"Instead of stinging nettle, myrtle will rise" (Isaiah 55:13)
 "Instead of evil, good will rise." (The Malbim's Interpretation)
Myrtle Rising
  • Blog
  • Comments Disabled
    • Privacy Policy
  • Aliyah
    • Mini-Intro
    • General Cultural Insights
    • School Tips
  • Kli Yakar Index
  • Most Popular
  • Contact

Are We Seeing the Beginnings of King-Inspired Teshuvah?

29/3/2020

0 Comments

 
To follow on the heels of the previous post regarding whether coronavirus could be the "king" with the decrees as harsh as Haman to force Jews to do teshuvah:

I just heard about someone who needed to leave his city to buy fruits & vegetables because it in a nearby city, produce is cheaper and also one spends less time waiting outside in socially distanced lines.

The buses only run once every hour.

What he didn't know before setting out was that the buses are only allowed to hold 20 passengers rather than their normal capacity of twice that amount.

This means that the buses fill up within the first few stops anyone waiting at later stops gets passed by...to wait another hour, hoping that bus won't also be too full to take them.

So when, after waiting 20 minutes, the bus sped by without stopping, he realized he needed a better solution to get home. 

So he went bus-hopping within the city until he arrived at the first bus stop, where he was one of the first to get on, and made it home.

The thing is, normally, this type of severe inconvenience would drive a person crazy. Talk about agitation!

However, because there is no one to rant against, the person only spoke about the great Heavenly Assistance he experienced and the gratitude he felt for being able to get home without waiting for hours (and possibly missing the last bus at 8 PM).

Yes, these are government-imposed restrictions.

And at first, some people (me included) were disdainful as to whether these were really necessary. (After all, we don't do this with the flu, chicken pox, or even the measles outbreaks, and these all have specific death rates. But people mostly aren't concerned as they are about coronavirus, a disease from which most people experience only minor symptoms and also recover.)

But with the Gadolim upholding the quarantine restrictions and seeing that even if the coronavirus is "only" around as fatal as the flu (and to the same vulnerable groups as the flu) – and we don't even consider lockdowns in response to the flu – its rate of contagion makes that percentage affect a large group of people.

(Also, in Italy, it seems the death rate is closer to 10% rather than the 3.4% estimated by WHO, although my suspicions are that by rejecting patients based purely on age, the Italians are increasing the death rate, both as a natural outcome and also as an immoral act, which reduces Heavenly Mercy. Rav Moshe Heinemann says that, halachically, you should not only treat patients under the age of 65; it's first come, first served – according to halacha [13 minutes-38 seconds]; after clicking to enter the webinar, you may need to click the side-arrows to arrive at his specific lecture.)

Anyway, this all means that many people are acquiescing to the state of things because there is nothing to rant against.

There is nobody to blame. (No clear blame, anyway. There are theories to its development, but nothing proven yet.)

We can't organize protests, armed partisan groups, hold demonstrations, write heated editorials, stealthily disobey, rebel, or anything else against King Corona closing our yeshivahs, schools, and shuls.

We can't ruminate over how our political choices caused King Corona to interfere with our daily life, our consumerism, or our egg intake. (There is an egg shortage in Eretz Yisrael right now.)

King Corona has limited our celebrations, interfered with the comfort of mourners in shivas, and isolated mothers who've already suffered so much. (Please see this photo of Miriam Peretz's Shabbat table – photographed before Shabbat. Miriam is the widowed mother of 6 children, 2 of whom were killed in IDF service. The rest are married with children. She has all this family, yet King Corona decreed she spend this past Shabbat alone. As usual, she looked on the bright side of things and used that Shabbat to connect more deeply to Hashem and to what Shabbat really means for a Jew.)

And now, King Corona is considering targeting the largest charedi cities with a total lockdown:
https://hamodia.com/2020/03/29/govt-official-bnei-brak-needs-closure/

Yet no one screams "Erev Rav!" or "Nazi!" or "Antisemite!"

There is no one to blame.

