The Shofar delivers news and comments once a month. And the editors certainly hope shul members enjoy catching up on local and global news from the world’s Jewish community. But in the time of coronavirus, some thoughtful people in our shul hoped to strengthen our connection to each other each week, with a column titled “Shul Schmooze,” delivered to members’ email inboxes, mostly on Thursdays. From the scuttlebutt we pick up over here at Shofar central, shul members are truly enjoying the weekly missives from members — music, art, poetry, cartoons, jokes and the hello-how-are-you messages that let all of us know what’s going on in our homes.

And now, making a good thing even gooder (yes, yes, we know…), the Shul Schmooze idea has gone virtual two days a week.  Mondays and Thursdays at noon, you can schmooze with shul members at a Zoom session called “Lunch and Learn.” Sometimes it’s chitchat; sometimes folks in our shul with particular expertise offer something for all of us to learn, and then there’s discussion, Q&A, and more chitchat. It’s instructive, it’s entertaining, it’s fun.

Our thanks to Judy Weiner and office assistant Andrea Blaga for the Shul Schmooze column. (And please email your contributions to Andrea at ctigreenport@gmail.com/.) And thanks to Rabbi Gadi for the Lunch and Learn idea to expand Shul Schmooze to all who want to Zoom at noon. Download the shul’s website, click on the “Shabbat services” item on the home page, and follow the prompts to the shul’s Zoom room. Come schmooze with us. Bring lunch.

Excerpted from the Shul Schmooze column

We ask you to indulge The Shofar’s appreciation for a poem by New York Times reader Joyce Bartlett, submitted to the Shul Schmooze column and reprinted here. As we huddle largely alone in our homes, away from our usual routines and those we know and love, the essence resonates.

 

May you find happiness in the small spaces. Joy in the staying put.

No highways. No office buildings. No crowded subways.

 

May you find peace in your own kitchen. May your four walls

Feel like a sanctuary. A haven from a noisy world.

 

May you take pleasure in a bad pun, a bowl of popcorn.

Laughing with the people closest to you. Patting the grateful dog. The clever cat.

 

May you discover the delight of writing letters on paper.

In baking cookies. In the birds visiting your early spring garden.

 

May you find yourself fully in the present moment. Where all of life

Is happening right now. And worries about the future don’t exist.

 

May you invent ways to help people who need you.

Because times like this were made to remind us that we are all the same.

 

Even as you wrap yourself in a blanket of solitude,

may you discover the secrets of the universe from your spot on the couch.

 

And…may you be so well loved that others will rejoice

when you are finally able to run into their arms again.