A Time of Celebration
A Time of Celebration
Rabbi Hal Miller
The entire world, including the Jewish community spread throughout, has been facing, and
continues to face, a problem we did not expect. Now officially declared a world pandemic,
the COVID-19 virus is racing through communities everywhere, bringing illness and in some
instances even death. For whatever reason, this disease is causing a far more widespread
panic, including complete economic crisis. But more importantly than why this one more than
other diseases would cause such, we need to consider why we are where we are and what
we should be doing about it.
Jews learn that God created each and every individual with a specific mission. Each of us
has something to learn, some change to make in our default behavior, our comfort zone if
you will. We call it tikun hanefesh, the correcting of the soul. God wants us to become His
partners in creation by finishing off something He intentionally left undone within ourselves.
To help us in accomplishing this, He gave us the mitzvos, the commandments. We must do
them as directed, not a question. But why did He give them?
Good examples are chesed (kindness) and tzedakah (charity). If someone needs help,
perhaps a shut-in, ill, or elderly individual, we go visit, we run errands, we make them smile,
whatever. We bring some light to their lives. When someone is hungry or needs a roof over
their head or medicine they cannot afford, we give some money to help. These are, without
any doubt, wonderful things to do. They are mitzvos, for which we get credit.
But what is really going on? God could certainly give extra money to one who needs. He
could bring a smile to a shut-in in some other way. If we do these things, we are merely
doing something that could happen without us. The person we do it for could gain benefit
some other way. What is the gain by having us individually do these things as opposed to
someone else do them?
The answer is that these opportunities are supposed to benefit us, not necessarily just the
person we do them for. We are supposed to change, to somehow become different and
better. We are supposed to learn, to find our shortcomings and correct them. Tikun hanefesh.
These things we should be learning and doing every day. How does all this tie to the
current coronavirus epidemic?
We have been in exile for more than two millenia as a people. Each one of us alive today
has been in exile our entire lives. Why? Many reasons are given about various sins or
failings of our people or ourselves over that time, all of which are true. But in short, God
is waiting for us to complete our tikun hanefesh, and we're not doing it. He seems to be
"losing patience", if you will, although that is an anthropomorphism. He is pushing us,
right now, to doing what we should have been doing all along. Does that mean the
messianic days are upon us? Certainly very possible, but not the subject of this note.
Each time we, as individuals or as a community, do a mitzvah, we feel good about it. We
accomplish something that makes life better for someone. But then we march off back to
exactly where we were, back to the same routine, back to who we have always been.
It's like a vaccination that didn't "take" and we still get the disease. We don't grow, we
don't gain from doing the mitzvah. God could have accomplished the benefit to the other
person without us, so our effort turned out to be wasted. Simply lip-service to doing
mitzvos, not really doing them.
The Talmud tells us that one who learns Torah for himself has wasted his time. One who
learns to teach others gains the benefit of the mitzvah of learning Torah. This applies to
all mitzvos. Too many of us are merely paying lip-service to God's commandments,
even though we may be doing something that looks good and thinking we are doing right.
It seems that we, all of us and each of us individually, need to wake up and start taking
the mitzvos seriously. We are supposed to grow from each one. Yes, it takes us out of
our comfort zone, it changes our routine, and permanently yet. But that's why we are
here in this world.
Each of us should, from time to time, review who we are, who we want to be, and where
we are in our pathway to getting to that goal. All of us could and should be making
significant changes to better ourselves. Our goal may well not look as we expected it
to. We may end up living someplace or doing something completely other than what we
always thought would be our future. That's okay because it means we've gotten off our
static no-growth position and begun reaping the benefit of mitzvos. Here we sit at home,
waiting for this virus to pass. What better time to review who we are and start making
changes toward who we should be? Let us celebrate God's giving us this wake-up call!
LaBriut! (good health)