Coronavirus: A worldwide tragedy

Coronavirus returns us to our most basic values. We are home with our families, little or no international travel, little to no international trade.

By RABBI SHMUEL RABINOWITZ
A closed talmudic school in the ultra orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Meah Shearim, following the government's decisions, in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. March 31, 2020 (photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
A closed talmudic school in the ultra orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Meah Shearim, following the government's decisions, in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. March 31, 2020
(photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
I do not know how to begin an article I am embarrassed to write. I do not know how to organize my thoughts, how to choose the right words to express the actual nausea that has taken hold of me.
Nine hundred years have passed since an evil monk created, from the depths of his sick soul, the first blood libel against Jews, accusing the Jews of Norwich, England, of murdering a Christian child for ritual purposes on Seder night. Nine hundred years of evil libels and of atrocious violence against Jews ensued,  900 years weighing on Europe’s conscience and staining its morality.
And now, as Passover approaches, we get more and more reports of the basest sort of antisemitism, linking the plague that has infected the entire world with some sort of Jewish scheme or another.
The eye reads this news while the mind refuses to comprehend. Were we mistaken in believing that those dark days were behind us? Could it be that even in a world that considers itself “modern,” there are people who can weave such vicious, violent and dangerous tales about another nation?
The COVID-19 plague has shaken all of humanity. It returns us to our most basic values. We are home with our families, little or no international travel, little to no international trade. This is the moment of truth in which people’s greatness is revealed – those who act, volunteer, pray, lend a hand, or put all their efforts and talents into finding a cure. In the face of all this goodness, how pathetic are those who sow hatred between people in such a time.
The Jewish nation is about to celebrate Passover, the Festival of Freedom. True freedom, say our ancient sages, is freedom from being enslaved to our desires and our egos, freedom from being enslaved to jealousy and hatred.
I pray that the light of freedom will illuminate even the darkest corners of our world. Until then, I call upon world leaders to act with determination and courage to root out the scourge of antisemitism, the tragedy of the world.
The writer is rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites.