The Corona Pharaoh Connection - Ari Abramowitz: The Land of Israel Fellowship

shalom my friends the last few weeks have been uh quite a journey for the abram woods family out here on the arrow goat farm and i wanted to start by updating you on what's been going on with my family now we try to be corona careful and corona conscious out here but nonetheless corona found us and a few weeks ago the way it happened is my sister my older sister miriam came out for a visit it had been weeks since she had seen our yummy little daughter dvash and she was having dvash withdrawal which has been recognized by the fda as an official medical condition just playing sort of now she had just gotten a corona test not because she had symptoms at all but because she wanted to travel and according to the law you need to get tested before traveling and a few hours after she got her hugs and kisses in and returned back to her home in modine she called us frantically that her results had come in and that's right she tested positive she couldn't believe it she had no symptoms at all so she immediately got retested and a few hours later the results came back again they were positive it was confirmed she had corona so despite her having worn a mask during the visit we of course quarantined ourselves until we could get tested which we did at the first opportunity a few days later we all went together and our results came back i was negative dvash was negative but shayna shayna was positive now at that point we had been around each other in very close quarters so rather than quarantining from each other we figured if it was going to be transmitted then it already had been so we quarantined with each other from the rest of the world this was also confirmed as a viable option by a professional medical opinions so we weren't just making this up on the go and hashem was very merciful because to have a biovirus that had killed millions of people around the world invading my home and my family was quite disturbing and unsettling it was scary people i know close friends and uncle family have died from this virus but other than some fatigue and coughing and losing her taste and smell shayna held up quite well and a few days ago she was called by the doctor and informed that she's on the other side of this thing and she's no longer contagious and she's free to go now the way it would work is for me and vash that our 10 days of quarantine starts the minute that shane has ended in order to provide a buffer to make sure that we don't have it and spread it to other people but first vash and i needed to get tested again for those 10 days to begin which which we did and our results came back the other night at 3am we first saw my results i was still somehow inexplicably negative but not dvash dwash was positive so there we were shane and i lying in bed at 3 a.m looking at these results and i started to cry and perhaps it's because it was 3 a.m and it's perhaps because my soul is tied in with the soul of this little girl in the most extreme way but i cried even though i knew that they say the corona is not a real threat to babies still and i prayed that type of prayer that is so raw and so real and so desperate were the truth of the world that our fates are in god's hands every moment of every day becomes so apparent and crystal clear when the vulnerability and fragility of life is more apparent than ever and i think i made shayna cry too she was crying she felt guilty for having transmitted it to devash even though there's no way she could ever have known we were both afraid and we kept reminding each other that hashem runs the world and that we're in his hands but despite knowing that the tears still flowed we're still human but baruch hashem since then dwash has been great a little bit more tired she just woke up from another two hour nap right now she's a little bit more kvetchy you know she cries and whines a little bit more she's uncomfortable there's more nose wiping but really she's been fine and although these articles have been coming out and people are sending them to us that there's now this new different variants of covid different strains that are more dangerous and more transmissible and then now they've opened up an intensive care unit for children which is filling up which is absolutely horrifying because no matter how much faith you have we're just people it's a scary thing and to add mystery to the whole thing despite the closed family proximity and having divas sneeze directly into my mouth and cough directly into my face numerous times i still don't have corona it's as if i'm immune to it or not who knows but one thing i can tell you is that i'm very grateful for the mercy and compassion hashem has been pouring out on my family because really all of us here in this fellowship know that we are in hashem's hands there's a danger inherently built into the human condition a danger of believing in other things and other powers and other forces as an end in and of themselves even if we know that there's only one god when we're standing before the pharaohs of our lives it's easy to fall into the illusion that these pharaohs have independent power over us that there's reason to fear them that they're a real independent force in the world this is a difficult spiritual concept to convey or to even to understand but i believe the idea that i really want to focus on here is hinted to in the very first words of this week's torah portion the parsha begins by hashem bo el paro and hashem said to moses come to pharaoh now i don't know how this is translated in your bibles but this is strange wording because one would think it should say and god said to moses go to pharaoh that moses should go and tell pharaoh what hashem wants him to say but the torah does not say go to paro but it says come to paro and within this one word i believe lives lies one of the deepest secrets the deepest truths in all of existence hashem is saying come to pharaoh because he is within pharaoh's heart as well he is within pharaoh even the rest of the verse it says it and hashem says to moshe go to paro come to pharaoh not go to pharaoh come to pharaoh for i have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants that i might show these signs before him that's right hashem is not only within the holy prophet moshe but he is within paro as well guiding and inspiring paro and hardening his heart the verse in the torah which most potently conveys this i've quoted before to you and i'm gonna quote it again to you there's no question because it's a verse that i say every morning to remind myself of the unified truth in this world of multiplicity and illusion there are words that i often repeat at different times throughout the day when i'm confronted with things that anger me or scare me there are words that many jews have plastered on the back of their cars and their trucks throughout the land of israel there are three words three holy words found in the book of dvarim deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 35 ain't odd milvado there is nothing other than him that's right even within our greatest challenges our greatest pain our greatest enemies our greatest darkness hashem is there too meaning that even within our greatest challenges lies divine light that with our faith we can identify it and we can project it to the world it's up to us to know it's there to find it to seek it out to see it and to amplify it to ourselves to our families and to all of mankind for as king david said in psalms psalm where shall i go from your spirit where shall i flee from your presence if i ascend up to heaven you are there if i make my bed in sheol you are there if i take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea even there shall your hand lead me and your right hand shall hold me if i say surely the darkness shall cover me the light shall be night about me even the darkness is not dark for you but the night shines like day darkness is as light with you hashem is everywhere ain't vado there is nothing other than him i see it happening now people at times myself included see this terrible virus as an evil force from the evil side of things somehow and and then they put their hopes in the vaccine or in the scientists or in the government rather than recognizing that if indeed this vaccine will save lives and it's looking good so far that it is and that it will that the vaccine was from hashem too that hashem blessed the scientists with the knowledge and the wisdom for the vaccine but it's not just the vaccine which is from hashem but corona itself corona itself is from hashem as well justice has hashem said to moshe bo el pero come to pharaoh for i'm within pharaoh's heart waiting for you hashem for reasons that we cannot fully understand is within the coronavirus as well i believe hinted to in the name of the virus itself corona meaning crown that the signature of the king himself is within this virus hashem we are gathering together every week because we want to see you in the world please give us the eyes to see your hand orchestrating these confusing and scary events unfolding in the world give us the strength and the clarity to put our hope and our faith in you and allow us to be vessels through which you can shine your light of love and healing to a world that needs it now more than ever before thank you my friends thank you so much thank you for your love and your blessings and your prayers we love you and we're praying for you as well hashem should bless you and your families with health security and joy and everything good stay in touch stay connected back to you jeremy