Early this morning, on my car radio, I was listening to several interviews of people who had survived COVID, lost people to COVID, and still have medical issues because of COVID. It was very interesting, but then I got to work and unfortunately had to turn it off. As I was walking to my Pre-K classroom, I said to myself: “Unfortunately? Unfortunately? Are you serious? This is a bracha. The fact that I can go to work, be in my classroom with my children and coworkers, and continue to do what I’ve done for so many years is akin to a miracle and is truly a bracha!”

So many times over the past few months I’ve said to myself: “Our rabbis (and I include school principals in this group) saved our lives.” At first I was just thinking of our physical lives. When our rabbis closed the shuls and schools with such alacrity, we were shocked, and some people thought maybe they had gone too far. We quickly learned that they hadn’t, and seeing empty shuls was a sad and unfortunate necessity.

Then, after listening to shiur after shur, seeing dinners and concerts and even fundraisers online, I realized that our rabbis not only saved our physical lives, they saved our souls as well. We had gotten so used to having the topics that internalize our Judaism talked about by myriad rabbis in-person; once the pandemic hit, where was that going to come from? There was no need to worry—all we had to do was go on Facebook or YouTube or see what our shuls were offering, and there they were. In this way, the rabbis saved our communal selves as well. And they did a yeoman’s job of it.

I really love this community, but I can’t think of a time that I’ve been prouder to live in a place with such smart, sharp, caring, intuitive and deep thinking people with so much integrity.

I am so grateful to our rabbis and school principals for keeping us safe this past year. I’m envisioning a burst of celebration when we can be together even more.