The majority of the Jewish population in the diaspora is facing an extinction level spiritual event, not because of Covid-19, but because of their actions based on Covid-19. Like many problems in our history, this is self-inflicted. Anyone contemplating a Jewish future in the Diaspora needs a serious weltanschauung check up.
Let's review briefly. The hardest hit part of the Jewish population in the tri-state area was the Hareidi/Yeshivish portion. They absorbed the blow, mourned for the dead, and moved on. Life in Boro Park, Flatbush, Monsey and Lakewood is mostly back to normal. Shuls host normal minyanim, yeshivas are preparing to re-open and with nary a mask or social distancing to be seen when you walk down the streets. What a pleasure to shake hands in a shul and say "Good Shabbos" without a mask getting in the way of an exchanged smile.
So why is this?
- Perhaps because they have the insight to know that the ridiculous overreaction to a virus that has a 99.96% recovery rate is more about politics and control than anything health related.
- Perhaps because they don't treat their shuls as day-care centers for their children or a place to hang out and meet once a week to talk about the latest deals.
- Perhaps because they treat their shuls and Rabbis with proper awe and reverence, and actually come to daven and hear torah reading or a shiur without making a sound.
- Perhaps because the women actually dress modestly and stylishly at the same time without the need for pritzut.
- Perhaps because they don’t have an urgent need for mixed dancing at their shul social functions.
Am I being too subtle?
The reform and conservative Jews were already headed for the precipice pre-Covid. With massive assimilation rates, no connection to Israel, open hostility to the more observant, and now cowering in fear with their masks in place and afraid of contact, there is little chance that any religious connection that they might have will last. Paying thousands of dollars in membership to watch video streaming services on Rosh Hashana (RH) and Yom Kippur (YK) does not sit well with them (although I'm sure $50K tuition for an online degree from Harvard is just fine). All of the unnecessary Covid restrictions that they have joyfully adapted will be the final push over the cliff.
Which brings me to the Modern Orthodox, my main focus here. There is a new savior in the Modern Orthodox community. It's called Zoom. There are Zoom shiurim, Zoom cooking classes, pre-Shabbat Zoom services, even Zoom Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. Zoom Zoom Zoom. And while they are aware that broadcasting of actual Zoom or services are a no-no (at least for now), several Modern Orthodox rabbis have gone on record pondering about how to "truncate" or "abbreviate" RH/YK services and make them manageable in a tent or a parking lot. They wear masks in shul, socially distance, have "backyard minyanim" all believing that eventually a vaccine will make everything hunky dory again. They are content to be good citizen sheeple and take religious direction from political leaders who have been shown to be mass elder killers as well as take medical direction from "experts" who clearly have no clue or are compromised in some way.
Proof?
- How can anyone with a rational medical mind ignore the fact that Sweden and Holland completely eschewed masks, lockdowns, social distancing and yet the virus is just about gone?
- How can anyone with a rational medical mind ignore the fact that Governor Kristi Noem from South Dakota, also eschewed the lockdown and "trusted people" to use common sense precautions like hand washing, social distancing when judged appropriate and optional mask wearing? The result? 150 deaths in a state of 900,000. That's a fatality rate of 0.017%.
- How can anyone with a rational medical mind look at the results of Israel's full-on lockdown and know it didn't work as well as the fact that the States in the US with the highest fatalities had the most punitive lockdowns?
- How can anyone with a rational medical mind not realize that Dr. Anthony Fauci and the media deliberately suppressed information and even denigrated (with false publications that were later retracted) the curative effect of hydroxychloroquine in Covid all so that Fauci and big pharma could make billions on remdesivir, a barely effective drug at $3000/dose, and rushed through the FDA after one study that Fauci co-sponsored? That in doing this, they caused the deaths of thousands of people and are guilty of, if not murder, then criminally negligent homicide.
- How can anyone with a rational medical mind not know that Fauci's lab wrote the paper in 2005 that showed hydroxychloroquine effectiveness in SARS/corona viruses?
- And so how can any expert with a rational medical mind not tell the shuls to re-open because there is a cure available?
- Truth will be considered lies and lies will be considered truth
- All sheker (falsehood) will be exposed and subsequently destroyed.
- There will be massive bibul daas (confusion, ignorance, stupidty etc)
- And there will be no one to rely on except Gd above.
The other fascinating and ironic piece to this, is that in the approach to Covid, the Hareidi/Yeshivish had it wrong in the beginning but have it right at present, whereas the Modern Orthodox had it right in the beginning but are completely wrong now. Call it Divine role reversal. It's amazing how fear and a media-generated frenzy can control a narrative. I suppose it’s fortunate that the Hareidi/Yeshivish world eschews TV and most of the internet. As a friend of mine remarked, if you want to stop the pandemic (?plandemic, ?DEMpanic) throw out your TV.
In my opinion, Modern Orthodoxy will have three options if they continue on the current path.
- A third will soldier on in the 'new normal".
- A smaller third will move closer to the Hareidi/Yeshivish hashkafa.
- And the third that views Modern Orthodoxy as a way to "check the boxes" will decide it’s too hard or not worth it, and be lost spiritually.
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