QUESTION:
What should we do about the Health Ministry’s lockdown regarding shuls for the next 3 weeks? Should we be moser nefesh and come to shul and learn as usual, in big numbers as always, or should we listen to the government’s rules?
I am asking this question because I think that at this point, it is clear that corona is no longer an epidemic and it’s not a reason to quarantine everyone. That is what even the expert doctors are saying, and according to them, the government is lying grossly. Not only that, but the government has also lied about the numbers of people who have died from the virus, because it’s within their jurisdiction to write about anyone who dies, that the person died due to corona. It’s clear and simple that they’re just trying to tear apart Chareidi society, and that this was their intention from the start. (What was once known to only a few people is now known to most of us, and now Baruch Hashem some Rabbonim have even spoken about this.)
What does want Hashem from us? That we should be moser nefesh and come to daven and learn as usual, even if this will cause us to get the virus? Or should we listen to the government’s rules and accept that this is all gezeirah from Hashem and we should accept Hashem’s will with love…? Maybe it should be like in the previous generations, when everyone knew that certain troubles affecting the Jewish people were all a gezeirah from Hashem and they had mesirus nefesh for Yiddishkeit because they knew it was Hashem’s will that they be moser nefesh against the government, and to wage war against the government that was seeking to destroy the ruchniyus of our children. Or maybe we just need to daven to Hashem that He erase this gezeirah, and in the meantime do what the wicked government is saying to do….?
I am asking this question specifically because during the first wave of corona the Rav said that it’s all the will of Hashem that this is happening and that our avodah now is to be alone with oneself and with Hashem directly. Does that also apply now, to the current wave? And if it does, why should it be different than the decrees made in previous generations, where we had to be moser nefesh and wage physical war against those who sought to destroy our ruchniyus?
I am asking this question because I think that at this point, it is clear that corona is no longer an epidemic and it’s not a reason to quarantine everyone. That is what even the expert doctors are saying, and according to them, the government is lying grossly. Not only that, but the government has also lied about the numbers of people who have died from the virus, because it’s within their jurisdiction to write about anyone who dies, that the person died due to corona. It’s clear and simple that they’re just trying to tear apart Chareidi society, and that this was their intention from the start. (What was once known to only a few people is now known to most of us, and now Baruch Hashem some Rabbonim have even spoken about this.)
What does want Hashem from us? That we should be moser nefesh and come to daven and learn as usual, even if this will cause us to get the virus? Or should we listen to the government’s rules and accept that this is all gezeirah from Hashem and we should accept Hashem’s will with love…? Maybe it should be like in the previous generations, when everyone knew that certain troubles affecting the Jewish people were all a gezeirah from Hashem and they had mesirus nefesh for Yiddishkeit because they knew it was Hashem’s will that they be moser nefesh against the government, and to wage war against the government that was seeking to destroy the ruchniyus of our children. Or maybe we just need to daven to Hashem that He erase this gezeirah, and in the meantime do what the wicked government is saying to do….?
I am asking this question specifically because during the first wave of corona the Rav said that it’s all the will of Hashem that this is happening and that our avodah now is to be alone with oneself and with Hashem directly. Does that also apply now, to the current wave? And if it does, why should it be different than the decrees made in previous generations, where we had to be moser nefesh and wage physical war against those who sought to destroy our ruchniyus?
ANSWER:
We need to be mainly interested in HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and not in the government. The period we are in is a period in which the Yechidah point of the soul is shining, and therefore it entails an avodah of being individual with oneself. However, this [inner avodah of being alone with oneself and with Hashem, through being quarantined] is not allowed to compromise on the parameters of the halachah. And in that aspect, this gezairah is different from any of the decrees of past generations.
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