Finally, after a year of not going to shul, I have been back for each of the past two Shabbat mornings. Although I had received my second dose of the Pfizer vaccine against COVID-19 in January, my wife received her second dose the other week, causing her to feel comfortable allowing me to return to shul.
At the outset of the pandemic, when we were staying at home for the first month or so, it seemed that everything would go back to normal fairly quickly. However, spring ran into summer; summer into fall; and it was strange not attending shul at all for any of the fall holidays. Fall then led into winter and winter now transitioning into spring. It has been a whole year (the last Shabbat I had attended shul was March 7th (although I also attended shul for Purim on March 10th)).
One of the things that I greatly enjoyed from this past year has been all of the reading time. It was delightful to get so much reading in on Shabbat mornings (and afternoons), which became a pleasant activity on Shabbat mornings during the pandemic.
However, now it's time for me to give up that year-long break from going to shul and getting to spend time reading and with my family. One of the strange things about going to shul now is that I did not bring kids. Pre-pandemic, I would bring all four children to shul and then have them go to groups or they would play with their friends. Now, they just remain at home. So that is something that is strange, although we shall see how things play out.
Whereas there would be a lot of schmoozing in shul pre-pandemic, in my return to shul, with us physically distanced, it is a lot more difficult to easily schmooze with others. Of course, a huge difference is that the men's section has taken up a lot more space than the women's side and there are very few women who attend on a Saturday morning. Another difference is that they have moved the rabbi's speech to after services to permit the services to take place fairly quickly. Also, it is strange to attend shul and not have kiddush.
However, one member has been doing, for some time now, a kiddush out on his front lawn outdoors. While I was very tempted in the past year to attend, it did not make sense that I would go to where people would be unmasking to eat and drink, while not attending shul where people would be masked-up. However, with my return to shul, it made sense to celebrate my return to shul each of these past two Shabbats, especially now that I am vaccinated.
Having attended this kiddush these past two Shabbats, it has been a wonderful way to begin to transition back into public Shabbat life, with a handful of tasty spirits, which were great, and some delicious foods. This has been a really wonderful opportunity in this transition time. It is something new for me, as I have refrained from drinking on Saturdays for the past year and it is definitely different now that I have attended this kiddush for the last couple of weeks.
That was certainly a wonderful way to sort of reintegrate back into somewhat of a normal life as we transition out of this pandemic. Certainly for me, beyond simply returning to shul, which was nice in and of itself, it was also wonderful to schmooze,eat, and drink with fellow Jews on Shabbat.
Of course, we have Passover coming up, which will be interesting, but I am looking forward to this new beginning to the transitioning out of pandemic life, and returning to shul (and more kiddushes).
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