Israel Uncensored: Corona Passover is Not Unprecedented

I stood here Israel uncensored on land of his world network at the Land of Israel calm it is Monday April 6 2020 the 12th of Nisan 5 7 8 ho here in Gush Etzion Israel we are getting ready for the holiday of Passover an unprecedented Passover perhaps perhaps the times of the times of Egypt hold on my guest is jumping chomping at the bit here we're gonna introduce him in a second maybe maybe one of the only times Jews are self isolating as a result of a pandemic you could argue there were a certain certainly difficult times throughout Jewish history whether it's making piss off during the show ah making piss off during the pogroms and massacres and Crusades and other things going on throughout Jewish history but I don't know maybe the rabbi our guest rabbi got happy hood from ha boy team second-hand thrift shops in Jerusalem who does such important work for the community reaching out to those with mental disabilities given the opportunities to go to work maybe he has more insight on this but as far as I know I mean this is this is pretty unprecedented as we are stuck in our homes and unfortunately there's a death and sickness around us and please God all those who are coping with Korona who are suffering from Corona will survive and thrive and get better as we head here towards Pesa so I've already introduced him already it's been a long time our scholar in residence for the show I think we've missed a bunch of holidays but now is a perfect opportunity here in the springtime with renewal tab back on the program rabbi guy I'll be hood from Jerusalem rabbi welcome back to Israel uncensored here great on the Land of Israel network at the Land of Israel calm great to be with you Josh it's been a while wow it's been a while it's been a few months already since so we spoke in a while you know what absolutely show I miss you it's it certainly has man I miss you also and with restrictions in place I do not know who the next time I will be in Jerusalem is I understand there's actually a lot of traffic getting to the holy city because police are stopping people I think I think justifiably maybe some people think it's too much but people stopping police rather stopping people on the way to Jerusalem I heard rumors of traffic jams two-three hours yesterday getting to Jerusalem trying to make sure people aren't breaking the rules and not spreading Corona so first of all how are you how are you doing how are you coping with the current reality I'm doing amazing I'm actually really enjoying this time as it gives me time to sit at home and and reflect my house has never been so clean for besa and never been so clean for Passover I've never I've never been so ready for Passover and in all of my years because I've been at home for the past four three and a half weeks quarantined for two of them because I came back from the United States and it's it's given me a lot of time to sit down and enjoy my family and take a gear down usually Passover is is our busy time it have boy them because people drop off all their clothes and this year people have dropped off their clothes also well maybe we'll talk about it later but we are unable to process it because of Corona but this year I've been at home a lot more enjoying my family I do my Accio me shower every day in 8 o'clock in the morning 8 o'clock at night on zoom' which is an incredible tool tool that nobody knew anything about about a month ago and it's changed the world and the way that people communicate and I and I think that there's a great lesson to be learned about even an isolation we're not alone and how God when he inflicts us with a plague he brings to cure first and I think that cure for being isolated from other people is the ability to sit down your English it's yarn I mean I'm in Jerusalem I could may as well have been in New York or Sydney Australia and we're sitting and we're talking and we have our communications right and I think it's a it's a beautiful thing that you can be alone but lonely you could be by yourself but never alone maybe maybe that's the better way to say it you know I travel a lot I I I've been learning that for me and teaching for over 20 years now every day adopt with the Talmud to to anchor me and to know like where my my centuries to always come back to learning and when I used to travel I always took my little Talmud book my camera I used to take it with me around the world and wherever I was doesn't matter if it was like I said Australia or Canada or LA wherever I am is to open the book and I used to be right there with Jewish people and it gave me a real connection and as far as I'm concerned learning the Torah is the real connection but today we can learn the Torah while seeing people while conversing with people which is one level above that's absolutely beautiful rabbi guy and I'm going to I'm gonna tell you where I'm struggling with all of this and this isn't a therapy session it's a radio interview but I I see as as you just described all of the Torah learning and people are adapting to the realities and are taking all these online courses and zoom meetings and Shiori mand writing cifra Torah and all these amazing projects that I see are going on but you know just looking outside my window here I mean unfortunately I mean you have thousands and thousands of people sick here in Israel you have hundreds of thousands around the world you have a crazy death rate in places like northern Italy and in New York I think northern Italy is actually slowing down a little bit but New York is like the epicenter Long Island and all these places and you know for us especially Jewish communities and everyone really all humanity is going through this struggle how are you able to you know come become kampar what's the word compr mentalize yeah what's the word I'll be here yeah it's great compromise there you go