Dear all,
One of my earliest memories was from Kindergarten, when our cantor took the class on a behind the scenes tour of the sanctuary. The greatest part of the tour was learning the secret passage that the clergy used to magically appear on the Bimah.
And so …. I wanted to take the opportunity to show our community here a behind the scenes look at Shabbat during the pandemic.
It’s all in the photo above.
A ladder.
A computer (to broadcast via zoom).
Another computer (to monitor the livestream).
An iPad (to have the service outline and liturgy in front of me).
Pretty complicated. Pretty simple.
From this set up (and our cantor and other service leaders have similar set ups in their homes) we magically appear each Shabbat on our virtual Bimah.
None of us trained to lead services via zoom. But all of us trained to search our souls in order to teach, to reach, and to touch. And at this moment in time of our world, we use whatever tools we can to harness community to visualize hope!
With love and shalom,
Rabbi Zach Shapiro
