When I was a kid growing up in the 70s and attending Hebrew school on Long Island, one of the most anticipated days on the calendar was a spring day trip to the park for the entire school. We would plan for weeks which baseball field we would try to get at the park. The teams were made up on the bus and as an added bonus we would get to play against some of our teachers and rabbis. The day would also include a picnic-style lunch and maybe even a barbecue. Every year, this day comes 33 days after Passover, and is known as Lag B’omer. As luck would have it, somehow it always seemed to rain, washing away the hopes we held for that day. It was probably for the best, the eighth graders always claimed the best fields and we were relegated to some neglected patch of grass with a broken backstop. Better luck next year.

Lag B’omer is really a big deal and is celebrated by Jews everywhere. In Israel, hundreds of thousands flock to the northern town of Meron to visit the grave of Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, a Talmudic scholar who lived after the destruction of the Second Temple, who died on this date. He is famous for writing the Zohar, the preeminent work in Kabbalistic thought. For centuries, there have been stories of believers who have come to the site to pray for the seemingly impossible and have had their prayers answered. But there is another famous Talmudic story about Lag B’omer. It is recorded that for the first 33 days after Passover, 22,000 students of one of the most beloved rabbis in the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva, died from a mysterious plague. The Talmud attributes the cause of their deaths to the baseless hatred that existed between them. The plague miraculously ended on Lag B’omer. I always doubted if the story was literally true and thought that it must be an allegory for something else. I believe it now.

This reminds me of another plague story that always piqued my interest, that occurred to the biblical Israelites during their 40 year travels in the wilderness. They had manna from heaven, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy them. They craved meat. They complained about not having any, despite all their needs being miraculously taken care of. Moses asks for God to intervene on their behalf, and in what is to me one of the most memorable passages, God responds: You want meat? “Not for one day shall you eat, nor two days, nor five days nor 10 days, nor 20 days. Until an entire month of days until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes nauseating to you, because you have rejected God who is in your midst and you have wept before Him, saying why did we leave Egypt?” The plague struck “while the meat was still in their teeth.” (Numbers Chapter 11 verses 19,20,33).

I, and many others, over the course of the past few weeks, have wondered what God is trying to tell us with this coronavirus pandemic. Why now? The stories mentioned above keep coming to my mind. It may sound like doom and gloom, but it is not the end of the world, even though it does have a biblical feel to it. Rather, if we took the time to be introspective about it, and we changed just a little, there is tremendous light at the end of this tunnel. We are being forced to quarantine alone during Passover, hoping that this plague will pass over. It took 10 plagues to bring the greatest civilization of its time to its knees, and we now see firsthand how it can happen in weeks. Passover is known as the holiday of freedom, but it is also a time of great humility. Passover reminds us that even though we think we are in control, we actually are not. We don’t even let our bread rise to symbolize this concept. This is typically a time when our parents host 30 to 35 people for a magnificent Seder, but they will now be eating alone. It feels like a punishment, especially if you are a grandparent or a great-grandparent. We are all eating a little humble pie (unleavened, of course).

We are being forced to heavily rely on what we thought would be our savior, technology. It’s Zoom this and FaceTime that. It’s as if God is saying “You want technology, I’ll give you technology till it’s coming out of your nostrils.” It seems we have abused technology. The Twitterverse and other social media is filled with baseless hatred against others. There is constant criticism, it has ruined lives, and our children are growing up in a toxic society because of it. This virus is a testament to how much we actually crave face-to-face interaction. My niece is getting married soon, I hope I can dance at her wedding with my family. If I am able, you can bet I won’t be on my phone at the table.

The latest estimates from the president and his scientists is that we should see improvement around April 30th. It so happens that the Torah portion for that week is Tazria-Metzora; dealing with the laws of leprosy. Biblical leprosy was a punishment for baseless hatred and slander, and the cure called for isolation and quarantine. Hmmmmm. Lag B’omer this year falls only 12 days later.

So be nice, as Rabbi Akiva famously said “Love thy neighbor as you do yourself.”

I was brought up to believe in miracles and have even seen some in my lifetime. The state of Israel is thriving, and even has a baseball team in the Olympics! Maybe they will build a field in Meron, and come Lag B’omer we all will go and have a picnic. Bring your mitt, leave the umbrella.

By Jonathan Thurm