Well, it certainly has been a while since I have written a post. It is not that I did not want to, it is just that I did not feel I had anything to say. I went from homeschooling 4, down to 3 and then 2 a few months later and since last year I have been down to 1. Every time one of my boys grows up, it changes at home. I had been thinking that it was time to start migrating to my other passion, especially since our youngest is just a few years away from going to Yeshiva himself and leaving me all alone! (Yikes, I don’t even want to think of that right now!) However, today, I feel like I have something to say.
It may not be too homeschool related, but then again, homeschooling is about learning all the time and learning to learn from everything/everyone that one encounters.
I am not going to talk about the coronavirus that is going around. We have all read more than enough news about how to protect ourselves and those around us as much as possible. And, I am sure that everyone reading this has been getting email after email from businesses and community leaders, etc. telling us, yet again, to wash for 20 seconds with soap and water and to stay home if we have ANY illness symptoms, no matter from what. What I do want to write about is a little bit about my thoughts.
I look at the world, and all of a sudden it has been turned upside down. It is not just cities that are shut down – which I find hard to imagine to begin with – but whole countries. It is not just one part of the world, it is the entire world. From travel to entertainment to grocery stores to the stock market and the schools and universities. Just a few months ago you could have asked me and I would tell you that it is hard to believe that the morals of people have changed so much over the last 20 years. Now, I say that it is hard to believe that the whole world has changed so much over the last 20 days.
I had one boy who called me yesterday from Yeshiva to tell me that where he is, the girls’ high school, the elementary school and the shul have all been shut down. It is only a matter of time before his Yeshiva is shut down and he is sent home and he is afraid about not being able to graduate. Yesterday, he had only one secular teacher come in to teach, and the rest stayed home. [Since writing this, we got an email stating the Governor has closed all k-12 schools. We just bought a ticket for him to come home.] Just a few minutes ago, I got an email from the local Yeshiva where another son goes, and for now, they are having school next week. However, any parent who is concerned can bring his child home and there will be online classes.
On the upside, for there always is an upside, I would guess that in the next week or so, we might be a thriving homeschool family again. 😀
Over the last 24 hours I have been getting community emails that went from “No children’s programs and no kiddushes this week” to “all services have been cancelled.” Yesterday I read an article that the Chief Rabbi of Israel has stated that people should not go daven at the Kotel. I think that was the one that really made me think even more than I have been. What?! To tell me that the Kotel is standing there, under Jewish security and I should not be going there? Only a Jew knows what that means for a Jew.
What is going on? The one and only answer – Hashem. He is trying to tell us something that we have seemed to have forgotten. He is in charge. He runs the world. He wants to give us blessings upon blessings but can only do that if we recognize Him. We are told to stay in our homes, not go to shul, not even the Kotel. Maybe this is His way of having us reconnect. If we are home, we have the opportunity to think more. Think more about what life really is all about. Time for connections. Connections with our family. Connections with ourselves. And most importantly, connections with G-d.
The physical world is just a mirror of the spiritual world. To know what is going on in the spiritual world, we just have to look here in the physical world. The entire physical world has turned upside down. We just came out of Purim – a holiday that was all topsy-turvy. G-d’s name is not mentioned once in the entire megillah. It was the first time in history that G-d hid Himself and did not produce open miracles. We dress up on Purim to remind ourselves about that. Hashem has hidden Himself since then. It has been hard to see who really runs the world. Until now. It is really easy to see that there is a G-d running the world. All He wants is for us to “find” Him.
Like Mordechai told Esther when she said she cannot go see the king – We will be saved. The question is, do you want to be part of it or not?
The question we need to ask ourselves is – Hashem runs the world. Big things are happening. The question is – do I want to be part of it?
Let us do our part and wash our hands, and cough in our elbows and take the time to do our own personal introspection on life.
Wishing everyone good health and happiness despite all the craziness that is going on.
Bravo, Rivka! I’ve been waiting for someone to write such a piece. You’re so right. Perhaps were not zoche to the Kotel, to a community minyan. Clearly we’re not doing something right.
Thank you, Morah Susie!