May/June 2020
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May/June 2020 While we pause to stop the spread of Covid-19… Join us in a variety of ways to continue to study, pray, question, share, sing and stay connected with your Larchmont Temple Family. Go to www.larchmonttemple.org to engage. Watch for our Friday email for regular updates. 1 Larchmont Temple your own bla 75 Larchmont Avenue, Larchmont, NY 10538 FROM THE PRESIDENT 914-834-6120; FAX: 914-834-6503 www.Larchmonttemple.org The house is quiet, although all four of us are here. My older a member of the Union for Reform Judaism daughter cannot go back to college. My younger daughter is JEFFREY J. SIRKMAN Rabbi engaged in remote learning from MHS. My husband and I are LEORA FRANKEL working from home - every single day. I treasure that time Associate Rabbi together that we never had before, but it is muted by our TRACEY SCHER Cantor sorrow and only occasionally do we find time for a board game RABBI EVE RUDIN or movie. Director of Education, Youth & Families MIA KARGEN Co-Directors of Early Childhood The silence consumes me as I think about why it is so quiet. JANE SABLE-FRIEDMAN Executive Director FREDDA MENDELSON I try to distract myself with work and that ever illusive search for paper goods or Cantor Emerita masks. Everyone is in a separate corner of the house. I refer to it as “the four H. LEONARD POLLERz’l Rabbi Emeritus corners defense”. Why do we self-isolate from each other even in our State EDWARD GRAHAMz’l imposed isolation? It hurts too much to talk about it. I immerse myself in the Cantor Emeritus sunshine blazing through the windows. BOARD OF TRUSTEES STACEY CHERVIN SIGDA I take a break from my thoughts in order to jump on another LT COVID-19 Task President HARRI TARANTO Force call. The Governor may be making an announcement this week. What do we Honorary President need to do to protect our clergy and congregants? The conclusion to each of these MICHAEL NATHAN Executive Vice President meetings inevitably is to increase the physical distance between us and lock the MARTHA STEINMAN door of the synagogue building tighter. And then, as predicted, the Governor 1st Vice President extends the stay-at-home order. It is wholly expected and justified, but it still JEFFREY WANG 2nd Vice President crushes that tiny morsel of hope to be with you all again. ROBERT ROTHMAN Financial Vice President KAREN ZIMMERMAN At Friday night services, I feel like a kid in a candy store. All of those familiar names Treasurer on FB attending the service remotely like the service itself that is held from Rabbi STEVE LEHMAN Administrative Secretary Sirkman’s and Cantor Scher’s respective homes. Each time a name pops up with a comment “Shabbat Shalom” or “beautiful service”, I can hear your voices uttering JON BIRGER JOHN BORDEN those phrases and want to hug you back “Shabbat Shalom”. I write comments and JORDANA DAVIS MICHAEL FINEBERG personally message anyone I can see is attending the service. It is social. It is MARTHA FRIEDLAND distant. DAVID KAHN JENNIFER PERKINS STEWART ROSS JILL SARKOZI Seeing your faces on the Second Seder zoom was a miracle. Evidence that our CAROL SCHEFFLER community is strong and connected particularly when we need that closeness to TOBY SKLAREW RANDI SPATZ help us cope. Trustees LARRY GUTTERMAN I miss each and everyone of you with whom I feel so close despite the distance. I Brotherhood President MICHELE METSCH miss the zaniness, arguments and giggles in my home. I miss it all. JOHANNA SNYDER Youth Education Committee Chairs I long for our community’s physical presence together and yearn to return to a ELEISE JONES SELINA WAGOWSKI time when we can go back to bump elbows even if we cannot shake hands. But …. LTNS Parent Association Co- Chairs until that day when we can hug and kiss and touch not just spiritually but Thank you for submitting by the 1st of each physically, that is what I dream of most deeply. month to [email protected] Cynthia Weissman, Editor/Designer Linda Price, Proofreader Be safe, Be well. Hug someone in your home. Maybe even a pet or stuffed animal. You are not alone. Stacey Chervin-Sigda, President 2 New York Times, April 9, 2020 the fog that took over, that I wasn’t eating or drinking For 12 Days a Doctor Lived with Burning Lungs much. ven rearming an already reared meal By Charles L. Schleien became a maor chore. I lie on a stretcher, thinking of my to sons. hey are both healthy, in hiladelphia and anhattan. Seven or 12 days lived ith burning lungs, malaise, no months before, e