Signs of the times:

The Catholic Church has issued instructions to parishioners not to exchange the "sign of peace" with a physical handshake at the end of mass and has changed some of its procedures around communion.

Several local churches are suggesting a "fist-bump" instead of a handshake or - better yet - a smile and nod.

At Agudas Achim, we have suggested a "no-kissing-policy" for congregants greeting one another at Shabbat (Sabbath) services.

Sturdy Memorial Hospital has announced limitations on visitors to patients - particularly in the labor and delivery wards. The emergency room intake desk at the hospital now gives out masks to any an all incomers who exhibit the slightest symptom of the flu - making the waiting room seem like a scene from a horror film.

These are just of the wise and appropriate precautions institutions and individuals are following to avoid the spread of illness and keep each other healthy. And well they should. But these precautions also have the unintended effect of separating people, isolating us form each other, driving people further apart and decreasing our human connections.

Think about it: In the ER, you can't tell if someone is smiling or frowning. Admitted patients are receiving fewer visits from friends. The absences of a handshake or peck on the cheek at religious services may be depriving someone of the only physical human contact available - and creates a less friendly, less welcoming environment.

It is no accident that the universal symbol for welcoming and friendship is an open hand - a hand reached out to grasp another. We know that the touch of one human hand to another has enormous power to comfort, to welcome, even to heal.

So what are we to do in this time of illness that is also a time of economic distress when people seem more than ever to need one another, to reach out and find that hand to hold?

It may seem that we have a choice - between warmth and friendship that places one another at risk for illness or a cold austerity that preserves health at the expense of our souls.

But I would like to suggest otherwise.

Yes - so much can be said with a touch of a hand on a shoulder. But just as much can be said with a lingering smile and a sincere greeting. And words of comfort, hand written on a card, can bring just as much warmth and hopefulness to one isolated due to illness.

And the acts of loving-kindness that are more lasting than a handshake - the donation of money, the giving of gifts to the poor, the offering of a favor to one in need - are also our means of expressing our care concern and embracing of our fellow human beings.

In fact, it may be that so many of these other ways of reaching out have been forgotten in the availability of a rushed handshake or peck on the cheek. (When was the last tine you sent a "get-well card?") I would like to suggest that this era of careful distance-keeping provides us an opportunity to re-examine our ways of connecting, our means of touching one another - literally and metaphorically. Maybe it is time we thought more about what we said to one another than on that quick handshake. Maybe it is time to practice touching each other's hearts rather than hands.

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman is the spiritual leader of Congregation Agudas Achim, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Attleboro. Her columns are published monthly on The Sun Chronicle's religion pages and online at thesunchronicle.com/columns.