With all the questions affecting the state of the world, the most important, and least understood, may be “Should I put a mask on?” Our brains tell us ‘yes’, while our experience tells us ‘probably not necessary’ and our sense of adventure and our unsubstantiated belief in fate says ‘no’.

This morning, we went to Shabbat services at Adas Israel. It was well attended, probably 150-200 people in the main service. I would say that 40% were masked, 40% were not, and 20% couldn’t make up their minds, so they were sometimes masked and sometimes unmasked, or maybe masked over their mouth, but not over their nose. The synagogue itself now has no rules to my knowledge.

As we sat through the service, Edie and most of the people near us, were masked; I was not. You can’t go wrong by being masked – that is obvious. But not being masked is, for me, so much more comfortable. For those who aren’t familiar with Adas Israel, it is very large, seating more than 1000 (I think), and we sat in an area where there were relatively few people near us, virtually all of whom, as it turned out, were masked. The sanctuary also has a very high ceiling, reaching up into the heavens, and very good airflow. Also, no one near us (or anywhere else, as far as I can tell) were coughing or showing other worrisome symptoms.

From the sanctuary, when the service ended, you go out into a crowded hallway, and from there down the stairs to the large room where there is a buffet kiddish lunch. This room gets quite crowded, there are several buffet tables for food (with people on both sides of the table putting food on their plates) and enough seating for fewer than half the attendees. Because the kiddish is everyone’s lunch, virtually no one is masked. And because it is a place for social interaction, people are talking to each other (sometimes while eating), circulating around and bumping into each other. I probably had six different conversations of some length in the course of the hour or so I spent at the kiddish.

Following the kiddish, there was a 1 p.m. presentation, organized by the Adas Social Action Committee, concerning the plight of the Uyghur population of western China. There were only about 30 people there. Again, some masked and some not. Again, you could spread out.

No moral here. Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.