suffered through the death of their apetite and little gusto for life. ne night, my oygen mother — my ife of 7 years. She anted to live so saturation dipped. he net morning, called my badly. fter an 8-month battle ith cancer, she left us. colleaues for help. An ambulance arrived. e drove from my home in e ochelle, .Y., to orth Shore The three of us have otten closer since her death, but I University osital in anhasset. kno I am no relacement. fter 12 days of living ith the coronavirus, admitted myself to the Emerency The infectious disease doctor ordered a lung T scan, Deartment. and the results shoed severe, bilateral disease. ying there, thinking about my future or lack of one, made I kno too much about this illness. kno that my three phone calls. called both of my sons searately, to oygen saturation lummeting the night before is a sign tell them how sick I’ve become, what the doctors and I of advanced pulmonary disease ith ovid-19 infection. were worried about. I couldn’t guarantee them that kno that might need a mechanical ventilator — I have ould live through the eekend. he third call made is given this theray to strangers hundreds of times. to my close friend, a ersonal attorney, to ensure that everything ould be in order if died. On arch , the pandemic still seemed far aay. obody had otten ill yet. attended the last lare emerency That afternoon, stabilized ith no further deradation manaement system meeting of the Northell health of my oygen saturation levels. n oygen, felt more system in anhasset, .Y., here e discussed suply secure in my breathing. I remained on oygen and as procurement and ersonnel coverae for the coming transferred to a “Covid floor” where I stayed for six days. pandemic. drove back to my office in the Cohen I bean to enoy my surroundings. y lungs started to Children’s Medical Center in nearby New Hyde Park. burn less, and my cough subsided. That afternoon, met tice ith a roup of colleaues. My caretakers ere amaing, though I don’t know what as feeling so cold. ver the net hour, became colder any of them look like; they ere alays masked hen I ith shaky chills. y assistant, ho is like a big sister to sa them. am indebted to the nurses ho helped me, me, told me to o home immediately. drove home, allowing me to feel like a real erson and maintain some febrile and achy. slet for 15 hours. dignity. The net morning, still feeling fluish, as tested at an I have been home no for 13 days. ach day I feel a little urent care center. he results returned positive that bit stronger and more like myself. y youngest son is afternoon. staying and cooking for me and e aceime ith my older son in hiladelphia every day. eath has never felt As a 6-year-old, kne the mortality risks. n riday, I so close and so far aay in the same breath. as taken over by coronavirus malaise. alaise is a term used by health care workers, but I didn’t fully understand Charles L. Schleien is the Philip anzkosky rofessor and chair it until eerienced it in my body. alaise forces you of ediatrics at the Barbara & Donald Zucker School of onto the couch or bed, tells you you’re not hungry. The edicine of ofstraNorthell and senior vice resident of Pediatric Services and Cohen Children’s Medical Center. idea of cooking became overhelming. lost interest in even cleaning up. I am fortunate to have so many close friends and relatives in the area. heir tets and hone calls ere a lifeline. edically, kne there as no reason to o to the hosital. y vital signs and oygen levels ere fine. monitored myself a fe times a day, but did realize, in 3 FROM RABBI JEFFREY SIRKMAN Suffering, for Your Sake? Rabbi Levi Yitschak of Berditchev, 18th century Hasidic master was unique. He sought neither to create for himself an academy nor to surround himself with disciples. Rather, he spent his days on the pathways of life with the people. His contemporaries, Rabbis of renown, knew there was none like him. “Shneur Zalmen remarked: “God is our Tsadik up there, and Levi-Yitschak is God’s Tsadik down here.” The Kotzker Rebbe once admitted, “The gates to God’s Sanctuary of Love have been opened by Levi-Yitschak.” As Elie Wiesel understood, ‘Though a friend to all, he belonged to no clan. He founded no dynasty. The house he built, he carried inside.’ [Souls on Fire, pg 911] The story is told that one Passover Eve, overwhelmed by the suffering of so many, he burst out at the start of Seder, pleading: “Tonight we celebrate our Exodus from Egypt. According to tradition, four children question their father on the meaning of the event.