Simchat Torah in Stereo Plus

Eleven years ago I didn't celebrate Simchat Torah. It was the Jewish year 5770 I had rushed to New York to bring my elderly father to Israel. The holidays fell like this one, 5781, with Succot beginning on Shabbat and Simchat Torah the following Shabbat in Israel and Sunday in New York. I kept thinking of that crazy time yesterday as I could simultaneously hear the prayers of two, and sometimes three different outdoor prayer groups near my house. Yes, stereo plus.

Perched in my "private row of seats" by my front door I could usually hear most words very clearly from the outdoor minyan (prayer group) in the park across the street and the sounds of the prayers from where our neighborhood synagogue was praying behind our house. Sitting in our livingroom I could hear much of the prayers across the street and sometimes even some of the praying even further away.

But the stereo plus, three different outdoor prayer prayer groups could be heard very clearly when I went to hear the Yizkor* prayer behind my house. The Yemenite minyan was praying outside on the other side of our synagogue building very loudly. So I heard them, our prayer leader and the prayers from the park. 

Simchat Torah was full of songs and prayers in the air.

Our neighborhood has so many outdoor prayer groups; it's amazing. I think that more people are praying together than ever before. We're in lockdown, so few people have to rush to work or school. I really enjoy that the sounds of prayers fill my house.

We have turned life of lemons into lemonade.

*Yizkor is the prayer said for the dead on certain Jewish Holidays.