The Avoda Now [#6347]

March 23, 2020

Question:

I read the Rav's response about the root of what is causing the corona virus and what we need to work on now.  In addition to various kaballas that I made, blee neder, my wife and I took upon ourselves to increase giving  tzedaka to try to house people who are in need of kiruv, and all this so that we can increase relationships with others and to create relationships of warmth with others. Which I understood from the Rav's words about what we need to improve on right now.  I am also trying to daven now about the situation.  My problem though is that I feel like a fly on the wall when it comes to everything that is going on right now.  Which is being labeled now as a pandemic.  Is the average simple Jew like me really able to do anything in the world right now will my prayers really help? And since this is a message of Hashem to klal Yisrael, as a whole, how can some individual person really make a difference?  I would be happy if the Rav could please guide me through these issues that I mentioned and if the Rav agrees to the kaballas which we have made upon ourselves.

Answer:

Everything contains an external and an internal layer to it. Everything has a body to it. And a soul to it. The act of giving tzedaka and hosting guests is all the external part of what we need to do.  It is the container, the body.  We also need the inner part, which is the soul. This inner part of becoming more connected with others is to have a true and an inner bond with others.  However, we need to be careful that who we connect to, and therefore we should only become connected to those who are pure, to do this as much as we can, and at our own levels.  In the inner recesses of our soul, we need to connect ourselves to the root of all the neshamas of Klal Yisrael, to feel a connection to Klal Yisrael as a whole and to each Jew individually.

And the actual sense, we should become connected to those who have good hearts and those who are spiritually pure and good. But that is only one side of the coin and it counters the Corona virus, which is from the word קור, which means cold, and that is by increasing warmth and love in our relationships with others by becoming more connected with others.

But the other side of the coin is that we also need to use the power of קור, the power of coldness, for kedusha.  And that is by becoming secluded with ourselves and to become secluded with the Creator.  This is the secret of revealing the highest part of the soul which is called the yechida, which means individual.  The corona is really the kelipa, the shell, which counters the yechida level of the soul, which is shining strongly now during the current period that we are in. And it is essentially the light of the redemption, may it come speedily. Tefilla, davening, praying, always helps in any situation. Sometimes davening can totally erase a decree and sometimes davening will not take away a decree but it will lighten the intensity of the decree. But even if chas v'shalom there is a decree which cannot be nullified through davening, which is what the people thought at the times of Purim, it is still possible to lessen the intensity of the decree through davening, through praying. The main kind of prayer which is needed now by the Jewish people specifically and also by everyone who inhabits the world in general, is to pray that everybody should return completely to G-d and that everyone should recognize that G-d is showing everyone that He does not want this false and this superficial kind of connection that people have with each other in the world today at Getfans.

The connection that people have with each other by eating out together in restaurants, through vacations, through night entertainments, through places of social mingling, through using social media to send out information and videos to each other, etc...  All of this is falsity, it is all sheker.  And it is all founded on the shaar hanun detuma, the fiftieth gate of impurity, where keter becomes sheker, where connection becomes falsity and even more so is the innermost level of the shaar hanun detuma itself.  It is sheker itself.

By recognizing this truth and by returning in complete teshuva to Hashem, the innermost gate of the fiftieth gate of holiness will become revealed. In no circumstance should a person daven that the epidemic should stop so that everything will return to the way the world was before everything started.  Because if the world continues as it was, before all of this began, it will actually be worse for the world than death and this is because the world is filled today with tuma in every direction and the heart of any Jew that is pure today is able to feel broken from the very presence of all the depravity and all the tuma that is in our world. And rachmana letzlan, even as the epidemic is taking place, now that people are secluded in their homes instead of connecting to the yechida level of their soul and becoming alone with their neshama and with their Creator, and instead they are rachmana letzlan becoming even more attached to the internet and to social media outlets. This is the very depth of the tragic fall into the innermost level of the shaar hanun detuma, the fact that people are getting their main chius from such a source.

At this time the verse of "מי לה' אלי", whoever is for Hashem, come towards me. This applies to us more than ever. Each person right now has the awesome choice of either becoming connected to Hashem, to the Torah, and to one's neshama or chas v'shalom fall into the depths of the shaar hanun detuma, the most depraved spiritual level possible. That is what we truly need to daven about.  For this reason, our tefilos at this time need to come from the depths of our neshamas, each person on his own level, from the deepest place within yourself that you are in touch with.  What we daven for the most shows what is bothering us the most, at this innermost level of our being.