“Man plans and God Laughs or Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht.” – (Yiddish adage) “Go make yourself a plan/And be a shining light./Then make yourself a second plan,/For neither will come right or Ja, mach nur einen Plan,/sei nur ein großes Licht!/Und mach dann noch’nen zweiten Plan,/geh’n tun sie beide nicht.”. – (Bertolt Brecht) “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry or The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” – (Robert Burns)It seems that the Yiddish adage that my step mother often repeated, the Bertolt Brecht lyrics she often sang, and the Robert Burns poem all agree on the futility of making plans.
Yet, here we are making plans to reopen and come together in person after 15 months of only seeing each other as 2 dimensional images on screens. Are we crazy? Is it futile to plan? As I am writing this, the CDC, the California Department of Health, and Cal OSHA all have different guidelines. And what about Contra Costa County? Is there a difference between what we are allowed to do and what is safe to do? What about masks? What about variants? How about vaccinated vs unvaccinated? With all the uncertainty and all the responsibility is it audacious of us to plan?
When I direct a play I spend many hours preparing. I analyze the play, the dramaturgy, the cultural and historical context of the story, the characters, and the playwright. I seek the rhythm of the language. I plan the actors’ movements to help tell the story and create stage compositions or pictures. And then I walk into the first rehearsal ready to change everything to convert the theoretical to the real. My intense preparation allows me to improvise when my plans do not work out. My preparation creates a structure that allows flexibility. It is a little like a jazz musician who improvises within the framework of the music.
That’s how I view our reopening plans. Our reopening committee, led by Linda Rose in consultation with Rabbi Dean and Cantor Shayndel, is trying to learn as much as possible and plan for every foreseen contingency, but we know that what seems likely today may look very different in September. All of our current plans will most likely have to change and we may have to change them with little notice. I choose to be optimistic, however. I feel sure that all of us together with a combination of preparation and flexibility can adapt, improvise if you will, and find our way through this pandemic and safely meet in person soon.
From the President – June 18, 2021
June 18, 2021 by tbhrich • president
“Man plans and God Laughs or Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht.” – (Yiddish adage) “Go make yourself a plan/And be a shining light./Then make yourself a second plan,/For neither will come right or Ja, mach nur einen Plan,/sei nur ein großes Licht!/Und mach dann noch’nen zweiten Plan,/geh’n tun sie beide nicht.”. – (Bertolt Brecht) “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry or The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.” – (Robert Burns) It seems that the Yiddish adage that my step mother often repeated, the Bertolt Brecht lyrics she often sang, and the Robert Burns poem all agree on the futility of making plans.
Yet, here we are making plans to reopen and come together in person after 15 months of only seeing each other as 2 dimensional images on screens. Are we crazy? Is it futile to plan? As I am writing this, the CDC, the California Department of Health, and Cal OSHA all have different guidelines. And what about Contra Costa County? Is there a difference between what we are allowed to do and what is safe to do? What about masks? What about variants? How about vaccinated vs unvaccinated? With all the uncertainty and all the responsibility is it audacious of us to plan?
When I direct a play I spend many hours preparing. I analyze the play, the dramaturgy, the cultural and historical context of the story, the characters, and the playwright. I seek the rhythm of the language. I plan the actors’ movements to help tell the story and create stage compositions or pictures. And then I walk into the first rehearsal ready to change everything to convert the theoretical to the real. My intense preparation allows me to improvise when my plans do not work out. My preparation creates a structure that allows flexibility. It is a little like a jazz musician who improvises within the framework of the music.
That’s how I view our reopening plans. Our reopening committee, led by Linda Rose in consultation with Rabbi Dean and Cantor Shayndel, is trying to learn as much as possible and plan for every foreseen contingency, but we know that what seems likely today may look very different in September. All of our current plans will most likely have to change and we may have to change them with little notice. I choose to be optimistic, however. I feel sure that all of us together with a combination of preparation and flexibility can adapt, improvise if you will, and find our way through this pandemic and safely meet in person soon.
We are Temple Beth Hillel.
If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am not for others, what am I?
And if not now, when? -Rabbi Hillel
~ Michael R Cohen, President, Temple Beth Hillel