Corona Bible – Coronavirus and Faith in Troubled Times

To date, the end of March, 2020, the Coronavirus has neither a vaccine nor healing medicine. Very often, in a healthy person, the illness subsides like a bout of flu, while in other cases, it can prove fatal. All sorts of health measures must be taken, but, at the moment, humanity is relatively helpless to fight off the invisible and fast-spreading danger. Thus, for individuals and for mankind, a path to strength, and to overcoming worry, lies in forming a living connection with God.

The word “corona” is associated with the word “crown” and “kingship.” From a spiritual point of view, the Creator of All Things has sent the Coronavirus to the world to make us realize our vulnerability, and to draw our attention to Him. The Bible assures us that the Lord is patient, but, having sent the Plague of Coronavirus down to Earth, it seems that His patience is wearing thin. It seems that God wants us to recognize that He is the King. He wants us to separate ourselves from the vanities of life, from false gods, and transgression, and to adopt a moral way of living. Via a miniscule germ, shaped like a crown, God has filled hearts with panic and fright, wiped out private fortunes, destroyed economies and mighty businesses, and brought countries to their knees. Yet, the epidemic in the air is not a punishment, but rather a helpful guidepost, like a traffic sign, to stop our reckless driving, and to point us in the proper direction. Step number one is to forge a new, active, living connection to God.

"The Jews of Anatevka have three days to clear out of the area." 

Thus begins Tevye's unforgettable journey to the Promised Land. Tzvi Fishman's stirring family saga of the continuing adventures of Sholom Aleichem's beloved character, Tevye the Milkman, immortalized in "Fiddler in the Roof," takes up where the original stories left off. 

At a crossroads at the outskirts of their Anatevka village, Tevye and his daughters meet up with a troupe of Zionists headed for Palestine. Just then, as if the Almighty is pointing the way, the Anatevka mailman comes running with a letter from Tevye's long-lost daughter, Hodel. Her communist husband, Perchik, has been exiled from Russia, and they are living in the Holy Land on a non-religious kibbutz! Clinging to the Bible and the tradition he loves, Tevye has to defend his daughters, not only against the modern lifestyle of the Zionist pioneers, but against malaria-infested swamps, deadly plagues, swarms of locusts, Turkish prisons, and Arab marauders. With steadfast determination and faith, Tevye perseveres through trials and hardships in rebuilding the Jewish homeland. While trying to do his best as a father in marrying off his daughter's to suitable husbands, Tevye himself finds a new bride to take the place of his deeply-missed Golda. Finally, as World War One threatens to destroy the Jewish settlements in Palestine, Tevye joins the first Jewish fighting brigade since the days of Bar Kochba and Rabbi Akiva. In a daring secret mission, he helps the British rout the Turks. 

Filled with laughter, heartbreak, and joy, "Tevye in the Promised Land" is the compelling saga of a people's rebirth, and a triumph of inspiration and faith.

THE LION’S ROAR The adventures of Tevye the Milkman continue in The Lion’s Roar, the third dramatic novel in the “Tevye in the Promised Land” Series. While Tevye’s granddaughter, Hannie, is finishing her college degree in New York, the love of her life, Avraham “Yair” Stern is purchasing weapons in Poland and training Jewish soldiers for a war against British forces in Palestine. When Perchik is murdered and three Revisionists falsely accused of the crime, brotherly strife in the Holy Land threatens the future of the entire Zionist endeavor. Perchik’s wife, and his son, Ben Zion, hide the identity of the true murderers, and the ugly, blood libel leads to the false conviction of Avraham Stavsky. Rabbi Kook’s campaign on behalf of the condemned man culminates in his triumphant acquittal. In a gallant bid of rapprochement with Ben Gurion, the efforts of Ze’ev Jabotinsky prove futile. In a more joyous development, Hannie’s tumultuous, on and off romance with the volatile Yair finally leads to the chuppah. But another Arab uprising leaves Jews slaughtered throughout the country. When Tevye’s attempt to assassinate the Grand Mufti fails, he is forced to flee to America, where he raises funds for the Irgun underground with the assistance of the notorious Jewish mobsters, Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel. In Jerusalem, under the command of David Raziel, Tevye’s son, Tzvi, carries out devastating, reprisal attacks against the Arabs. When the British hang the Betar youth, Shlomo Ben Yosef, Jabotinsky’s leadership is challenged by Avraham Stern and the young Menachem Begin. Returning to the Holy Land, Tevye captains a boatful of “illegal” ma’apilim immigrants to the shores of Palestine, where the British are waiting to foil the secret, nighttime landing. The eccentric British commander, Orde Charles Wingate, a Bible-toting Christian, joins with the Haganah to squash the three-year-old Arab Revolt by unapologetically wiping out marauder encampments and entire Arab villages. When the British severely curtail Jewish immigration to Palestine and outlaw the further sale of land to Jews, the Irgun retaliates with a series of deadly attacks against British targets. During a mission to blow up the Rex Cinema in Jerusalem, Tevye’s daughter is captured and brutally tortured. Willing to die for the cause of freedom, the young girl attempts a daring escape from the Bethlehem Prison for Women, in a symbolic act of defiance that rallies the awakening Nation to rise up in revolt against the British usurpers of the Jewish Homeland.

In his classic treatise, “Orot,” Rabbi Kook teaches that a proper understanding of Judaism can only be achieved after one first recognizes the significance of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People. To understand who we are as a nation, and to actualize our role as a light to the world, we first have to comprehend the special relationship between the Divinely-chosen People and the Divinely-chosen Land. Rabbi Kook writes: “It is impossible for a Jew to be devoted and faithful to his intellectual faculties and his imaginative powers when he is outside the Land of Israel, compared to the quality of their faithfulness in Land of Israel. Revelations of holiness, on whatever level, are clean in Land of Israel, while outside the Land of Israel, they are mixed with dross and impure husks.” Owing to the deep, esoteric insights and difficult Hebrew of “Orot,” the book has remained the cherished possession of Rabbi Kook’s students and the generation of Torah scholars who learned at the Rabbi Kook Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Now, in this illuminating commentary, Rabbi Kook’s writings on the Land of Israel are explained in a clear and concise manner that is sure to add a treasure of knowledge to your understanding of Judaism and the role of Am Yisrael in the world.