governmental eyes you know the situation where as you know thank God people are healthy on one and are able to continue their lives even with the restrictions even with quarantines and isolation I was also in mandated quarantine for about four days because I was in the US and unfortunately somebody on my plane had corona so retro actively I had to go into quarantine you do all this stuff how are you able to put it in different in different arenas in it one at the same time have sympathy and empathy for those I'm sure everyone knows somebody who's had the virus or has the virus or you know is in different type of different types of conditions and at the same time continue to you know I don't want to say block it out but you know not let it affect you logically mentally maybe we could keep going maybe we can just say live you know we were obligated to live and our tour obligates us to live and I think about my 93 year old grandmother who lives on her own and has been at home for over a month now I self isolating from the world scared scared of a little virus that nobody can see scared of her friends scared of her caretaker you know and she's at home she's taking care of herself thank God she's very independent but with all that independence she's still by herself so yes there's phone and there's there is a we go in and sit with stand outside her balcony and we see her from far but it's not the same and and you can see but tragedy unfortunately tragedy is part of life and the one of the blessings and one of the curses of modern life is that we are so interconnected I spoke before and I in the intro I spoke about the blessing of being interconnected of how we can sit around the world and I'm sitting in in Jerusalem and I speak to my family in New York or in Los Angeles and I speak to my friends all over the world and it's a it's a different right there time is not a difference and space is not a difference you connect online and everything's good but there's a there's a real price for that as well because whatever happens in New York it's as if it happened right here it's as if it happens right now it's as if that being in my house I feel it I see it I feel the plight of the people of Italy I feel the plight of the people in New York I feel I feel all of this now I'm not there but since it's the same way that I get you you told me about traffic jams in on the way to Jerusalem I don't know I haven't gotten out of my house so I've heard about traffic jams next to my house from the news the same way that I heard and I and I felt and I heard the stories of people dying and sick in New York on the news so as far as I'm concerned they're both the same the same distance from me right outside my house is New York right outside my house is Italy and it's a real blessing in one way and it's real hard in another way how we will look and we see and there every every person that is sick and every person that dies is a tragedy that we can see and we can feel but if we look at the numbers of people and we if we look at the history of humankind then we have to somehow realize that there is a tomorrow and we can't look at yesterday and we can't look at a tragedy today like we have to be empathetic about it but we can't let it stop us from living that is the worst thing if that debilitates us from being able to live then there's nothing else we can do I'll tell you I'll tell you those story there's um I work in the mental health field and one of my I used to I used to having a Shiva for people mental illness and one of the students of the Shiva came up to me and said rabbi I hear voices I'm like okay so no I hear voices and said okay hearing voices is is one thing do these voices stop you from living do they stop you from learning do they stop you from from interacting with people if so it's a bad thing if not then just part of life it's part of something we live with so it's not the tragedy and we don't have to ignore the tragedy but how does it what does it do to us does it force us to look at life and take it more seriously and move forward or does it debilitate us and say okay just stay in bed there's nothing else if for the latter then we're in trouble because we don't have the privilege of staying in bed and and and and being down because then we take down everybody else around us as well so we have to look into the future while not disrespecting the people who are suffering we must look into the future or else there is no future that's great advice for people who are perhaps suffering from different mental illnesses or disabilities especially now in these days we all are it's also right yeah we all are that's what I was gonna say it applies everyone have that advice that you gave it applies I think to all of us now and I'm sure everyone you know in one shape or another is getting a little stir-crazy I think we've been in this now for about three three and a half weeks of self-imposed quarantine or mandatory quarantine whatever it is I mean we're basically at home but we need to do what we can to take care of ourselves whether physically mentally have these conversations with people online stay in touch with family and friends get a little time outdoors you know there's nothing wrong with going on your porch and getting some Sun which somebody explained to me yesterday was very very important actually you know be out in the Sun outdoors so but it's it's it sounds to me that you are you're optimistic in terms of the day after tomorrow in other words you know I don't know whether you know obviously it's the hand of God and anything we do and and I don't know in what shape that will take whether it's a vaccine whether these self quarantine measures will just kill the virus it'll have nowhere to go and it'll just die out eventually I mean whatever it is it sounds that you're pretty optimistic that this is not the the Armageddon maybe this is the the