לרפואת הרב חיים יצחק בן פריידא פייגא לאה ושאר חולי קורונה
On one hand, the very people who are held to be the Gedolei Ha-dor said NOT to have minyanim - even outside. On the other hand - there is a minyan taking place on my block right now [maybe they didn't hear the news??]. This Shabbos there were a lot of "block minyanim" not keeping with [what were then the guidelines of the health ministry] the rules to limit it to ten people and stand six feet apart.
So here is my theory.
People are well intentioned - but are creatures of habit. So you tell people that if they daven in shul they might get sick and die - it doesn't work, so you have to lock the shuls up.
You tell men that if they go to mikva they might get sick and die within days - it doesn't work, so you have to physically lock up the mikvaos.
More and more letters are coming out from Rabbonim and doctors BEGGING PEOPLE to abide by the rules. In Lakewood, where, nebuch, people are dropping like flies - including some very very chashuv people [which Yid isn't chashuv...] - they need to put up signs that say in big, block, kiddush levana letters "רוצח" for those who don't keep the rules. Why is this necessary??
It befuddles the mind.
So who are we really serving? Hashem? No. Mostly, our habits. Just like when people make a bracha. For many people [like myself, most of the time] it has nothing to do with Hashem. It is pure, ingrained habit.
A man once went to a club for kiruv where formerly frum kids would hang out. He noticed something very odd. These kids would sort of touch the doorpost and kiss their finger as they walked in. The boys are there to drink, smoke, curse, pick up girls and hopefully [for them] "get lucky"- but they kiss the mezuza [sort of] when they walk in. Simply bizarre. Why do we kiss the mezuza? Habit. Hard to break a habit. [Like the kid who made a shehakol on his beer and his friend reminded him that he is no longer religious so why is he making a bracha - so he quickly muttered "ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד"].
Frum people smoke. Not most but some. Why? It kills you. But not before it causes horrific illness that often leave a person attached to tubes and make him want nothing more than to die. Every box of cigarettes says that this will do TERRIBLE things to you. Impotency. Emphysema. Ruins the skin. Lung cancer. And the list goes on. Hundreds of carcinogens. Why do people smoke? I know a person whose whole life is Avodas Hashem, a Talmid Chochom MUFLAG beyond imagination - but he can't stop smoking even though he knows it will make his wife a much younger widow than she should be. Why? What about an open pasuk in Chumash "ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם", which our tradition understands to be an exhortation to guard your health??
Habit.
So here is the Avoda for today [and forever]. Let us keep up with our good habits but infuse with MEANING AND MINDFULNESS. And if we ever need to break a habit [such as we are doing now by not going to shul] we can do it easily b/c we are not serving our habits but the RIBBONO SHEL OLAM.
