COVID Religion on the Way Out


Covid has really shaken things up for the last year plus, but it seems to be on the way out now. Just like in the wake of 9/11, there will be some lasting changes to normal activities which will become a new norm, like easy store curbside pickup (which is great when you have kids in the car).

There’s another huge change that I hope we can capitalize on. For years, America has increasingly become more and more secular, which is worrisome to many. Hopefully the Covid religion will help bring back Yiddishkeit to many people who have “drifted”.

After all, Covid and religion have some striking similarities:

  1. Seeing- You can’t see the virus with your eyes, just like you can’t see G-d with your eyes.

  2. Belief- Because of this, some people deny the existence of Covid, just like people deny the existence of G-d.

  3. Evidence- If you pay attention, you can see what Covid (G-d forbid) does, just like you can see what G-d does.

  4. Delayed effect- It can take two weeks or more to see the impact that an interaction with another person has. Likewise, every mitzvah we do has an impact, but it takes time (until Moshiach) to see the impact that mitzvah has on the world itself.

  5. Trusting the experts- To some degree, everyone at some point has had to rely on the experts to determine the acceptable amount of risk & compliance with guidelines, just like people ask their rabbi for halachic guidance.

  6. Rituals- Belief in the Covid religion requires rituals that either make sense or don’t make sense, like mask-wearing, double mask-wearing, shopping with gloves, full body sanitizing upon reentering your home, and the super religious who won’t even attend a Zoom event!

  7. Judgement- Anyone more ritualistic than me is a fanatic, and anyone less ritualistic is a heretic and murderer.

At any rate, for the past year plus, people who have been uncomfortable with believing have had to practice belief. People who have been averse to rituals have now had their fair share of rituals. People who were uncomfortable “outsourcing their thinking to the rabbis”, as many nonreligious people refer to it, have had to do just that.

This is all coming to an end, though. As the virus is on it’s way out and we are starting to throw off the “yoke of COVID”, where will we redirect the ritualistic habits we’ve recently acquired? Where will we direct our belief? Where will direct our trust?

Maybe G-d is priming the world for Moshiach, when we will all direct our belief and trust to Him and accept the yoke of heaven, returning to the rituals of the Torah in good health! 

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