Could The Coronavirus Be An Opportunity?

Print         Vayakhel         Pekudei          Hachodesh
In Vayakhel and Pekudei it speaks about the construction of the Mishkan, which the Talmud Yerushalmi calls the Second Mishkan and the Midrash calls the Lower Mishkan. What is the First Mishkan or the Higher Mishkan? The one spoken about in Teruma and Tetzaveh, which is a spiritual Mishkan. It was the one between Hashem and Moshe, He commanded Moshe to make it, when he was still on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah. 

The Talmud Yerushalmi tells us that the eighteen blessings of the Amida prayer is for the eighteen commandments regarding the Second Mishkan. 

Then it asks: But in fact there are nineteen commandments? And it answers that the only ones that are included are the ones that are said with regards to both Betzalel and Elihav, but the one that is said for Betzalel alone is not counted. 

When it says the commandments of the Second Mishkan, it means every time it says, "as Hashem commanded Moshe." 

What is the connection between the commandments of the Mishkan and the blessings of the Amida? Why is the Amida specifically connected to the Second Mishkan? And why do we count with regards to the Amida, the statement, "as Hashem commanded," only when Elihav is included? 

Tefila, which is usually translated as prayer, means to connect two things together. And in our case, a Jewish person with G-dliness. It is bringing even the lowest parts of the person up to Hashem and connecting with His essence. 

Now we will understand the connection between the Mishkan and the Amida. Because the idea of the Mishkan is to take physical objects and raise them up to Hashem, we raise them to the point where He will "dwell in them," that they become one. So the Mishkan and the Amida are the same, they are both taking what is physical and low and connecting them and filling them with G-dliness. 

Why specifically the Second Mishkan? Because the First Mishkan was spiritual, it didn't and couldn't take the physical and lift it up to Hashem. It was specifically the Second Mishkan that took the physical, gold, silver, etc. and lifted them up, making them into a home for Hashem. 

This physical world that we are in, is the lowest of all the realms of existence, and with the Mishkan we took specifically the lowest physical things in the world and lifted them up to Hashem. The same is with our prayers, of which the Amida is the central prayer, we have to take the lowest parts of us and raise them up to Hashem. When you lift from the bottom, you raise the whole thing. 

This is also true when it comes to our fellow Jews, we have to raise them all up with our prayers, even the ones who you deem lower than you, even the ones who you deem the lowest. As the Pri Eitz Chaim says and the Alter Rebbe brings in his siddur that before one starts to pray he should accept upon himself the mitzvah of "love your fellow as yourself." According to the Baal Shem Tov, this refers even to a Jew who you  never saw and even to one who lives on the other side of the earth. 

And this means even a Jew who is at the other side of the earth spiritually. 

And now we will understand why when it comes to the Amida we only count an "as Hashem commanded," when Elihav is included. The Midrash tells us that Betzalel was from the tribe of Yehuda, the greatest of the tribes, and Elihav was from the tribe of Dan, the lowest of the tribes, and that is why they were chosen to build the Mishkan. It included everyone from the highest to the lowest, otherwise it wouldn't be a true Mishkan, a place where Hashem wants to dwell. 

The same is with our prayers, if we don't include every Jewish person, it isn't a place where Hashem wants to be. And if we include all of our brothers and sisters, He wants to be with us and our prayers form a deep bond with Him. 

From this we see how important the mitzvah of "love your fellow as yourself" is, it is truly the key to everything, our connection to Hashem, our blessings and it is the thing that will bring Moshiach. 

This is what my wife Dina wrote. I am adding it because it is profound, and it shows the incredible effect we all have on the world, just imagine how you can change the world with your one act of loving your fellow: 

What we are seeing is how connected  we all are. In just a short time this virus has, by no effort at all, spread to all four corners of the world. Do you realize what that means? You can literally change the entire world by one interaction. Imagine that!!! 

Now we are in a time where our love for our fellow is extremely necessary and we have to be creative to keep this mitzvah, because we can't visit people. Luckily we live in a time that technology lets us visit with people, learn Torah and do kindness for one another virtually. And with the right precautions, we can find ways to do kindness physically. 

So if you know anyone who is alone, give them a call, a video call, send a text message, email, etc. And if you know anyone who can't get food, you can take the right precautions, and drop off food, groceries, and even :) toilet paper. 

Who are the ones that need you the most? The ones who no one wants to visit and that is what true loving your fellow is. The main thing now is that no one feels forgotten or alone. 

This is also a good time to make amends with family, friends and others who you may have hurt. 

This pandemic that we are facing is not only bad, there is a lot of good that comes out of it too, and that rests primarily in your hands. 

There is another good thing that comes out of it, although you may not see it as good and that is knowledge and experience. It is a little taste of what people go through every day, people who have a sick person in their family or people who are in a long term crisis. They experience the fear of the unknown, the feeling of hopelessness, and the feeling of their future and their dreams slipping away. And I believe that it is a good thing, because it will give you an opportunity to be a better friend for a person who feels isolated and alone, being that no one understands them. And that is a deep way of doing the mitzvah of "loving your fellow," to be a real friend who understands. 

If we keep the mitzvah of "loving your fellow as yourself," the best that we can, we will be blessed with all the blessings of the Amida, including healing, prosperity, the coming of Moshiach, and the last blessing of peace. And as we say in the last blessing, "bless us all together as one," that when we are as one, when we keep the mitzvah of "loving your fellow as yourself," including every Jewish person, we receive Hashem's amazing blessings and the ultimate blessing that we all need and want, the coming of Moshiach. May he come soon.