Covid 19 is a physical and spiritual challenge to us all. At a Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, March 16th, with recommendations from the CDC and health experts in mind, the Board of Trustees voted to close our Temple Beth Shalom campus to all non-essential activity until April 30th. We will have no in-person events, activities or meetings on campus or off campus. Please contact our staff first for permission to visit the campus. No one should make non-essential visits to our campus. Our staff will have limited office hours as the situation permits, and be available by phone (772-569-4700) and internet (rabbi@tbsvero.org, tbsoffice@tbsvero.org; cantor@tbsvero.org).

Our community is not stopping or going on hiatus. Worship Services and other Jewish experiences will be shared through the internet. We need all to be aware of email updates as we create pathways for virtually gathering and sharing and, we need volunteers to help with phone trees and outreach.

We might not be able to gather for Shabbat services in person – so we stream them online. We might not be able to have a community seder, so we have a video conference Seder. Where there is a will, chutzpah and creativity, there is a way.

Covid 19 is challenging on so many levels. The Second Temple is said to have been destroyed by senseless hatred (people losing patience and carrying petty hurts) in the midst of great social stress. This is our time to live out the values of choosing life and blessing over curse and death. This impacts us far beyond our Temple Beth Shalom community, but how we exert some energy in this sphere of our lives will impact many folks as we struggle through this situation. We need all to be aware of email updates as we create pathways for virtually gathering and sharing and, we need volunteers to help with phone trees and outreach. Our people have escaped slavery and survived genocide, we have walked to new lands and dynamically evolved through great collapses. Our history is full of finding the tiniest remnant of life and energy, and rebounding and rebranding the community into something even greater. The challenge is still unfolding around us at this very moment. Even as the world changes in that instant, let us commit to working together, with energy, love and creativity to bring some Shalom to our world, our community, our congregation and ourselves.

Rabbi Michael Birnholz and the Temple Beth Shalom Board of Trustees