Virtual Judaism

Synagogues closed but the things synagogues do have not disappeared.  Mine has had some communications that reinforce my pre-coronavirus impression of mediocrity.  Didn't attend parsha and pizza before.  my convenient excuse was that I don't want to shlep there on Wednesday evenings but the real reason is that I am content reading the four learned commentators whose presentations I review without fail on Thursday.  Never been to our Rabbi's presentation.  Maybe I should have tried it out.  Looking at shabbos online, I never attended Kabbalat Shabbat there before and have no idea why they need a Hazzan from a hundred miles away to conduct it, or to do Havdalah the next day.  If I weren't a congregant, my thought would be doesn't the Rabbi have the capacity to do that without assistance?  Having been there, it's not a definite yes but perhaps should be.

I go because I like the people, not because I like the insights that are imparted from pulpit or bimah.  No people, no desire on my part to choose my own congregation over another.  I would skip shabbat periodically because I did not want to be there.  A minor remorse would appear but subside by Havdalah.  Unavailability has remedied the remorse.

As worship and learning no longer are dependent on site, reports are starting to emerge on attendance increasing, becoming more diverse, and including a fair number on non-Jews, mostly curious people but a few malicious types intent on disruption.  Eventually coronavirus restrictions will run their course.  Will the synagogues be more inviting or less.  At the moment mine registers as less.