The global pandemic in which we locate ourselves is very similar to the punishment of the Second Temple, it is a long and endless saga in sight.
Purim, Pessa’h, Lag BaOmer, Shavuos came here and left this year in the shadow of Coronavirus. Even if we lived under the cloud of the plague of the Crown, we place comfort and hope in the underlying messages of hope and salvation from those glorious days. But now we are under an even darker cloud, the arrival of the Three Weeks and Tisha BeAv when we mourn the destruction of Batei Mikdash and the long Exile.
Our sages tell us that the First Temple was destroyed because Bnai Yisrael was to blame for committing the 3 cardinal sins of Gillui Arayos, Shefichas Damim and Avoda Zara (immorality, murder, worship of idols) and were sentenced to seventy years of exile in BavelArray. Babylon. The Second Temple was destroyed due to sinas chinam (unnecessary hatred) and for this reason the other Jews condemned an exile of two thousand years still in progress.
The Jewish sages ask why the punishment that followed the destruction of the Second Temple was more severe than the punishment that followed the destruction of the First Temple when sins at the time of the First Temple were more severe. And the answer is that the sins of the First Temple were all physical and external, so the punishment was more “external” and open and finished, while the sin of dead hatred was a much deeper and more internal problem, and the punishment of exile was longer, deeper, and more “infinite” and takes longer to “heal.”
The global coronavirus scenario in which we are located today is very similar to the punishment of the Second Temple, it is a long and endless saga in sight. Experts say we’ll wear a mask in the next few years. So far, no universal antidote, vaccine or antidote has been discovered. Some countries, such as Israel, are experiencing a wave at the moment, while others have not left the first wave. In the United States, the mortality rate continues to rise. While the stage has advanced so far in the New York-New Jersey areas, it has worsened in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona, and more and more states report a buildup of infections and deaths in Covid-19. We’re not out of danger yet.
The Frum communities in the United States have not yet figured out a way to count the number of people who have succumbed to Covid-19, which has led me to think why God is punishing us for this scourge. And it’s a punishment and not a reward. I don’t know what the highest rabbis say or say to their congregations and followers. Most focus on dressing in mask and social estrangement. It would be attractive to survey rabbis and find out how many have spoken about figuring out why God is doing this to us. Thinking about this, I randomly read an English translation of Nefesh Hachaim through Volozhin’s Rav Jaim (1749-1821) and came here through this passage:
“Cause and effect: matrix … We will have to perceive that the punishment of the sinner is not an act of vengeance through God. Punishment is an herbal result of transgression; sin leads to punishment as a reaction of cause and effect. Simply as eating destructive food causes illness and ingestion of a poisonous substance leads to death, just as punishment is the herbal result of transgression, and God’s complacency and compassion have nothing to do with it. The stain of tumah (spiritual impurity) that the sinner the higher worlds will have to be removed, either by punishment or by technology.” (Nefesh Hachaim. Translated through Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel. The Judaica Press, Inc. 2009, p. 86)
In fact, we are not “rewarded” in this critical era of coronavirus plague. Too many people have paid the final price. Frum communities in the United States have not yet figured out a way to count the number of those who have succumbed to Covid-19. An online yeshiva page has introduced a memorial site that lists a thousand hundred known names, but the fact is much worse than that, probably 3 of the 4 times as many Jews who have died in the United States by Covid-19. It is bad and adapts better to the theme of three weeks mourning than at any other time.
Our wise men and classical Jewish prophets were not afraid to speak. In last week’s Haftorah, God told Yirmiyahu not to be afraid and to communicate and rebuke others for his wrongdoings. It’s not that it helped in the end, because the temples were destroyed in spite of everything. We all want to take a closer look at ourselves separately and our motivations and actions. Not just things that are obviously false in appearance. Every one of yours. But we want a lot of internal introspection. Look at our hearts, minds and souls, and locate tactics for ourselves.
As Volozhin’s Rav Chaim says, for our bad deed, we will face punishment unless we do the ceiling. The Three Weeks are the best time to begin the procedure, as we will soon be called to do Aseres Yemei Teshuva, the ten days of repentance between Rosh Hashanna and Iom Kippur that are not so far away.