It is known that as Jews we are stronger in numbers. We are supposed to be united and be a nation with one heart and when we are all united together Hashem hears and answers our tefillot. When a parent sees his children working together, how can he deny them. The parent is Hashem and us, the Jews, are his children.
Even though we are stronger in number and together, united as a nation, it does not mean that Hashem won’t answer us if we can not be with a Minyan and have to be davening in our houses alone. In this week’s parsha, Vayikra, it speaks about korbanot. What korbanot to give, when to give it, and how the Kohanim need to give the Korban and place it before Hashem. Nowadays we have tefilla as a substitute for korbanot. Korbanot were given at shacharit, mincha, moosaf, Mariv, and holidays by everyone which is like our tefillah betzibur, our praying with a group, like a minyan. The Coronavirus has led shuls to close down making it extremely hard to find a minyan, leaving us to daven by ourselves.
When the parsha spoke about korbanot, it spoke about korbanot for sinning and korbanot for an individual. A person is able to give korbanot to Hashem by himself for an apology. Hashem will hear it and listen to it and accept it. Hashem will forgive you when you apologize. We know that Hashem can hear our prayers when we ask for forgiveness and we do it by ourselves, so too, Hashem can hear our prayers of praise and asking when we are by ourselves too.
Hashem is our father and he put the Coronavirus in front of us to tell us something. We do not know what or why but when Hashem puts something in front of us it is to reflect or something that we did or didn’t do. This virus can be telling us that we need to do Teshuva and if we ask Hashem, even by ourselves he will listen. Moshe Rabbenu could have gotten into Eretz Yisrael because he apologized and pleaded to Hashem so much but Hashem asked him to stop because if he (Moshe Rabbenu) continued to ask, Hashem would have let him into Israel. The power even of an individual is strong. Hashem is merciful, companionate, forgiving, does a lot of chessed and more. Whether this is a test from Hashem, a punishment, or a reward, our tefillot can get Hashem to stop this. The power of one helps and if we all ask Hashem and daven for the same thing, even though we are not in the same place, our heart’s in the same place and we are one. If we all daven for a refuah shlema for the sick and for this virus to stop and we all believe it together in our hearts, even in different places we can be together and become one nation with one heart and as one we will get the Coronavirus to end.
Shira Sedek is a senior in high school.
