If I had a dollar for every meme and email I have received over the past few weeks purporting to find a source for Corona in the Torah, and claiming to have proof from the Torah that the Corona virus is the harbinger of Moshiach, I could pay for Trump's relief plan. I would like to point out three things, first of all that these proofs are errant, secondly that they may cause more harm than good, and, finally if bringing Moshiach is your goal there are more effective means of accomplishing that.
The memes that I have seen would, for the most part, qualify as מגלה פנים בתורה, distorting the words of the Torah in order to make a point. The Baal HaTurim about Korban Pesach has nothing to do with the Corona Virus and the distortion of the adjacent Rashi would surely qualify as Purim Torah if people weren't taking it seriously. The same goes for the other alleged allusions, they are illusions. We have enough Torah based literature on how to respond to mass illness and how to cope with it, and how to understand what God wants from us, that there is really no reason to start manufacturing new source material.
Many years ago I heard Rav Moshe Aharon Stern speak here in Baltimore on Tisha B'Av afternoon in Rabbi Taub's shul. His topic was that Moshiach would be coming very soon, and he told numerous stories from the Chofetz Chaim, the Chazon Ish and others in order to bolster his thesis that Moshiach would surely be here within the next decade or two. After he finished speaking Rabbi Taub came up to him visibly upset. He maintained that you have to be careful before telling people that Moshiach would certainly be here by one date or another, because, if Moshiach does not arrive, the result will be that people would lose their Emunah.
He told a story that there was a tradition from the Ohr HaChaim haKadosh that Moshiach would come in 5762 (1901-2). The Ohr Hachaim was a very popular book in Poland and the result was that in the preceding year many Polish Jews began to sell their businesses and homes as they were certain that Moshiach was coming shortly. On Rosh haShana of 5762 the Kedushas Yom Tov went to the bima and announced loudly that he swears that Moshiach is not coming this year. He was roundly criticized by many of his shocked contemporaries, but he explained that he was happy to be guilty of a false oath if Moshiach arrives. And if Moshiach doesn't arrive at least he will have prevented people from losing their faith. For the record, all the dates that Rabbi Stern mentioned have since passed, I still haven't lost my faith.
If your goal is to bring Moshiach then posting spurious memes and finding distorted allusions is not the way to go about it. God created the world in order to be kind to people and the way to bring Him into the world in his full glory is by being kind to people. While the current situation has created some unique challenges to finding opportunities to be kind to others, it has also created new opportunities (including kindness to members of your own family.)
Being locked up in your home and not working or otherwise heading out offers us all an opportunity to increase our study of true Torah by yourself and with family member wi h whom you might otherwise never have a chance to learn, as well as opportunities for kindness (you can actually have plenty of time to help with the Pesach preparations and/or find someone online who needs a chavrusa.) Don't miss an opportunity to bring Moshiach.
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