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Thought for the Day: COVID-19 Pandemic -- A Lesson in How to Learn Mussar

I saw interviews a couple of weeks ago with college students on spring break in Florida -- "I've planned this for months; a little virus isn't going to stop me!" Uh-huh.

Worse though, I still see people being lax about social distancing and hygiene. I also hear unfortunate comparisons to the flu, "Ok, even if I get it, it's not usually fatal. It'll be a week of being sick; nu?"

What does COVID-19 do to a body? So, there are these little cells in the pipes and tubes that bring air into the lungs. These little cells have hair like structures whose job is to sweep the grit mixed in the air out of the lungs. COVID-19 kills those cells, so the lung is left unprotected.
Now do you see the problem? No? You still think, "Ok, I'll cough more and probably be sore. But aren't you overreacting?"

Hmm... ok, it's like this: Imagine a garbage pickup strike in New York. All those people dumping all that garbage and it's not going anywhere. Disgusting. Now, though, imagine it is not that the garbage men are on strike, but they are being murdered and their rotting corpses are left on the streets with the garbage. GASP! Hang on, we are not finished. With mounting garbage and now rotting corpses littering the streets and sidewalks, the rats and other vermin are all heading into town for the biggest feast of their lives.  Stop... please... I can't take it.

Right, that's precisely what is going on in the lungs of an afflicted individual. "Wow... why didn't you say that at first?" I did; but little cells dying didn't evoke the same visceral response as rotting corpses on garbage being eaten by rats. The facts haven't changed, but our reaction to them has.

That's the point of mussar. It's why the M'silas Yesharim says that there is not much benefit to reading the sefer once; everyone knows and agrees with what it says. It's not the lack of knowledge that is the problem, it is the lack of emotional, visceral feelings that is the problem.

How many times to we say, "Yeah, yeah.... I know that HaShem runs the world, but I have work to do. I'll learn when I have time." "Yeah, yeah, I know that I shouldn't talk in shul, but I need to discuss the news with my friends!"

Now there is a pandemic. Guns are no use against this killer. In an instant you were stopped from going to work. No one is talking in shuls.

Not, "Yeah, yeah; HaShem runs the world." Rather, "Oh my goodness... HaShem really runs the world!"
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