Kittavo. Be silent and listen. During our first coronavirus lockdown, there was one question I was asked more than any other. What about prayer?

Just when we needed it the most, we found ourselves unable to participate in Tfilob, butzibur, public communal prayer.

Our most sacred prayers, Dvarim Shebik Dusha, are communal. They require a

minion. There was an argument between Rambam and Rambun as to whether originally and essentially

the command of prayer was directed to individuals or to the community as a whole, but there was

no disagreement between them as to the importance and value

of praying as part of a community. That is supremely how we, as Jews, come before God,

not primarily I, but as we. So how then, during the pandemic, were we supposed to find

spiritual strength without this communal dimension?

My answer was, this is indeed a terrible privation. There's no point in minimizing the loss.

As Rabbi Yehuda Halavi said in the Khuzari, individual prayer is like protecting yourself by building a wall around your

house. Collective prayer is like joining with others to maintain a wall around the city. The wall around

the city protects everyone, not just me, besides which, when I pray for myself, I may pray

selfishly, asking for something

that may directly benefit me, but might also be harmful for others. If I sell ice cream,

I want the sun to shine, but if I sell umbrellas, I want the rain to fall. Praying together,

we seek not private good, but the common good. Communal prayer is not just an expression of community.

It's also a builder of community.

Hence the psychological cost of the pandemic lockdown.

We're social. We're not solitary beings.

We long most of us for company.

And even the marvels of Zoom, Skype, YouTube,

...