Everyone Must Get Vaccinated

Everybody must get vaccinated right away. Don’t think about it. Don’t talk about it.  

Do it immediately! 

Before it’s too late, learn another chapter of Torah. Pray for you absolute worst enemy. Smile at a random person. Recite Psalms for the world.  

With each variant, take a booster. Learn more. Daven more. Throw your cable TV in the garbage.  

The unvaccinated get punished.  

Those who choose not to make any type of repentance or return remain vulnerable to this plague Hashem has unleashed on all mankind for our collective sins. The world allowed sodomy and debauchery during the time of Noah. G-d destroyed everyone and everything. Mankind itself received the death penalty.  

When the Jewish People reverted to such perversions during the First and Second Temple era, we lost everything. We were destroyed as a nation. To this day we are a shell of ourselves.  

Hashem tells us that among the reasons we were rescued from Egypt is because the Mitzrim (Egyptians) were committing the sins of sodomy, perversion, and blatant injustice. God gave them ten plagues to annihilated them for all time.  

The seven nations, the most powerful on earth, committed such abominations. Hashem wiped them out so we could settle the Land of Israel.  

The massive empire of Rome was never beaten. They imploded due to these sins.  

How can we be so blind to history? 

The Symptoms of Danger 

A hundred and twenty years ago, Smallpox killed one out of every three people who contracted it. A hundred years ago, one in ten people who got the Spanish flu succumbed to it.  

Today, less than 1% of COVID-19 cases are terminal.  

Today’s Judgment is an act of Mercy.  

But we know what is coming if we don’t vaccinate ourselves properly.  

Before the great flood, Hashem flooded a third of the earth. When the people didn’t repent, He flooded another third. God told Noach to build the ark over a 120 year period so people could ask Noach why he was doing this and thereby repent.  

It’s up to us to prevent another catastrophe. The mandate to vaccinate with acts of repentance must be mandatory.  

We all need our two doses and constant boosters:  

Dose 1: Emunah 

It is so easy to get angry at everything. It feels like all these people are conspiring to hurt us.  

They aren’t. They aren’t doing a thing.  

Everything that happens, from anyone on earth, is a message from our King.  

In Israel, I just got beaten up at work by a bunch of non-Jews for not focusing enough on work during Chanukah. It was a tough pill to swallow. To move to Israel just to be told off for putting too much energy into the holiday where we fought these very people to put more energy into our holidays is heartbreaking – but only while I don’t have proper emunah. 

Knowing that it comes from HaKadosh Baruch Hu, and that these people are nothing but rods in His Hands, I should be dancing for joy.   

I am working to create my own business so I can spend every Sunday going to Jerusalem to pray, speak to Hashem, and learn in a Yeshiva.  

The problem is that I am being lazy about it and the window of opportunity is closing. What does Hashem do? He punches me in the face – thank God! 

He says, either you put in the effort so you can serve Me in My home or you will spend your days serving them in yours.  

Even in what I imagined to be a nightmare is a blessing from my Father to get moving on making my greatest dreams come true.  

There is no bad in this world. Just prodding from Above to get us moving in the right direction.  

That goes for every other “nightmare” we all face.  

Dose 2: Stop the Slander  

Israelis are amazing at uniting to achieve a common goal.  

In my seven years in Israel hi-tech, I have seen people from every background you can imagine band together to get a product ready on time, advance a content campaign, even toast to each other’s families at a company party.  

When we have a common goal, we put everything aside to pursue it.  

It’s up to us to take this beyond the office and the battlefield. 

President Yitzchak Herzog is calling for everyone to be more civil on social media. Elected by a broad majority of right-wing and left-wing lawmakers, his call is for all of us to heed the laws of Lashon Hara and tone down the anger.  

What if we rally behind his call? In the name of the great Rabbi Hertzog, z”l, who rescued thousands of Jews from the Holocaust and brought them to Israel, what if we all made this teshuva to the honor of his grandson? 

What if we promise ourselves to learn and live the laws of decent speech.  

Booster Shots: Shmirat HaBrit, Daily Gratitude, Daily Learning 

Every year we have to take our booster shots.  

That’s when the effects of the doses we took weaken and we have to inject something into our system to renew our protection from calamity.  

We need to audit ourselves. We need to ask honestly if we are behaving properly with members of the other sex. Are we expressing gratitude for everything Hashem gives us? Are we learning enough Torah every day?  

We don’t even need to wait a year. We can wake up every morning and ask ourselves these questions.  

The way to get truly protected from this plague is to gain favor in His eyes and live in the shadow of His protection.  

Hashem is the cure. Vaccines, masks, and social distancing are some of the means He employs, but the true vaccine is Torah. The best medicine is mitzvot.  

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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.