The Crown Cure

Even after the vaccines, a new strain has emerged that is 30 times more contagious than the previous mutations. Lockdowns have become more severe in intensity and length.  

Baruch Hashem, I think I understand why Hashem sent us this plague. Why He calls it the corona, or The Crown Virus.  

This plague has locked us in our rooms without escape. We cannot work. We cannot produce. We are like the chick trapped in the egg.  

How will we eat? 

We can only rely on Hashem.  

All we can produce in our plague–imposed exile is Emunah.  

Chovot Halevavot talks about how Hashem provides all the needs for every being on earth. In the chapter on  Emunah,  Rabbi  Bahya ibn Paquda specifically mentions the chick inside the egg. If G-d can provide a chick, trapped inside a vessel half the size of your hand, with everything it needs to grow and come to life, He can absolutely provide us with all we need, anywhere, under any circumstance.  

Part II of the Great Test 

You might be thinking, “We have a vaccine. Things are going back to normal. We don’t need masks anymore so we can simply open the classifieds.” 

Things will take time.  

Once we return to “normal,” the economy will be a fraction of what it was. It could take years before we are back to where we were.  

Call it the Corona Recession.  

Corona, which means Crown, is the royal seal of Emunah. It’s the faith that no matter how impossible it may be to carve out the piece of life we want, Hashem can do anything at any moment, so there is no need to ever despair.  

Even in a depression there are companies and industries that flourish. Even during a plague there are people — both fighting the illness and evading it, that grow, thrive, and most of all – come closer to Hashem through their steadfast faith that everything He is doing is for the good.  

Faith comes hard when times are good. There is less reason to look Above when everything you need is all around you.  

Faith comes really hard when times get rough. It is human nature to become self-blinded to anything beyond our own pain. When we suffer, all we want is for the suffering to stop. Our entire mindset is for the bad to go away. We don’t see any good in it.  

The New Offensive 

You would think that the media would have only good news to report.  

They got what they wanted. They brought down their great enemy and replaced him. There should be nothing but perfume and roses coming out of every newspaper.  

Still sewage.  

Nothing you will read about in the news, social media, or on your Smartphone will be positive. There will be nothing uplifting. They make money off of bad news, which is three times more likely to generate traffic. 

Dealing despair is their bread and butter.  

All day we are exposed to the screens that tell us the world is falling apart. That the plague is eating us alive. The economy is only helping a select few that doesn’t include you.  

They want you to feel like there is no hope. They want you to feel only outrage, anger, and helplessness. 

They are doing everything in their power to team up with the plague to turn you away from Hashem and take away the light He put inside you.   

Take it with a smile.  

Look Out Your Window 

The word for nature has the same numerical value as the word for G-d.  

G-d uses nature to hide Himself from us so we can find Him with more of our being. He uses everything you see around you as “props” to reveal His Light.  

Look at the clouds. The majestic sky which stretches into infinity.  

Look at a leaf and gaze at the myriad of veins, colors, and edges that make up this work of art half the thickness of a piece of paper.  

Look at a small bird. An animal no larger than your arm can reach heights that we can only achieve with six million pieces put together to make an airplane.  

An apple, created with a tough skin to survive the elements, endowed with nutrients and sweetness, will weigh heavily on a branch for months without falling. Only at the time it is ripe to sink into the ground to give birth to a new tree will it “miraculously” fall off to fulfill its mission.  

These miracles are everywhere. Hashem is everywhere. The exception is in what they show you on the screens they peddle you.  

By looking up at the sky, the trees, the birds, and everything around us that makes up the Eden He calls earth, we can remember Who this world belongs to.  

It belongs to He Who dictates everything from the movement of the trillions of stars in His galaxies, to a single wind blowing over a blade of grass to provide shade for an inchworm, to the fate of His microscopic virus we call COVID-19.  

G-d is the King of mankind. We recite this in our aleinu prayer three times a day. He is the Chief Executive of this world. 

There is nothing to worry about. The anxieties of this world are like the news reels – all fake! They can be turned off at any given moment.  

You cannot do that for the sky, the birds, or our own spirit.  

He provides for a chick inside his eggshell straightjacket. No matter how tight the restraints close in on us, it’s all an illusion. Even if our life is stuffed in a room and we can’t move, as long as we keep the faith, the Crown stays on our head.  

That’s why He calls it the Crown Virus.  

G-d places within us the Crown Cure.  

* * * 

David Ben Horin lives in Afula with his wife and children. Since moving to Israel in 2002, David has discovered Torah, writing hi-tech, hiking, coding ReactJS Apps, and hearing stories about the Land of Israel from anyone excited to tell them. Check him out on Highway 60 or email him your favorite Israel story at:  

david.ben.horin@spreadyourenthusiasm.com.