Residents of the Neria community in West Binyamin produced a video to convey support and encouragement to the Diaspora Jews who are also battling the coronavirus.

“Diaspora Jewry has always stood by the Jews in Eretz Yisrael with full support. At this time, we are called upon to stand by them and support them,” said Neria secretary Nir Solomon.

“We urge everyone to join us and send support and encouragement to our Diaspora brethren, and to assist them as much as possible,” he added.

Neria Rabbi Michael Hershkovitz said: “We’re in the midst of the coronavirus crisis and in all such things we must also see the blessing in it. It has a lot of difficulty in it but it also has something that’s apparently necessary. It shakes us up and helps us not to live a routine, but to see the truth more. It’s a kind of reset that brings us back to renewed thinking about everything.”

He says: “It also helps the same problem that Jews in exile have, a large part of them, with the troubles of exile and the length of the exile, making it difficult for them to see the great light of the beginning of Redemption.”

Rabbi Hershkowitz concluded: “It recalls the verse written in the book of Ezekiel: ‘and you O mountains of Israel shall give of your branch, and your fruit will bear for the peoples of Israel,’ and Rabbi Abba said ‘this is the most blatant harbinger of the Redemption possible.’”

By Mordechai Sones, Israel National News