Sunday Virtual Jews

The wife of our Synagogue's cantor died over the weekend after a long, long illness.

One is supposed to sit Shiva after a death. This is basically a Jewish version of an Irish wake but with lesser quality alcohol. There's a brief sermon followed by Kadish, the Jewish prayer of mourning. We said it over our protestant mother's body (we'll explain in another post), and over our grandfather's. We know he would have liked that.

Of course the synagogue couldn't do any of this, so we held a virtual Shiva over Zoom. The cantor said the feeling of losing someone you love after years of suffering was...indescribable.

The man has always loved his work, and has a look of utter joy on his face when singing and playing his guitar at services, and even when sitting Shiva. He was the cantor at our previous synagogue, welcomed us with open arms, and played at our oldest daughter's baby naming ceremony. He's been helping with our girl's Hebrew education for years. Taking time to sit Shiva with him was the least we could do.