Competition of Existence at Dodger Stadium | Yonah Bookstein

Our redemption from the pandemic

After listening to about what was taking place at hospitals and vaccination clinics, I had named a couple of shul users and donors on Sunday to set up #mitzvacart to promptly deliver aid to the employees and volunteers who were being understaffed and overworked. 

 We hoped to help raise their spirits and present care for all the people caring for other folks. 

 We were being grateful that donors stepped up and funded the to start with week of meals deliveries, and our shul associates speedily arranged and organized for deliveries to Dodger Stadium and Cedar-Sinai.

A yr ago this week we hosted hundreds of men and women for Shabbat in Park Town throughout the Sundance Film Competition. We could barely have recognized that Sundance 2020 was the very last major occasion that we had been likely to participate in for a quite extended time. With the pandemic closing down all significant gatherings before long thereafter, no 1 has been able to knowledge the awesome energy generated by the sea of humanity participating in a songs competition, a significant sporting party, or a concert. 

When I arrived at Dodger Stadium to enable produce 3 dozen pizzas and bottled drinking water on behalf of Pico Shul to the personnel and volunteers, I was unprepared for what to truly feel and knowledge.  

We entered by way of an worker entrance and had been escorted by the site staff driving via mazes of parking cones and extended lines of vehicles and tents covering the significant parking loads. 

We felt like we had been arriving backstage at a massive audio and tenting festival, and everybody was ready in their cars to be checked by safety in advance of going into camping. 

Except alternatively of everybody ready to have their cars picked aside by the security groups in advance of they could enjoy a transcendent weekend of songs and tenting, the 1000’s of individuals in line were there to acquire a everyday living-conserving vaccine.

Zach, one of the volunteer and workers coordinators for CORE  launched me to the adult men and women who are now furnishing life-preserving vaccines at this gigantic outside clinic. He and some of the most important personnel are working 18 hour days. On the 1st working day open up to the community, they vaccinated 8,000 citizens of LA above the age of 65.  

I satisfied Jeff Duck, a senior Main worker, who throughout pre-pandemic occasions worked as a expert bassist. Instead of rocking live performance levels close to the globe, Jeff has been rocking Dodger Stadium for months organizing the logistics of testing tens of hundreds of individuals, and now inoculating them.

 “When are they starting the stay music phase?” I questioned, jokingly. 

And I was amazed to master that Jeff had arranged are living music for the duration of the tests section, and as soon as they have a tackle on the vaccination routine, they hope to have a stay audio phase set up in Dodger Stadium, furnishing leisure to all those waiting around in their automobiles and the personnel. 

 Dodger Stadium has been turned into the Pageant of Existence. 

We examine in Parsha Bo about the Jewish men and women getting redeemed from slavery, and the thousands and thousands of Israelites and other individuals who still left Egypt. 

Viewing the Dodger Stadium vaccination clinic firsthand, I felt I was witnessing our redemption from the bondage of this pandemic. 

The redemption will not materialize overnight, as it did for our ancestors in Egypt. 

But like God’s “strong outreached arm” which led us out of Egypt, this redemption calls for us to stretch out our arms through the vehicle window.

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Rabbi Yonah Bookstein is an internationally acknowledged spiritual chief, who combines a deep commitment to ancient practice and understanding and a non-judgmental appreciate for the Jewish folks, humanity and the world. He is co-founder and Alevy Family Rabbi in Neighborhood Outreach of Pico Shul Alevy Jewish Understanding Centre and Shabbat Tent. Rabbi Yonah is the writer of Prayers for Israel, and organizes Tu B’shvat Seders on campuses around the entire world. Rabbi Yonah is a former Fulbright Fellow, finished his MA at Oxford College, and Rabbinical Ordination at Ohr Somayach Monsey, NY.