כ''א אדר תש''פ
March 17, 2020
To the members of the Edison/Highland Park/East Brunswick community:
As the world deals with the difficult challenges presented by the novel coronavirus, we, the Rabonim of the community, have been in constant contact with each other, with major poskim, with medical professionals, and with public health officials. We are treating the crisis at hand with the utmost seriousness, and we ask you to join us in recognizing that we are currently in a true עת צר ה - a time of making extraordinarily painful sacrifices for the greater good, particularly in our religious lives. We therefore ask you to unite together with us in following the guidance and protocols many shuls have already laid out for their memberships, as outlined below.
It has become clear that it is no longer safe to congregate together in shul or otherwise. Based on the guidance of gedolei haposkim and infectious disease specialists, all of our shuls have suspended minyanim for the time being. We ask that the community understand how serious this decision is, and that it was not made lightly by any of the Rabonim of the Vaad. We strongly discourage the formation of any minyanim at this time - in shuls, in homes, or anywhere. We must buy into these measures and others together, without exception, in order to achieve the greatest good for the general welfare.
Guidance for Individuals:
• Home minyanim must not take place.
• Playdates between children, hosting Shabbos guests, and the like are strongly discouraged.
• No one should kiss mezuzos, siddurim, sifrei Torah, etc.
• Follow the advice of medical professionals with regard to hand-washing, disinfecting, traveling, and working from home.
Restaurants and Groceries:
• We recommend that customers only patronize restaurants by ordering to pick up or through delivery. Please support these establishments with your business at this difficult time.
• Please be conscious of your fellow community members when shopping and only purchase that which your family regularly requires.
Community Initiatives:
The current circumstances present a unique opportunity to perform acts of chessed with our fellow community members. The Vaad will be establishing two separate committees in order to provide support and assistance during this critical time.
1. Chessed – Many individuals in our community need assistance at this time with daily tasks, such as shopping for food and preparing for Pesach. Additionally, many are isolated due to their health condition. We are forming a chessed committee to identify and assist in these areas. If you are interesting in volunteering to be part of this, please contact Rabbi Gedaliah Jaffe at gedaliahjaffe@yahoo.com.
2. Emergency Parnasa Initiative (EPI) – Undoubtably, the current situation will affect the income of members in our community. We are setting up a committee that will identify specific needs and allocate the necessary support and funds to individuals. When there was a community-wide appeal in 2009, members responded with extreme generosity, and we were able to help both the unemployed and the underemployed with dignity. We hope that the community will respond similarly during this time of crisis. If you are interested in participating on this important committee, please contact Rabbi Gedaliah Jaffe at gedaliahjaffe@yahoo.com.
We are encouraging all the members of our community to participate in a Yom Tefilla, today March 17th at 1:30 pm. Please join Klal Yisrael at this time in reciting the following chapters of Tehillim: 91, 120, 121, and 130. There is a yehi ratzon that is said as well, and it can be found on the attachment to this letter. Additionally, we are organizing a Tefilla and Chizuk event specifically for our community this upcoming Sunday, March 22nd; please look out for more details in the next few days.
Being deprived of the opportunity to daven in our shuls should serve as reminder of how important our tefilla is to us. Let us use our tefillos at home to daven with a little more kavana than usual, as we ask Hashem to remove this outbreak from the world so we can serve him to our fullest capacity and resume Torah and tefilla b’tzibur in the immediate future.
Even if we cannot be together proximately for now, let this time be one of tremendous unity in safeguarding the religious and social sacrifices we are being asked to make, however painful. Let us reach out to each other and offer our support so that we can get through this difficult time together as one. And may HaShem swiftly bring us back to normal and send health and wellbeing to the entire world.
The Vaad HaRabonim of Raritan Valley