Last week, an uninvited guest dropped by for a visit, the 'British mutation.' Yes, the one that flashed in just after we declared, with a sense of self-importance, the victory of the vaccine weapon.
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What can I tell you, the wonderful insights I realized during this week inspired me and I thought sharing it with you would be a good thing.
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• I witnessed a conversation. A Jew invites his friend to sit. The friend replies: Closed, can't come to you... The Jew asks: What, are you observing? Yes, I've started to get stronger. It would be very useful if at least in these two weeks there would be strict adherence to the rules, and then we would finally get out of this corona.
Well, Chazal already concluded for us, "If Israel keeps two Sabbaths at once, they will be redeemed.".
• One of the most obvious symptoms of the disease is the eyes, a terrible eye pain. It's as if a goblin is sitting in your eye socket and pressing as hard as he can on the wheel with a spoon. You can't move your eyes to the sides, barely forward...
Isn't that exactly what we memorize morning and evening? - "And you shall not turn"... and the Rabbi with a smile tells you: "My son, it is either a huge eyeache or your eyes are closed. I want you to trust me with your eyes closed in the simplest sense of the word.".
• Suddenly the daily, routine blessings take on a weighty meaning: I thank you, living and existing King, that you have restored my breath to me, that I can breathe a little, because yesterday I could barely manage it, I stole breaths. With every breath, suddenly you feel your lungs. Suddenly you know where they are located in the body…
• At the Havdalah on Saturday night, when I blessed the Creator of the fragrant trees for the frankincense we had picked from the pot, and some of the scent managed to sneak into my nasal passages, I was moved to tears. Six hours earlier, I had not been able to smell anything!
• Foods, soil, the tree and the excretory organ - what a thrill to suddenly taste an apple, a piece of cake, and not just taste the sensation of the different textures rolling on the tongue and having to guess what you are eating...
• Who takes the sleep from my eyes and the nap from my eyelids - Wow, what a blessing! If there's one thing this disease does to you, it's turn you into a rag, a zombie, a sleep junkie, addicted to silence, darkness, just being in a balanced state during the day, all day long.
• Otar Yisrael is adorned with glory - Chazal taught us that it revolves around the tefillin. I experienced a draconian symptom - a burning sensation in the skin and especially in the scalp - the hair roots simply hurt.
• He did all my needs - how much we need to focus on this in everyday life, because suddenly when you need people and their systems, you realize how limited they are! The municipal police don't answer, when you ask for something, they don't always understand you and you can't shout..., the neighbors aren't always available for you, and in general there are reception problems on the lines.
• The man who prepares to walk - As children, we were raised with the wonderful story of the Maran Chazo'a who was found on the floor of his residence. When asked the reason for this, he explained that every night he calculated the number of steps he would be able to walk, compared to the strength he had left from the work of Torah, and that day he made a mistake in his calculation...
As a child, it didn't seem so reasonable to me to count steps, the story seemed strange to me... until I encountered this disease, and suddenly I find myself calculating whether I have the strength to walk to the refrigerator at the end of the room, a distance of 4 steps!
• Straightens up the bent, giving strength to the tired - how much strength the convalescents need, and what kind of back straightening…
• Dressing naked - because how many pajamas can you wear all day?
• Opens the eyes of the blind - without those terrible eye pains.
• Allows forbidden things - getting out of this forced isolation, being locked in a room a few meters away 24/7 is not humane!
• He who allows the intellect to distinguish between day and night - Rabsha'a, just a question: What day is it today?
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Dear and beloved brothers,
Sounds difficult? Absolutely! What is the conclusion? We don't need to reach the state of being sick in order to direct our blessings or to be strengthened in our simple, everyday mitzvot.
Let us receive one blessing upon ourselves a day with intention: divided into three as Rabbi Yehuda Tzedakah taught us. Let us strengthen ourselves with one mitzvah for the sake of the people of Israel and for the sake of the entire world. And yes, keeping a distance, and wearing a mask are also mitzvahs, a mitzvah of saving lives!
We will conclude with one blessing: O God, the soul that You have given me is pure. You created it. You fashioned it. You breathed it into me and you preserve it within me. And you will take it from me and return it to me in the future. As long as the soul is within me, I give thanks before You, O God, my God and the God of my fathers, Lord of all deeds, Lord of all souls. Blessed are You, O God, who restores souls to dead corpses.
Thank God a thousand times over, for giving us the strength, everything is from Him and everything is from Him!
Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the universe, by whose word all things were created.
With the blessing of priests, with love
Rabbi Yosef Cohen, Language Response Organization
