Rabbi Daniel Siegel – Head of Jewish Life

Coronavirus defining moments

The Israelites are penned in by the sea before them and Pharaoh’s army behind them. Fearful of an impending doom, they cry out to Moses who responds: “Fear not, stand and witness God’s salvation”. God interjects: “Why cry out to Me, tell the Israelites to go forward”.

In discussing this biblical scenario with the students of our Freedom and Responsibility class, I ask them what they think this passage is seeking to tell us. Immediately, a student responds: “This is a defining moment!”

Approaching Woolies after school that day, I see exiting customers with over-stuffed bags of food. Leonard Cohen’s song lyric, “Who for his hunger?” comes to mind. Then, entering the store and seeing the long stretches of bare shelves, the subsequent words of Cohen’s song now manifest, “Who for his greed?” 

Does fear of hunger feed our greed?

The Coronavirus, for all of us, in some way, is a “defining moment”.  Do we become our own Pharaohs, psychologically confining ourselves in a Mitsrayim (literally narrow place – “Egypt”) of our own making? Or, do we become self-empowering rather than over-powered, moving forward through trying times to secure shores, together.

As we respond to the virus which is affecting us all, let this be the moment in which we define ourselves, lest it define us.

At this time of uncertainty, may we all look out for the wellbeing of each other.

The following article on one young man’s efforts to engage the “TP Panic” as an opportunity to teach and practice partnership is heartening. Click here