Covid Guidelines 2020

1. If you are not feeling well, please stay home and rest, take care of yourself, consult your doctor or seek other medical attention.  To preserve one life is to preserve an entire world, and you are an entire world.
2. Please stay home, also, if you have been exposed to Covid-19, and are awaiting test results.
3. If you are feeling well but have an underlying medical condition that puts you at risk, please do not further your risk or the risk of others by joining the community in person.  
4. If you are feeling well, have no other risk factors, but are sensitive to the Arizona heat and are easily de-hydrated, err on the side of keeping yourself well by remaining at home
5. Think of this as missing one service now, so that you can participate in many more later, when its safe.

If you feel that you are a good candidate for joining the outdoor davening, here are the recommended precautions:

1. Masks must be worn at all times.
2. Remain at least 6 feet from anyone outside of your family.
3. Children under 13 must remain next to their parents at all times. 75 minutes is a long time for a child.  If your child, understandably, cannot sit for that period of time, you may want to forgo in-person davening for their sake.
4. Wear a hat and put on sunscreen.
5. Bring water to drink on Rosh Hashana. There will also be water available in the shul kitchen if needed.
6. If you need to drink water on Yom Kippur, feel free to bring your own, or if you need, there is bottled water in the kitchen.
7. Pick up your mahzors (high holiday siddur) before Rosh Hashana, and use only those volumes you have picked up for yourself.
8. Bring your own tallit and kippah.
9. The bathrooms at the shul will be open.  But, out of an abundance of caution, you may want to use the bathroom at home before you come to shul and minimize any use of facilities while there.
10. Wash your hands before and after you come to shul.
11. Avoid any physical contact with anyone outside your family.
12. If you begin to feel unwell at any point, please signal Rabbi Kanter or Rabbi Wasserman (whichever one is not leading davening), so that we may get water for you or otherwise assist you.
13. If you need to enter the shul building, please do not kiss the mezuzah upon entry.
14. Please wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before entering or after leaving the building.

If you make the choice to remain at home:

1. We support your decision completely.  Jewish life is a whole life, which can be lived and celebrated anywhere, any place, any time and God hears us wherever we are.
2. You are welcome to participate in Zoom services, for adults and children, led by members of our shul.
3. Celebrate Rosh Hashana by purchasing fruits you haven’t eaten in at least a month, and saying She-hecheyanu, which we say for new experiences, and which helps us feel the newness of the year.
4. Eat apples and honey, or other sweet things for a sweet new year.
5. If you have children, make a ‘birthday of the world’ birthday cake.
6. Decorate the space in which you eat your holiday meals.  Make it festive and joyful.  For Yom Kippur, wear white, even at home.
7. Read the torah readings and haftarot in your mahzor.
8. Engage in the process of teshuvah:  introspection, a remembering of what’s truly important to us.  Have a conversation about it.
9. Be kind to yourself and others.
10. Before the holidays, give tzedakah.
11. Borrow a mahzor from the shul before the holidays.  Learn some prayers by listening to them on the shul website and then sing them on the holiday, out loud, by yourself, or with family.