2nd day Rosh HaShanah 2020: "The 7:00 p.m. Shofar"
Do you remember -- back in March? Yes, I know it seems like several years ago. Way back when in March, when the health crisis was so abominable in this area, people in various New York neighborhoods, and here in Hoboken, started an apparently spontaneous practice of stopping whatever they were doing at 7pm each night and applauding for health care workers. Apparently this practice started near hospitals where shifts tend to change around 7pm, so such a salute could be heard by health care workers as they left or arrived at the hospital. We clapped and cheered, some of us used other homemade materials to make noise, generating a brief daily feeling of togetherness and solidarity. A few days after this practice started, I got a question from someone in our congregation, a question of Jewish law: "In the file of questions I never thought I’d need to ask my rabbi... in the event of a global pandemic and a community’s desire to honor first responders by making lots of noise, wo