London: 21:06 Birmingham: 20:00 Sheffield: 21:18 Jerusalem: 19:08 London: 22:24 Birmingham: 22:39 Sheffield: 22:56 Jerusalem: 20:38 After three extremely challenging months, United Synagogue shuls will start to reopen this weekend. It has been a long wait.
I’ve particularly missed visiting United Synagogue communities which is one of the joys of my role and seeing how each of our shuls is unique yet shares the characteristics of being warm and welcoming to all.
I've missed the services, my friends, the kiddush. And in case my Rabbi is reading this – I’ve even missed his sermons.
The decision we took to close all the United Synagogues is one of the hardest we’ve ever taken. Coming together for prayer services is at the core of what our communities stand for and it has been extremely painful for us to keep our buildings closed. Nevertheless, it was the right thing to do in order to protect the health of our members, staff and volunteers.
It has also been a very challenging time for our members who have been deprived of their connection to their community because, in addition to being houses of prayer, our buildings are community centres.
We were therefore delighted to hear the government say that places of worship can reopen this weekend for communal prayer services. This will allow us to slowly and safely reopen our synagogues over the coming days and weeks.
In addition, in a COVID-secure and responsible way, we can carefully plan to restart aspects of our broader communal provision too.
I want to pay tribute to the whole United Synagogue team – rabbinic and lay, professionals and volunteers who have read and digested the government guidance and spent countless hours putting together thoughtful plans to enable our communities to reopen this weekend. I am deeply grateful.
Things will look very different on our return, and measures such as strict social distancing, hand sanitising, compulsory face coverings and a booking system will all be in place to keep each other safe. We remain committed to taking a cautious and steady approach to reopening as we get used to a new way of running our communities.
We also know that some members are still self-isolating and others don't yet feel comfortable to return to shul. Nobody should feel pressurised into coming.
Each of our communities will be restarting services at its own pace with safety as the priority and we will support each community every step of the way.
But for now, we cannot wait to open our doors and welcome people back to our shuls. If you’re able to, please join us.
And finally, the Chief Rabbi has recorded a special message which you can watch here.
Shabbat shalom,
Michael Goldstein President, United Synagogue This week, in honour of United Synagogue shuls starting to reopen, Rabbi Nicky Liss and Jo Grose have penned the following D'var Torah...
During the pandemic, we have been writing to Rabbis, Rebbetzens and Shul Chairs on behalf of the United Synagogue's Rabbinic Council and Communities Division with updates and guidelines to help our communities and members navigate the challenges of the lockdown.
More recently, and particularly following the government’s announcement last week, our communities’ outstanding leadership teams have been working with great dedication to enable our shuls to reopen safely.
During this time we have allowed ourselves to think about that precious moment of re-entering shul and fortunately, our sages have prepared the way for us. On entering a synagogue it is customary to say "Mah tovu ohalecha" – "How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel. As for me, in Your great lovingkindness, I will come into Your house".
The Talmud interprets “tents” and “dwelling places” as synagogues and houses of study, the vehicles of Jewish continuity through the generations. And as the footnote at the beginning of the Artscroll siddur says: "The Jewish home achieves its highest level when it incorporates the values of the synagogue and study hall. This collection of verses expresses love and reverence for the synagogue that, in the absence of the Holy Temple, is the place where Hashem’s glory resides among Israel."
Over the past three months we have had to reimagine our homes as our places of prayer and learning – not to mention our places of Zoom meetings, home schooling or self-isolation. It has been a challenging time.
So how extraordinarily moving it is that this very verse – "Mah tovu" – appears in this week’s sedra (Torah portion). When each of us is ready to return, let us embrace Hashem’s glory and say "Mah tovu" with a renewed and deep sense of love and emotion following this long hiatus.
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