From the Synagogue to the Sofa

February 8th, 2021

By Miri Lawrence

As I write this I reflect on the past week as rabbi of a London community. My duties included officiating at a funeral, leading services for Jewish Mental Health Awareness Shabbat, teaching, tea and chat with congregants, pastoral support, and participating in an interfaith service to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). With the exception of the funeral none of these tasks involved face to face contact; technically, the funeral didn’t either as we were all wearing masks. Since my rabbinic appointment began in September, I have never met the majority of my congregation in person. 

My contribution for HMD was pre-recorded. The video guidance for my ten second pledge was minutely detailed and included instructions for purchasing recording equipment, lighting tips and where to place my script. Rabbis and other faith leaders are now expected to be adept at speaking to camera. This has been one of many technical skills we learnt as worship moved, overnight, from the synagogue to the sofa. The changing relationship between communal and private worship and the re-imagining of distinctions between private and public space raises important questions that the ‘Stay Home’ project will address across different faith groups. What changes have occurred in participation and engagement? How has digital technology brought institutional worship into the home? How have festivals and lifecycle celebrations been observed during lockdown? How have faith leaders shared and explored new ways to worship? What can lockdown add to our understanding of ‘lived religion’ (Ammerman, 2007; Fahy and Bock, 2018; Harvey, 2013)?

Digital technology has connected and disconnected members of religious communities. Some congregants do not have access to the internet or struggle with technology and therefore do not join online services, others refuse to try. Yet many communities are experiencing higher attendance figures than ever. Working from home, and the ability to attend services without travelling, facilitates greater community connections. On occasion, members of Orthodox communities have joined Progressive services as the laws of Shabbat prohibit them from holding their own online services. Others have shopped around to find a style of service and community that met their needs. We have shared ideas nationally, with Jewish communities abroad and other faith groups. Although the structure of our worship and belief systems are different, even though the balance and emphasis on home and institutional worship varies, we can now engage with a different kind of interfaith crisis discourse (Fahy and Bock, 2018). The ‘Stay Home’ project will also focus on interfaith work during lockdown.

One of the key changes to worship has been the inversion of private and public space. High Holydays, customarily observed in synagogue, moved online into the home. Individuals experimented with different ways to create both sacred space and privacy. Whilst some were happy to metaphorically invite fellow worshippers into their homes, others turned off their cameras or used backdrops for privacy. Others opted for curated backgrounds – uploaded photos against a green screen, perhaps of their own synagogue. This facilitated both the creation of sacred space and the privacy of home, it also spared some from ‘housebarrassment’ a slogan recently coined by Wickes DIY Company. 

Congregants and faith leaders negotiated using the home as the site for worship, home-schooling, work and leisure. Worshippers were often interrupted by stage-struck pets, doorbells, telephones, and members of households wandered into rooms in their pyjamas. Worship is interwoven with domestic routines and currently the site of several activities where individual needs are negotiated. Although the home has always been the site of competing activities the multiple uses of home and its role during communal worship in lockdown requires fresh research. For example, the popularity of casual domestic attire during zoom services sparks huge debate. We now talk of ‘zoom etiquette’. During the evening service for the Jewish New Year I raised the question of whether our dress has some sort of psychological impact. The next day my congregants all dressed in white, the symbolic colour for the Jewish New Year. It was beautiful, unexpected  and very moving and has never been my experience when physically in the synagogue. 

Zoom has opened up creative possibilities. Rabbis and congregants have made and shared films, plays, art and music. Visual methods have memorialised the experiences of this year. For example, my community made a collage of their families during lockdown, with congregants invited to contribute a representation of their household. Debbie Brenner, a congregant from Ealing Liberal Synagogue (ELS) wrote the following verse to Rock of Ages as part of this year’s Chanukah Celebrations. The verse encapsulate some of the changes she has experienced:

ELS is the place to be

We are a friendly community

This year we're all doing zooms

Candles in our living rooms

We'll try not to burn the computer!

Celebrating freedom this Chanukah

Eating latkes and playing with the dreidl

Friends and family at the virtual table

(Permission given by Debbie Brenner)

For High Holydays communities joined together, drawing on a range of talents: activities for children, drama, meditation, study, discussions, and creative services with stunning graphics. Rabbis worked together to consider the significance of each prayer. New Coronavirus prayers were added to the liturgy.  The aim was to make the services meaningful and relevant in these unique circumstances.

Lifecycle services held additional challenges. Initially funerals were livestreamed with only rabbis in attendance. Later a few mourners were permitted but there were new rules. Gone was the reassuring hand or hug.  Rituals were compromised to reduce infection. Shiva, where mourners are comforted in their homes, moved online, devoid of human comfort or contact. What will be the impact of live streaming or postponement of life-cycle ceremonies? 

There is no doubt that lockdown has been gruelling and uninvited. My personal experience raises questions as to the future of communal worship. My own community is considering hybrid services as a long-term plan for life after lockdown, where congregants may actively worship and participate either in the synagogue or online at home. Whilst we crave human contact, I wonder if we will get up from the sofa and return to the synagogue with enthusiasm or reluctance. And when we do return will it be the same synagogue and form of worship we attended a year ago? My research for the ‘Stay Home’ project will explore all the questions that I have raised here, across different faith communities, leaders and interfaith organizations in London and Liverpool. 

References

Ammerman, N. (2007). Everyday religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Fahy, J. and Bock, J.J. (2018). Beyond Dialogue?: Interfaith Engagement in Delhi, Doha & London. Georgetown University in Qatar.

Harvey, G. (2013). Food, sex and strangers. Durham: Acumen.