Rabbi Daniel Alter’s article (“The Future of Our Shuls Post-Pandemic,” December 3, 2020) brought to light many issues and opportunities that shuls will have to deal with when we all return to indoor davening.

I need to take issue with his question “Does every individual who gets an aliyah need a mi sheberach?” My one word answer is yes. For years, our shul would say two mi sheberachs. One for the person who received the aliyah and one for his family (with saying names of all family members). We felt that focusing on the davening, but keeping an eye on the length of davening was also important. So, we combined the two mi sheberachs into one (not reciting names of all family members). It is important to many that they and their families are blessed. Another reason we make the mi sheberach is because it is important to give tzedaka. The tzedaka given helps both our shul and the charities it supports and fulfills that person’s mitzvah for giving tzedaka.

To his comment about the mi sheberach for cholim, we announce that when the gabbai pauses, insert the names of those needing a refuah sheleima. We do not read a list of names. We established a tehillim list and a tehillim group to say tehillim for those needing a refuah sheleima.