This week's parsha is the first of the book of Vayikra. The Parsha begins with the words and "He called out to Moshe, and Hashem spoke to him". The word He "called out" "Vayikra" is spelled with a small letter Aleph, without this Aleph the word becomes Vayikar which means "happened". The verse could then be read as "and it happened to Moshe and Hashem spoke to him". In life we see many things "happening" and we usually just brush them off as that nothing more than a "freak of nature", we need to realize though that as the verse continues "Hashem spoke to him", this happening is much more, Hashem is speaking to us.

I think when you have a global catastrophe like Covid-19, it is clear to everyone that this is above an beyond a natural occurrence and we most likely see this as clearly the hand of G-d, but we don't realize that He is speaking to us. Even if we do realize He is speaking to us, it is easy to think that He is saying something that is way "beyond us", there is nothing we can do or did on a personal level which caused the outbreak or could help contain and heal the sick. This thinking is wrong. We are told by our sages that when something bad happens we should look into our deeds and introspect. This is not qualified as only in a cases where the bad thing is on a personal level. Therefore, even when something bad happens to us on a global level we are not exempt from looking into our lives to see what we can improve on. This also means that each person on their own (even in quarantine) can help through their prayers and good deeds.

May we all be safe and healthy. The sick among us should have a speedy recovery.

Shabbat Shalom,

Heath