COMMIT TO QUIT

I happened to notice the "Stop the Talking in Shul" bookmark recently, the one we've all seen for years now, and it hit me - hard - that there's finally no longer any talking in shul. In any shul. I'm sure I'm joined by many thousands of you in extreme sadness at the thought that H-Shem had to do something like this to finally achieve that goal. Or that He might have felt that too many of us in K'lal Yisroel simply weren't respectful enough of His home, and that He therefore essentially banished us all... There have been many worthy kabalos going around (committing to making smaller simchos, joining in writing a Sefer Torah, cutting back on and hopefully eliminating loshon harah, especially the kind that's so easy to spread worldwide via technology, as some examples), and it would also be extremely worthwhile for all of us to "Commit to Quit". To commit to finally finally stop the talking in shul during the times when it's simply asur to speak. To show H-Shem that we truly want - and..