beginning of the Britannian the beginning of redemption we've already had in my opinion I mean it's already started but perhaps this is another even further down that road to ultimate redemption and I know go ahead and chime on in here after tomorrow either way whether it solves itself or its Armageddon I'm not gonna solve it I'm not gonna be the one solved I'm not I'm not finding any cure for the vaccine I'm telling you in my house I'm not finding any cure for the vaccine maybe prayer but even if it's Armageddon it's the end of the world also I'm not doing anything forward or against it so I'm not worried about one way or another worrying about something that may or may not happen in the future is stopping me from acting today and I can't allow that to happen and you know we speak about you you asked me before how I look how how I look at the situation and what what I think about the situation and the mental health of people we spoke about and I think that looking at perspective getting perspective on the situation is a blessing and what do I mean in your intro you said this is unprecedented and I chimed in and I said wait wait not unprecedented this is just like the first best ever the first best ever when the Jews were in Egypt they were told to lock themselves in their house not to go outside because the plague is outside to stay within their their families not to invite guests not to have anybody over you and your home you and your children lock the doors don't go out and have pizza and it's exactly like it this year that we have to be only with our core families and we can't go out we we have to be afraid because there is the plague the plague is outside and we have to be fearful for the lives and if I look at the fact that there is nothing new Under the Sun and over 2,000 years ago we had the same VESA it says hey you know how many things we went through in 2,000 years so this is like a little a little dot so this is one part of history one part that seems terrible right now under the microscope literally under the microscope Wilson but it's something else there I I heard yesterday something about Corona which I'm not I'm not sure if it's true but you know I read it on Facebook so it must be true just like everything else yeah right right I sure I heard that the initial part of Corona is makes makes the body react and then what what people died from is the over reaction of the body when the body over reacted goes down to London and it shuts down the body and then the body actually doesn't die from the corona but from the effects of the body of overreacting to the virus and I think it's a huge lesson that we have to learn that sometimes what we do with what kills us is the overreaction and we and all these vaccines that we have are vaccines that are meant to stop the overreaction and if it meant to stop the overage I think that's what we need to look at ourselves and see how do we not overreact do I go out and buy 300 eggs yesterday yesterday I tried to bribe somebody to sell me as a spoilage paper he's like are you kidding you're so March 2020 Matt's man who needs toilet paper any more eggs is it so and tomorrow there's gonna be eggs everywhere and but if we panic and go crazy and we ruin it we have to be very careful not to ruin relationships at times of stress and we have to be very calm and to understand that everybody's stressful and not to overreact because the overreaction is more dangerous than than the act it's like saying the cover-up is worse than the crime it's that that kind of sense you're a political guy and I love myself that's it that's an important message that you just gave now that definitely does do harm to overreactor to be extra stressful and I know just you know like everyone else I also have periods where I'm extremely stressed even I mean I I never liked going to the supermarket in general just too many people and too many aisles and too much Bala ganas they say too much chaos but now it was almost stressful for me just to go to the supermarket but now even more so having to wear a mask and gloves and keep distance from people that being said and in case you're not aware that you refer a by a guy referring to the egg situation I mean we are we are having an egg shortage here but of course Israel which travels around the world picking up stranded Israelis whether in Melbourne or in Peru or whatnot I think it was ten cargo planes some have already landed bringing emergency egg Passover where do I think they're on their way over some have landed yesterday and I heard like I don't know these I don't know if they're true or not i mighta heard crazy stories of like police having to guard the area because people were people were trying to you know it was like Black Friday in America people you can make matzo Bob you can't make egg egg cakes for pestsof Passover without eggs you need eggs for this the Seder itself I mean there's so many different things the omelets people rely on like eggs and potatoes are like the two biggest things you need on pass off but but I think just like Bibi was able to sneak out the Iranian secrets they're out of Tehran we're able to sneak ten cargo planes of eggs we'll have to think of the name of the operation here in the future but I want to just have a few more minutes I just want to get to the actual holiday of pestsof and as you said you're absolutely right unprecedented perhaps we'll call the second time right in history as far as we know I mean there have been other diseases and one not through the ages no leo another different thing I mean not Slough probably not all over the world at the same time right and so yeah that's true but in certain areas people have have been quarantined over hog but but just overall going into the fog we have two three days until about three days until until pestsof Tuesday went out two and a half days and definitely I would say a pestsof like