The entire focus of the pandemic response has been pragmatic. We should wear masks, we should social distance, we should avoid crowds (rallies notwithstanding), and we should make sure to wash our hands frequently. (Psychologists must be having a field day with that one.) There has been zero focus on anything spiritual. I have heard spiritual leaders say that the pandemic is from God. Apparently, that is all that is required for them to discharge their responsibilities as spiritual leaders. The obligatory “we don’t know why” follows immediately with a discomfort visible until that phrase is uttered. The pandemic is discussed as though it is a thing of the past. Heaven forbid we should have to search our souls to see if there is something we have done or are doing that we can do better. Spiritual leaders are often afraid of saying anything that will offend anyone in their congregation because that could compromise their employment.
The pandemic and the COVID-19 horror are clearly from Hashem. The question that needs to be asked is why? It is clear that if there is an illness that is brought to the entire world, it is a punishment. The human race is being punished for something, and I would say it is safe to say that it is not because we study too much Torah and treat each other with too much respect. What, then, is the reason?
What we hear is that there is no way to know. Let’s just get vaccinated and get back to abnormal, then all will be great. Sounds good to many, and then the new strain of COVID-19 started in Great Britain and our pragmatic-only response has to be checked and questioned again. Pragmatics? Yes, for sure; vaccine, yes; other smart measures as mentioned above, for sure. But pragmatic measures alone will not solve the problem that has a spiritual root cause.
President-elect Biden has said this week that the darkest days of the pandemic are ahead of us. Great Britain, the first nation to begin vaccinating their citizenry, now has a new strain of the virus, supposedly even more contagious. A vaccine should be the beginning, not the end, of our process of redemption of this situation. In last week’s Torah portion we see that Yosef was dealing with a famine in his time and he dealt with the famine in a variety of ways, spiritual and pragmatic both. The famine was predicted in his dreams and the entire family went to Egypt as a result of the famine. We look in Torah and are amazed at the incredible world-changing event that the famine of Yosef’s time was. In our own time we look at this pandemic as something to be dealt with through pragmatic measures only and we seem to resist any spiritual messages. We see in Shemos that “kol nefesh” was the way to describe those who went to Mitzrayim due to the famine. When geula begins it will again be kol nefesh, but this time leading to a world of goodness for all of mankind, geula. The answers will always be spiritual.
It’s not all about the science and nothing but the science of the virus. We as religious Jews can do more to spiritually defeat COVID-19, and then when the virus is defeated, and it will be defeated, the victory will be in the only place victory can be, in the soul of mankind. When geula, a world of goodness for all of mankind, is ushered in, it will be permanent. All of mankind will be healed and there will be no more illness. COVID-19 will assume its proper place in history, forever an inactive virus that has been defeated by the spiritual vaccine that is geula (no side effects, by the way), the redemption of all mankind. The process from where we are to geula starts with recognizing and accepting the present situation for what it is. From that base we can live a redemption process that will forever put illness in the trash heaps and restore goodness to the world and to the life of each individual. Kol nefesh will lead to redemption and will do so not through power nor through might but by Hashem’s spirit.
Yehoshua Frankel is the author of “From Golus to Geula, the Miracle of Torah” and is the radio talk show host of Talkline Communications, “From Golus to Geula, The Miracle of Torah.”
