Patty’s plan for the day — cast worries aside and play in the yard with Robert

By Patty Lewis
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I find myself checking the calendar these days to try to fix my place in time. But I guess time loses its meaning as this Covid-19 has really messed up the days and months in our lives.

Every evening, Ralph wants to know my plan for the next day.

Sometimes I tell him I think I will take a long trip and I will be back when this is over.

Of course, I know my family needs me here and we have no idea when our predicament will end. We just live day by day and stay home until it’s necessary to go out.

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Try Daf Yomi with Betsy and discover a page of Talmud a day

By Betsy Frank
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f you’re looking for a sustaining project you can tackle one day at a time, I’d like to suggest joining me for Daf Yomi, a culturally enriching scholarly exercise where Jews all over the world study a page of Talmud a day.

January 5, 2020, began the latest 7 1/2-year cycle of Daf Yomi, which myjewishlearning.com describes as “the longest-running Jewish book club“.

Rabbi Meir Shapiro founded the movement in 1923 in Poland. The Talmud’s 37 volumes take 7 1/2 years to read on a page-a-day schedule, placing us in the 14th repeating cycle of Daf Yomi.

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UHC’s first virtual seder closes with the promise, ‘Next year in Terre Haute!’

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UHC has long found quiet distinction among small congregations by steadfastly continuing its tradition of Friday night Shabbat services, even as others fall by the wayside.

The congregation typically draws a minyan, if not better, on Shabbat, and monthly visits from the student rabbi inspire even better turnout (along with challah and pastry bakers motivated to share their handiwork at the oneg.)

COVID-19 social distancing precautions threatened to to interrupt that commitment — and did, for a single week as UHC canceled its scheduled March 20 service.

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At this year’s Passover seder, we are all the son who does not know how to ask

By Student Rabbi Remy Liverman
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As we begin the Hebrew month of Nisan and prepare to celebrate Passover, never before has a discussion about plagues and a deep cleaning of our homes felt more relevant.

These strange and challenging times of COVID-19 would seem to take precedence over holidays. But there is so much we can learn from the seder, both in ritual and narrative.

We ask the Four Questions in Ma Nishtana: “Why is this night different from all other nights?”

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