no in terms of the fact that we will not be travelling throughout the country visiting the beautiful sights in the Land of Israel the satyrs will be smaller than usual people with their nuclear families only at home and a lot a lot of a family time with in the house which of course as you said can be a beautiful thing spending time with your family but but overall I want you if you can to this just give a message for this this particular pass off this particular Passover as we're just several days away here getting ready for the holiday wrap so many rabbis said that this year we can we can find leniency more than other years in times of food shortage and even though one is not allowed to have chametz unleavened leavened bread no n is not supposed to have lemon bread including pasta including other things at home what we do is we we do a sale of the things now a lot of people are very strict very stringent not to sell real hummus not to sell pastas not to sell bread not to sell those things and rabbi said that this year even someone who is more strict about these things this year you shouldn't throw away food you should sell it so that you can have and you don't if you don't rush over to the supermarket after because we don't know when this is going to be over if it's gonna be over in a month or it's gonna be over three months we hope for the best but we have to prepare for the worst so you can you can even sell himeko move another thing is that shouldn't go crazy with cleaning as as usual because the rabbi's understand and the chief rabbis they understand that there's no you know everybody's in the house don't start screaming at people because there's nowhere to run there's nowhere to hide so you got it you guys do what you got to do make sure that you don't eat leavened bread don't eat comments only eat matzah over the over the days of Passover all things are kosher for pizza but just put them away and sell them as according to the halacha but don't go crazy with painting the house and washing everything and going crazy and screaming at the kids I know friends who who for years they haven't eaten bread since poor him they've eaten bread if they want to eat bread it's outside the house don't go outside the house no maybe find a corner maybe do do what you need to do to get festive right don't I'm not saying to forego Pesa but to do it with the with the mind frame that everybody's stressed these days and when everybody's stressed then we need to take our foot off the gas a little bit and to look a little bit more the meaning of things then at the actions of things the actions if you look at the halacha it's not very tough now I sweat sweep the house make sure everything's clean that's it but we want to do more so do more but don't let doing more come on the expense of your family members make sure that you're sensitive to those things some good advice - rabbi guy avi hood who runs a boy diem with two convenient locations in Jerusalem one in Tokyo next to the entire mall and also in the center of town key card see on in Jerusalem does such amazing work for your the community join me in hoping that we'll come back and have those stores running because right now close them and thanks God very uncertain times but we hope to come back as soon as we can please God we'll come back you'll come back we'll come back stronger than ever in the near future I want to wish you and your entire family a Kaka share with some math a Happy Passover a meaningful Passover and please God collies Pharrell and the rest of the world will get through these hard times together and let's talk again we got other holidays coming up right after Passover we got Sheva what we have log of America we have other holidays right sir I love the background by the way I love all your books they're back there rabbi Gavi just oh how can people get in touch with you if they want to learn more about your work just Google guy of the hood and they'll find they'll find a way to contact me I'm sure they'll find you so hawkish Erebus amok and that's a wrap on today's show my name is Josh a stayin here in beautiful Gush Etzion where the birds are chirping and it's a little quieter than usual but that's because I am hoping everyone is following the rules and everyone's in their homes doing what the government says whether you like it or not now is the time not to take chances unnecessarily follow the guidelines stay at home as the hashtag indicates and that's being used now all over the world want to wish all the listeners out there a hawkish Avis Mao have a wonderful holiday and as the rabbi said even with the situation we can use it in a positive way use it to our advantage stay home be with your family enjoy the family now more than ever get in touch with me during the week Josh at Alaina visible comm on Facebook Joshua hastin or - hey Stan Israel advocacy and journalism on twitter @jj stand on faith on instagram as well at josh hastin and everyone out there oh forgot to shout out to Vinny Amin Gretzky engineer extraordinaire for making all this happen Tabitha Epstein who does all the work behind the scenes here at the Land of Israel Network everyone out there the wonderful world of ours be safe be safe Shalom Shalom from Gush Etzion just outside of jerusalem the eternal capital of the Jewish people Todd I shared with Samantha [Music] ready for the most important Passover of your life tune in as Jeremy Gimpel talks about the secret patterns of redemption encoded in the Passover story we are for the first time celebrating Passover as we did in Egypt there's no big Passover Seder there's no extended family no friends and each insular family is behind closed doors with a plague outside and all we have is our wife and our children and our mezuzahs serving as our protection in our front door check out the full show on the Land of Israel network at the land of Israel dot-com [Music]