livestream audio did not work. As a result, the davening and laining could not be heard. I feel bad for our Bimah participants, and I  feel bad for the approximately 100 households who tried to connect. Ironically, I debuted a new kind of mask with a transparency around my mouth designed for the hearing impaired to read my lips. 

Moving forward, we will have professionals check the audio and video aspects of our livestream before every Shabbat service and lifecycle celebration. I encourage everyone to join us again next Shabbat morning.

This past Shabbat was a reminder that technology is not perfect. Hopefully, such breakdowns as we experienced will happen very rarely if at all moving forward.

I wish us all safety and well being during these times.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Howard Morrison