There is no one to fight.

And so it's bringing out a more spiritual response in people.

Gratitude. Prayer. Making do with less. Discovering the ability to fully enjoy a no-frills wedding held in a home or a backyard or a stairwell.

(Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with increased irritability, crying jags, moments of paralyzing fear about the future, all sorts of initially unpleasant adjustments, and the like. As mentioned in the previous post, the positive & negative are growing stronger in parallel paths.)

I think this aspect, plus other aspects of this pandemic (its mysterious and sudden development; its questionable conference of immunity, etc.) can bring out a more spiritual response that leads to teshuvah in a way that a Hamanite human king hasn't since the days of Shushan.

There simply isn't any other choice.

May Hashem please disappear coronavirus from our midst as quickly as it appeared, and bring the Geula in a sweet way with revealed good.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Privacy Policy

    Picture
    Please note this is an affiliate link. Meaning, I get a small cut but at NO extra cost to you. If you use it, I'm grateful. If not, you still get a giant mitzvah connected to Eretz Yisrael.


    Feedburner subscription no longer in operation. Sorry!

    Myrtle Rising

    I'm a middle-aged housewife and mother in Eretz Yisrael who likes to read and write a lot.


    Picture
    Sample Chapters

    Categories

    All
    Aliyah
    Anti Jewish Bigotry
    Anti-jewish-bigotry
    Astronomy
    Book Review
    Books
    Chagim/Holidays
    Chinuch
    Coronavirus
    Dictionaries
    Emuna
    Eretz Yisrael
    Erev Rav
    Gender
    Hitbodedut
    "If The Torah..."
    Jewish Astrology
    Kav Hayashar
    Kli Yakar
    Lashon Hara
    Love
    Me'am Loez
    Minchat Yehudah
    Mishlei/Proverbs
    Netivot Shalom
    Parenting
    Parsha
    Pele Yoetz
    Perek Shira
    Pesach
    Politics
    Prayer
    Purim
    Rav Avigdor Miller
    Rav Itamar Schwartz
    Rav L.Y. Bender
    Recipes
    "Regular" Jews
    Rosh Hashanah
    Society
    Sukkot
    Tammuz
    Technology
    Tehillim/Psalms
    Teshuvah
    The Lost Princess
    Tisha B'Av
    USA Scary Direction
    Women
    Yom Kippur

    Jewish Blogs

    Daf Yomi Review
    Derech Emet
    Going...Habayitah
    Halacha Q&A
    Hava haAharona
    Miriam Adahan
    My Perspective

    Shirat Devorah
    Tomer Devorah
    Toras Avigdor
    True Tzaddikim
    Tznius Blog

    Yeranen Yaakov
    Rabbi Ofer Erez (Hebrew lectures)

    Jewish Current Events

    Hamodia
    Sultan Knish
    Tomer Devorah
    Yeranen Yaakov

    Jewish Health

    People Smarts

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    RSS Feed

    Copyright Notice

    ©2015-2023 Myrtle Rising
    Excerpts and links may be used without express permission as long as a link is provided back to the appropriate Myrtle Rising page.

