Repentance and Renewal at the Wall
Repentance and Renewal at the WallNoam Fenton, Flash 90

Purim, Pesach, Lag BaOmer, Shavuos have come and gone this year in the shadow of the Coronavirus. Even though we have lived under the cloud of the Corona plague, we could take comfort and hope in the underlying messages of hope and salvation of those wonderful days. But now we are under and even darker cloud, the arrival of the Three Weeks and Tisha BeAv when we mourn for the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash and the long Exile.

We are taught by our sages that the First Temple was destroyed because Bnai Yisrael were guilty of committing the three cardinal sins of gillui arayos, shefichas damim and avoda zara (immorality, murder, idol worship) and were sentenced to a seventy year exile in Bavel, Babylon. The Second Temple was destroyed because of of sinas chinam (needless hatred) and for that the Jewish People were sentenced to a still ongoing two thousand year exile.

The Jewish sages ask why the punishment following the destruction of the Second Temple was more severe than the punishment following the destruction of the First Temple when the sins at the time of the First Temple were more severe. And the answer that is given is that the sins of the First Temple were all physical and outward so the the punishment was more "outward" and open and finite, while the sin of needless hatred was a far deeper and more inner problem, and therefore the punishment of exile was longer and deeper and more "infinite" and takes longer to "cure".

The global Coronavirus situation we are in today is a lot like the punishment for the Second Temple, it is a long unending saga with no end in sight. Experts are saying we will be wearing masks for years. So far no universal antidote or vaccine or cure has been discovered. Some countries, like Israel, are having a second wave while others haven't left the first wave. In the United States the death rate is still climbing. While, for now the situation has improved in the New York-New Jersey areas, it has gotten worse in Florida, California, Texas and Arizona and more states are reporting an increase of Covid-19 infections and deaths. We are not out of the woods yet by a long shot.

The Frum communities in America have still not come up with a way to count the number of those who have succumbed to Covid-19.
Which got me to thinking about why God is punishing us with this plague. And it is a punishment and not a reward. I don't know what most rabbis are saying or telling their congregations and followers. Most are focused on the wearing of masks and social distancing. It would be interesting to do a survey of rabbis and find out how many have spoken about trying to understand why God is doing this to us. As I was thinking about this I happened to be reading an English translation of Nefesh Hachaim by Rav Chaim of Volozhin (1749-1821) and came across this passage:

"Cause and Effect:...We must understand that the punishment of the sinner is not an act of G-d taking revenge. Punishment is a natural consequence of transgression; sin leads to punishment as a reaction of cause and effect. Just as eating harmful food causes sickness, and swallowing a poisonous substance results in death, so is punishment the natural outcome of transgression, and G-d's complacency and compassion has nothing to do with it. The stain of tumah (spiritual impurity) the sinner has brought on the higher worlds must be removed, either through punishment or teshuvah." (Nefesh Hachaim. Translated by Rabbi Avraham Yaakov Finkel. The Judaica Press, Inc. 2009, p 86)

We are certainly not being "rewarded" during this critical time of the Coronavirus plague. Too many people have paid the ultimate price. The Frum communities in America have still not come up with a way to count the number of those who have succumbed to Covid-19. One yeshiva website has started a memorial site that lists about seven hundred known names, but the truth is far worse than that, probably three of four times that number of Jews have passed away in America from Covid-19. It is bad and it fits better into the theme of mourning of the Three Weeks than any other time.

Our classical Jewish sages and prophets were not afraid to speak up. In this past week's Haftorah, God tells Yirmiyahu not to be afraid and speak up and rebuke the people for their wrongdoing. Not that it helped in the end, because the Temples were eventually destroyed. We all need to take a closer look at ourselves individually and our motives and actions. Not just things that are outwardly obviously wrong. Each to his own. But we need a lot of inner introspection. Looking into our hearts, minds and souls, and find ways to improve ourselves.

As Rav Chaim of Volozhin states, for our wrongdoings we will be confronted with punishment unless we do teshuva. The Three Weeks is the perfect time to start the process we will soon all be called upon to do during the Aseres Yemei Teshuva, the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur that are not so far away.