Maran HaRav Shach zt"l
The phenomenon of scoffing at danger, as grotesque as it seems, surfaces before our very eyes every once in a while. We are privy to this mad devil's dance with regard to the Corona virus, expressed by various people. It is astounding to hear their claims and so-called scientific proofs to justify the irresponsible conduct of ignoring the directives of medical bodies according to the directives of our Torah leadership. People who in their private lives obey every doctor's order and frequent his clinic, suddenly become `professors' on the subject of Corona. Thus, for example, they claim that it is precisely the mask that causes contagion. Surely, they will eventually claim that those who are infected or are carriers are not at all afflicted with the virus.
The deviousness of this outlook with regard to public subjects should be a subject for contemplation. When HaRav Moshe Rosenstein, Mashgiach of Lomzha, once asked his master, the Mashgiach HaRav Yeruchom, how it came to be that the Generation of the Desert, a dor deiah, sinned in so many severe ways, he opened up a Tehillim and said movingly and tearfully, "They are a nation of wayward hearts."
There are errors caused by intellectual mistakes, but the most severe fault is a `misguided heart,' when the heart leads the person to his injudiciousness.
HaRav Yisroel Salanter wrote in a letter, "A person's imagination leads him astray, according to what his heart desires. Woe unto [a person with] such an evil enemy."
One cannot help but note how people conduct themselves sanely in their private lives, but in their public lives are totally irrational, led by negative dominant characteristics which set their pace. "They are a nation of misguided hearts, and they did not know My ways."
HaRav Ben Zion Bergman addressed the Rashbi Kollel, speaking about the desirable trait discussed by baalei haMussar, regarding suppressing negative, warped traits of refusing to "hear what is being said."
The members of HaRav Shach's household know to what a great extent he exercised the trait of submission and conforming to the orders of his doctors, who were `granted permission to heal,' seeing this as carrying out of Hashem's will in every form and way.
This aptly expresses what the Maggid R' Shabsai Yudelevitz once said about a similar instance. He quoted the question of the Netziv on the weekly parsha. Bilaam asked for the death of the upright. Why, he asked, did Bilaam define the death of his ancestors as an upright death and not that of tzaddikim or kedoshim?
His answer was taken from the teachings of the Netziv himself on the posuk, "He is the Rock; all His ways are perfect — just and right is He." This reflects the period of the destruction of Bayis Sheini, whose generation was perverse and crooked.
On the one hand, they were tzaddikim and toiled in Torah, but they were perverse in their deeds to the degree of bloodshed. The Torah says that Hashem is just and right and loves those who are righteous - on condition that they are also just, yoshor."
