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Moving on After the Pandemic
by D Tzfatman
The lesson which must prevail must be tested by the uprooting of the causes of the epidemic, so that its continuation should embody an anathema to evil and with hatred towards wantonness and animalistic baseness. The Torah states, "Regarding the matter of Kozbi bas Tzur, prince of Midian." This is followed by the statement in the posuk, "And it was after the plague..."
We now find ourselves (in Israel) at that interim point between the settling down of the harsh epidemic and the fear of a second wave of another outbreak. The first chapter ended by easing us rather quickly into the old routine, "life returning to its regular channels." But this routine, precisely, is replete with pitfalls. The street has not changed in the least; the yetzer hora did not enter in quarantine for even a short period but waited for us outside, in the deserted street, lying in ambush at our doorstep, where "sin crouches in wait."
A similar epidemic once raged violently in Jerusalem, felling many victims. When it was arrested, the Rav of Yerushalayim, HaRav Meir Auerbach, author of "Imrei Binah," hastened to impose an amendment that there be no more than one musical instrument at a wedding. All the Torah leaders of Yerushalayim agreed to it and it was duly instituted. All this followed what had been common up till then, when musicians from abroad introduced frivolous and unseemly songs.
When the plague broke out, HaRav Meir saw the need to arrest it immediately and institute a practice which would bring a halt to it.
When the Maggid, Rav Ben Zion Yadler, dwelt on this, he would add, "In the episode of the plague which broke out in the Midbar, we find two definitions to the situation of its arrest. It all began with the act of Kozbi, followed by the zeal of Pinchos, after which it is written, "And the plague was arrested."
In a following perek we find a posuk which ostensibly is irrelevant to what follows, namely, "And it came to pass after the plague..." What is the significance of these two verses?
The Maggid raised his voice and thundered, "What lies between these two statements is the parsha ordering us to despise the Midianites. We see that the zealous act of Pinchos succeeded in halting the plague, and it did stop temporarily, but it still raged amongst the people. The acid test was where this would finally lead to; what lesson must be learned from it?
"If matters returned to its former routine, that is, if the causes of the spiritual backslide still prevailed, the plague would erupt once again. That is why Moshe Rabbenu hastened to convey Hashem's command of spurning the Midianites. The lesson must stand the test of uprooting the causes of the plague, by shunning the evil, by hatred of licentiousness and depravity, `regarding the matter of Kozbi bas Tzur, prince of Midian,' for if not, the plague may have temporarily been arrested, but not altogether banished.
"Only after the people rise up through shunning evil and distancing it from them, and rouse themselves from returning to their former spiritual lowliness, would they be able to uproot the plague entirely so that it could be stated, "...and it was after the plague."
Many insights made their appearance in our hearts during the course of the epidemic: sanctifying the home, despising the street and what it represents, a yearning for shuls and their sanctity, pain over bitul Torah, a diminution of flamboyant weddings and their exaggerated costs (which mirrors the amendment of the Imrei Binah).
But we stand disappointed, seeing that everything has returned so quickly to its former state, as if nothing had happened here, as if we hadn't experienced, all of us, a period of introspection and a strong internal arousal.
In the period of "and the plague was arrested," we are behooved to internalize the succeeding step of "abhorring the Midianites" of our times so that we speedily merit "and it came to pass after the plague."
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