Home/Blog

Most Popular

Kli Yakar in English

Aliyah

Contact

Copyright © 2023
Photos used under Creative Commons from Brett Jordan, BAMCorp, Terrazzo, Abode of Chaos, Michele Dorsey Walfred, marklordphotography, M.Burak Erbaş, torbakhopper, jhritz, Rina Pitucci (Tilling 67), Svadilfari, kum111, Tim simpson1, FindYourSearch, Giorgio Galeotti, ChrisYunker, Jaykhuang, YourCastlesDecor, bluebirdsandteapots, Natalia Medd, Stefans02, Israel_photo_gallery, Commander, U.S. 7th Fleet, BradPerkins, zeevveez, dfarrell07, h.koppdelaney, Edgardo W. Olivera, nafrenkel88, zeevveez, mtchlra, Liz | populational, TraumaAndDissociation, thinboyfatter, garofalo.christina, skpy, Free Grunge Textures - www.freestock.ca, Nerru, Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith, trendingtopics, dolbinator1000, DonkeyHotey, zeevveez, erix!, zeevveez, h.koppdelaney, MAURO CATEB, kevin dooley, keepitsurreal, annikaleigh, bjornmeansbear, publicdomainphotography, Leonard J Matthews, Exile on Ontario St, Nicholas_T, marcoverch, planman, PhilWolff, j_lai, t.kunikuni, zeevveez, Ian W Scott, Brett Jordan, RonAlmog, Bob Linsdell, NASA Goddard Photo and Video, aaron_anderer, ** RCB **, Tony Webster, mypubliclands, AntonStetner, Zachi Evenor, MrJamesBaker, sammydavisdog, Frode Ramone, Wonder woman0731, wrachele, kennethkonica, Skall_Edit, Pleuntje, Rennett Stowe, *S A N D E E P*, symphony of love, AlexanderJonesi, Arya Ziai, ePublicist, Enokson, Tony Webster, Art4TheGlryOfGod, seaternity, Andrew Tarvin, zeevveez, Israel_photo_gallery, Iqbal Osman1, Matt From London, Tribes of the World, Eric Kilby, miracle design, RonAlmog, slgckgc, Kim Scarborough, DonkeyHotey, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, h.koppdelaney, gleonhard, Pedro Travassos, nociveglia, RonAlmog, Israel_photo_gallery, Septemia, Paulann_Egelhoff, Tatiana12, MAD Hippies Life, Neta Bartal, milesgehm, shooting brooklyn, RonAlmog, smilygrl, gospelportals, leighblackall, symensphotographie, zeevveez, Kyknoord, wotashot (taking a break), Tambako the Jaguar, bitmask, Arnie Sacknooson, mattymatt, Rob Swystun, zeevveez, Dun.can, Tim Patterson, timeflicks, garlandcannon, HRYMX, fred_v, Yair Aronshtam, zeevveez, Ron Cogswell, FindYourSearch, Israel_photo_gallery, Serendipity Diamonds, zeevveez, Steve Corey, Dominic's pics, leighklotz, Stefans02, dannyman, RonAlmog, Stephen O, RonAlmog, Tips For Travellers, Futurilla, anomalous4, Bob Linsdell, AndyMcLemore, symphony of love, andydr, sara~, Gamma Man, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, robef, European Southern Observatory, Brett Jordan, Johnny Silvercloud, Israel_photo_gallery, smkybear, --Sam--, Paulann_Egelhoff, Selena Sheridan, D'oh Boy, campbelj45ca, 19melissa68, entirelysubjective, Leimenide, dheera.net, Brett Jordan, HonestReporting.com, Iqbal Osman1, One Way Stock, Jake Waage, picto:graphic, Marcelo Alves, KAZVorpal, Sparkle Motion, Brett Jordan, Ambernectar 13, Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis, Steven DuBois, Cristian V., tortuga767, Jake Cvnningham, D'oh Boy, Eric Kilby, quinn.anya, Lenny K Photography, One Way Stock, Bird Eye, ell brown, Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com, Kevin M. Gill, lunar caustic, gerrybuckel, quinn.anya, Kaz Andrew, kodomut, kayugee, jintae kim's photography, Futurilla, terri_bateman, Patty Mooney, Amydeanne, Paulann_Egelhoff, Mulling it Over, Ungry Young Man, Ruth and Dave, yangouyang374, symphony of love, kennethkonica, young@art, Brett Jordan, slgckgc, Celestine Chua, rkimpeljr, Kristoffer Trolle, TooFarNorth, D'oh Boy, Grace to You, LittleStuff.me, Kevin M. Gill, philozopher, traveltipy.com, Alan Cleaver, crazyoctopus, d_vdm, tonynetone, penjelly, TheToch, JohnE777, hello-julie, DaveBleasdale, Michael Candelori Photography, andessurvivor, slgckgc, byzantiumbooks, sasha diamanti