According to Malcom Gladwell, there is an old Yiddish expression that says that to a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.
Love it! 馃槉
Different people have different agendas and see the world through the prism of their agendas. For some, the agenda is fighting the Internet. [Before I go on, I want to recognize that since the creation of the world there has never been a medium that contained so much immorality, vulgarity, falsehood, hatred, perversion and pure time wasting material than the Internet. I also acknowledge that the Internet has spread far more Torah than probably any Yeshiva in history. I also want to say that my blog is on the Internet and I am my biggest, and quite possibly only, fan馃槀]. So when there is tragedy [such as coronavirus], the reason for it in these people's minds is that we are being punished for Internet.
For others the agenda is tzniyus, so when there is a tragedy or terrorist attack it is a punishment for women who wear long sheitels or clothing that is a bit too tight or skirts with a slit on the bottom. [Important point - I am fully in favor of tzniyus and won't get involved in the discussion of which sheitels are modest. Suffice it to say that it seems that every kallah is buying a sheitel/s that is/are going for upwards of $2000 and that is the standard today. Not worth fighting it. It is what it is and women won't start wearing the sheitels our bubbes wore in the 1800's. Nor necessarily should they.... 讜讗讻"诪].
For others it is talking in shul so that it the source of our tzaros.
Others - affluenza!! Jews [and Goyim for that matter] are far too materialistic so Hashem sends us these tzaros [such as almost completely shutting down the world economy] in order to restore our spiritual-material equilibrium.
For some the agenda is to promote a rational world view. So this tzara is to teach us to pay more attention to doctors, hygiene and modern medicine. The Rambam says in a letter that the reason for the churban was that people were busy studying astrology and not military tactics. We must be PRACTICAL!!!
For yet so many others it is Bittul Torah. As the Gemara says - If you get Yisurim and can't find any other explanation, it must be Bittul Torah.
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We are living in a world of Hester Ponim. This world is compared by Chazal to darkness and we are living in times of double-triple-quadruple-exponential darkness. "讻讬 讛讞讜砖讱 讬讻住讛 讗专抓" to steal one out of Isaiah's "playbook". We don't know ANYTHING!! We still haven't [and never will until Moshiach] recovered from the Holocaust. The scars run deep. Most of us are descended from survivors and are related to those who were killed. We carry emotional baggage that we received from our parents as a free unsolicited gift [and/or we are married to someone who does] that they received from their parents. Then we generously pass it on to our children. One five minute traumatic experience is enough to send a person into a lifetime of therapy which may or may not mitigate the pain that lingers. Imagine 6 full years worth of increments of those five INCREDIBLY TRAUMATIC minutes!! THAT was the Holocaust.
In the past decades, we have experienced so many stories of great people suffering from cancer and other horrible diseases, often leaving the world all too young. Then there are the rates of depression, suicide, addictions of all crazy types, divorce, poverty and the list goes on and on. Is there ONE SIZABLE FAMILY in Klal Yisrael where there are no serious problems? If one looks at the wealthiest families, one will often find MORE problems there than in less affluent and prominent family's. [Always shocks me anew. 讗讝讜讬 驻讬诇 讙注诇讟 讗讜谉 讗讝讜讬 驻讬诇 爪专讜转!!] And families of great rabbonim also suffer. Kids go off the derech. People die young. There is disease. Mental illness. LOTS of problems. Who is impervious to all of this?
NO ONE!! [I have PLENTY of problems but try not to share them, taking the advice of a wise man who said: "Don't tell people your problems. 80 percent won't care and the other 20 percent will be happy you have them"馃榾馃榾].
So why are all of these things happening to us?
The answer is in a famous one liner of the Kotzker: "I wouldn't want to believe in a G-d that a 讟讬驻讛 住专讜讞讛 ["suntan lotion" is a bad translation] can understand". Or as the Navi put it: "讻讬 诇讗 诪讞砖讘讜转讬 诪讞砖讘讜转讬讻诐 讜诇讗 讚专讻讬讻诐 讚专讻讬". G-d's thoughts and ways aren't our thoughts and ways and are inscrutable. So it is a futile exercise to try figuring Him out.
Let me give one eensy-weensy-teensy example of G-d's wisdom:
DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. It’s the genetic code that determines all the characteristics of a living thing. Basically, your DNA is what makes you, you!
You got your DNA from your parents, we call it ‘hereditary material’ (information that is passed on to the next generation). Nobody else in the world will have DNA the same as you, unless you have an identical twin.
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a large molecule in the shape of a double helix. That’s a bit like a ladder that’s been twisted many times.
It’s made up of repeating units called nucleotides. Each nucleotide contains a sugar and a phosphate molecule, which make up the ‘backbone’ of DNA, and, one of four organic bases. The bases are adenine (A), guanine (G), cytosine (C) and thymine (T). It’s the specific order of A, G, C and T within a DNA molecule that is unique to you, and gives you your characteristics.
The DNA in your cells is packaged into 46 chromosomes in the nucleus. As well as being a naturally helical molecule, DNA is supercoiled using enzymes so that it takes up less space.
Try holding a piece of string at one end, and twisting the other. As you add twist, the string creates coils of coils; and eventually, coils of coils of coils. Your DNA is arranged as a coil of coils of coils of coils of coils! This allows the 3 billion base pairs in each cell to fit into a space just 6 microns across.
If you stretched the DNA in one cell all the way out, it would be about 2m long and all the DNA in all your cells put together would be about twice the diameter of the Solar System.
Is this a 诪讛 专讘讜 诪注砖讬讱 moment or WHAT???!!!
That is just a very very small sample of G-d's wisdom. Put together all of the worlds scientists in a room for the next 80 years and they won't be able to produce one human being with DNA [or without, for that matter] while G-d produces them by the billions - each one unique.
So we are trying to read HIS colossally, massive, indescribable mind?? Good luck...
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We should do Teshuva. We believe that we are here in order to perfect ourselves. So of course we should talk less in shul to each other and more to G-d. We [both men and women] should be physically and spiritually modest. We should be more careful about how we use the Internet. We should waste less time and learn more. We should be less materialistic and more spiritual. We won't go on that Pesach Program next year because we learned that we can get the same pleasure complaining at home than we do when we do complaining at a hotel. We can watch youtube videos of the music stars from our living rooms and save the 60k. We should be more conscious of hygiene and health. Less soda, no more drinking out of cups that other people drank from [which Chazal already advised against] - especially if it is soda. Less fatty and/or oily and/or sugary foods and more fruits and vegetables. We have abused our bodies enough. We will get more sleep and drink less coffee. What Maran Ha-Rav ztz"l called "转砖讜讘讛 讛讟讘注讬转". ALL TRUE.
But why? Really why??? Why so many orphans and widows? Why so many heartbreaks?
We can only know when Hashem once again shines His glowing face [讻讘讬讻讜诇] upon us and we herald a new period of Messianic redemption. In the meantime, we hold on tight and keep afloat with three of the most important middos on earth - BITACHON, SIMCHA AND AHAVA. And then some more bitachon, simcha and ahava. A winning trifecta.
Spread it!!!!馃榾
