I went to shul where there were signs up that due to the situation - we must be especially careful not to talk in shul. Not a word on any sign about distancing, masks, hygiene etc. Just don't talk in shul.
That has become a "thing". This plague has come to the world b/c we talk in shul.
I have written extensively in the past that unless we have some prophetic insight, it is quite presumptuous to attribute this horrific plague to any specific sin. מהיכי תיתי?? How can we know???
Human nature is to try to make sense of things. People feel more comfortable when they understand why things happened. So people make things up and they feel better.
Now I am not saying that it is NOT b/c of talking in shul. I actually have NO IDEA why this is happening. I DO KNOW that the mind of Hashem is unfathomable. All we try to fathom is what He revealed to us in His Torah and through the prism of the חכמי ישראל.
It goes w/o saying that it is אסור to talk about mundane matters in shul. However, according to most poskim [except for the ספר היראים] the איסור is only מדרבנן. So millions of people are getting sick b/c of an איסור דרבנן we aren't keeping?? Maybe. But what about all the much much much more severe איסורים??? [Assuming this is a punishment and not, for example, the unraveling of the world before the coming of Moshiach or something else].
For example, we read in last weeks Parsha of the sin of Jews sleeping with the Moabite women and 24 thousand people dying in a "plague". It was stopped when Pinchas took things into his own hands... "הבועל ארמית קנאים פוגעין בו". Today there is 70 percent intermarriage in the USA. Out of every ten Jews that marry - seven are going to marry non-Jews. Like, MASS בועל ארמית going on over here.
Am I suggesting that we act like Pinchas? No. That would be dumb and wrong for various reasons. To carry out the act of Pinchas - one must be Pinchas or on his level.
I AM however suggesting [radically] that the sin of copulating on a regular basis with Gentile partners on a mass scale is worse than talking in shul. So why go for the "talking" sin when we have in an explicit Biblical source a sin that is so commonplace today that causes plagues??
So Corona is b/c of intermarriage??
Not saying that either. Until the restoration of prophecy we won't know.
Our job is נחפשה דרכינו ונחקורה ונשובה אל השם. When Hashem is absent, hiding His Face, there is major trouble. When we are close to Him and He is present - everything is good.
So let us bring Him back by loving Him and loving His children and acting in ways that express that love. The Rambam writes in the Sefer Hamitzvos that the mitzva of loving Hashem includes bringing people close to His service.
We also should only talk about mundane matters outside of shul. We should be kinder and less impatient. We should be more focused on our souls and slightly less immersed in our bodies. We should learn more Torah and spend less time on nonsense. There are so many areas where we can improve ourselves. We will do what is incumbent upon us and let our Merciful G-d do the rest.
Bi-simcha!!
