1.
On Saturday morning, I wrapped myself in a tallit and was about to leave for our street minyan. The forecasters were talking about an especially hot weekend, and I suddenly remembered how on Passover Eve, in the first days of the coronavirus, I had longed for the Messiah to come. There was a kind of special feeling in the air. Suddenly, all of humanity is filled with humility and realizes that it does not run the world, the greatest powers raise their eyes to the sky, the universe has stopped. You smell the Messiah more than any peddler's powder. Just a few more prayers and good deeds and he is here.
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A few months later, at the beginning of the second wave, I prayed less for the coming of the Messiah. Let it be clear: I believe, of course, with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah, but my prayers focused on the fact that we will finally be able to return to normal. Enough. We got the point. We learned the lesson. And now, please, let the weddings, family gatherings, vacations, and school resume. Let us stop wearing this stinking mask, let the fog in our glasses stop, soon in our days, Amen!
And then those prayers also passed. The bar continued to drop. Last Saturday morning, I found myself just before dawn raising my eyes to the sky and asking for only one thing: Lord of the universe, God of the spirits, make it not too hot in the next hour and a half, it's hard for me with the tallit and mask in this July-August heat.
2.
The next day, Sunday, we set off for almost a week of heat and humidity. Yes, this phase of the coronavirus had arrived too. After the Seder, and the seventh of Pesach, and Lag BaOmer, and Shavuot, and Tisha B'Av, we reached the time in the calendar when they used to go north. Look, even in the pre-corona era, when oppressive masks were a thing for operating room staff - even in those days, going on a trip was a challenging thing for me.
I have already expounded here in detail in the past my thesis that if at the height of summer you have the privilege of sitting on a sofa in a hotel or a B&B in front of the air conditioner - what could be more perfect than that? God forbid you desecrate this wonderful moment. And there is no reason for it. The stream that is worth getting up from the air-conditioned sofa for has not been born.
I know not everyone thinks like me. My wife, for example, grew up and was raised in a traveling family, but with a little respect and mutual consideration, we can get through the challenges of summer peacefully. Maybe we should make a reality series like this ('We'll Travel Again'?) that follows the conflicts within families, between those who love to travel and those who love air conditioning.
I would be happy to participate in it as a mentor. We must not let the gaping abyss, that is, the blooming valley, harm family ties. With a little sensitivity and inclusion, we can move the traveling part of the family from sunrise trips in the Judean Desert to attractions of the kind that I have been calling for years "a chocolate workshop on the gallows." What does that mean? It means that I don't care where we go - the gallows in Acre prison, the chocolate workshop in the Upper Galilee or Elijah's Cave in Haifa - the main thing is that there is shade.
3.
But of course, the coronavirus has played havoc in this area as well. First of all, most of the sites are closed. So on the one hand, you have nothing left to do on your free time but sink into that couch in front of the air conditioner at 16 degrees. On the other hand, even staying at the hotel becomes a kind of difficult task. For example, in order to know how to divide the hundreds of hotel guests for breakfast into small groups, the reception asks you to let them know the night before what time they estimate you will arrive for breakfast.
In my opinion, this is a question that does not and cannot have an answer. Who can know in advance what time their teenage children will get up on vacation? Draw.
The second challenge at the hotel is the breakfast itself. According to the Ministry of Health's instructions, it is forbidden to open a bar in the dining room. You receive your breakfast in small, closed boxes. That is, not only do the guests sit in capsules in the dining room, but the food also sits in capsules: a box with yellow cheese, a box with tuna, a box with olives, and so on.
Since the day the coronavirus hit, the taste of the buffet has been lost to the world. It may be good for a diet, because you don't go back to the bar again and again and load up, but breakfast in a hotel without standing in line for an omelet and giving precise preparation instructions to the cook? Where are we coming from? You want to close schools, yeshivots, synagogues, fine; but close the buffet and the chocolate machine in the hotel dining room? That's it. That's already the bird of the soul. I'm telling you, if it continues like this on my next vacation, I'm going to the Hasidic hotel in Belz.
4.
And with all due respect to the challenges of the long holiday period under the Corona virus, the real challenge awaits us just around the corner, at the start of the school year. This week, the Day Care and Family Centers Division at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs issued a special circular to all local authorities.
The document begins with the following: "As part of the department's preparations for the opening of the 2019 school year and the economy's dealing with the coronavirus, the following is an update to the Ministry of Health and department guidelines. This update is intended to add to the outline for a full return to daycares and preschools.".
Well, here are the authorities' instructions on the matter: "Clarification regarding sections 3, 2, 6, and 4: When difficulty arises on the part of the toddler in separating from the parent, the parent may be allowed to enter the daycare classroom door based on the principle of 'parent leaving, parent entering,' while maintaining all Ministry of Health procedures, including the rules of the purple note and preventing gatherings.".
The Ministry of Social Affairs essentially gives parents two outlines: "Gradual adaptation - two options to choose from: A. In an open area - an area designated for adaptation can be demarcated and equipped in the yard or at the entrance to the daycare. In this area, a parent, educator-therapist and toddler will be allowed to stay, based on the principle of 'parent leaving, parent entering' and after making an appointment in advance and observing the rules of the purple sign, while preventing gatherings outside the daycare gate. B. Inside the daycare classroom/closed space - on the first day, each parent will be allowed to enter the daycare classroom for a predetermined period of time to adapt with the toddler, based on 'parent leaving, parent entering' and after making an appointment in advance, while maintaining a distance from the children and observing the purple sign." End quote.
So, where would you rather abandon your child crying, inside the daycare classroom or in an area designated for adaptation and crying that is equipped accordingly (packs of tissues?). Shlomo's verdict, version of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
5.
Then, at the end of the circular, comes a heartbreaking paragraph. It turns out that everything written up until this point only talks about the first day of school, September 1. And what happens next? "On the second and third days, a parent will be allowed to enter the daycare classroom, depending on the child/parent's needs and under the above restrictive conditions. Starting on the fourth day, a parent will not be allowed to enter the daycare classroom.".
Mom. Do you understand what's going to happen here? I think September 4th is going to be the day that Corona ends. The tears in all the kindergartens in the country will make a big impression in heaven and the Holy One, blessed be He, will say enough to our troubles.
I'm talking, of course, about the tears of the parents outside. The children calm down inside pretty quickly. Especially if the parents manage to overcome themselves and not be filled with pangs of conscience and feelings of guilt and stay in the nursery for the entire month of September. This year, thanks to the coronavirus, the Ministry of Labor and Welfare itself will help them release.
If I were to write this in an office circular, I would call it a 'parent enters, parent leaves, child cries a little, then calms down' outline.
• The column is published in the newspaper 'Bisheva''
