Rav Pinto in a Dramatic Message: Why the Plague Came to the World - Because of One Jew

"We sit and conduct a self-accounting every moment regarding everything happening to the Jewish people. Every moment we hear about another Jew in distress, another Jew on a ventilator, another Jew passing away. It is a deep sorrow and great anguish that is difficult for the soul to bear this immense sorrow and great anguish."

"The whole world is in distress, the whole world is in a difficult situation, there was never a time when the entire earth was in such a difficult state, this shows us that Hashem is not pleased with the world's conduct. What is happening today is on a scale that Hashem brought a flood to the world."

"Due to many sins, everyone is great and wise and full of thoughts on how to judge others. Everyone judges others: 'This is okay, this is not okay, this was done well, this was not done well.' Everyone has all the opinions on how to blame everyone for all the accusations in the world. But, when a person looks at their own inner self, their selfishness, where they are not okay, this is the hardest thing that the evil inclination has put to sleep and killed in our hearts to look at our own inner selves."

"We already said yesterday that we need to know a great foundation - that this entire plague could be because of one person who is in pain, one person who is suffering. Sometimes the pain of one person can bring destruction to the world."

"Each of us needs to think about those around us, enough fighting, enough arguing, enough tensions, enough disputes, enough negative things - erase gossip from the world."

"We will get through this plague, people will die, there will be difficult things but this plague will end. But know, the world will not be the same world. Whoever thinks that the situation will just pass and they will return to doing bad things as in, "Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret" (Deuteronomy 27:24), it will not be. Hashem is going to change His world completely. Just like after the flood and the generation of the dispersion when the world changed, just like after all the times there were upheavals in the world at such levels and the world changed, here too the world will change."

"Whoever does not know how to take hold of themselves properly, whoever does not know how to bind their soul strongly with Hashem - what was with the Jewish people? In the past, every Jew was close to Hashem, everyone had a connection with Hashem, a dialogue with Hashem, close to Hashem, "Hashem is close to the brokenhearted" (Psalms 34:19). Whoever is brokenhearted and their heart is humbled, Hashem is close to them. Hashem distances Himself from people who do not have a humble heart, "A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalms 51:19), a person who is humble and broken, God does not despise."

"Whoever harms the wise should be ostracized due to disgust, be ostracized due to disgust! Once, could anyone say anything about tzaddikim? The doorposts would tremble. Today, striking tzaddikim has become a beautiful thing, they enjoy striking tzaddikim."

"Rabbis striking rabbis, a rabbi who speaks gossip about another rabbi should be told you are disqualified, disqualified, disqualified, disqualified, disqualified, there is no one more disqualified than you. Why do you speak gossip about a tzaddik? It is forbidden to speak gossip about tzaddikim."

"To dispute in Torah, yes, I can say yes, you can say no, in Torah it is permissible to dispute. Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai would dispute over the holy Torah, they would dispute and argue, but they would come out and marry among themselves, friends, this is the way of Hashem, but when a person disqualifies – whoever disqualifies does so with their own blemish."

"Whoever tells you someone is not good, know that they are not good, because someone who is not good speaks badly about their friend, someone who is good does not see bad in their friend."

"The holy Baal Shem Tov once saw a desecration of Shabbat and began to cry greatly. They asked him, our master, why are you crying? He replied: 'Because I saw a desecration of Shabbat. If I saw a desecration of Shabbat, it is a sign that I heard gossip about a Torah scholar and did not protest.' A Torah scholar is in the category of Shabbat, and whoever saw a desecration of Shabbat, it is a sign that they saw harm to a Torah scholar and remained silent."

"To dispute in Torah is permissible.., this is how the Torah was built. Moshe received the Torah from Sinai and handed it to Joshua.., the Jewish people were built like a pyramid with Moshe at the top, but we have reached a state where one kills the other and this is forbidden."

"To dispute in Torah is permissible.., this is my way of Hashem and this is your way, but to enter into disputes, to hate, to do negative things, to involve people in negative things. This is something that has ended, every person should take upon themselves to cut it off."

"Cut off gossip from oneself, whoever speaks gossip is disqualified, they are ostracized due to disgust. We have Hashem, simplicity, the service of Hashem, the way of Hashem, the service of Hashem in simplicity. This is our life, for they are our life and the length of our days, whoever goes to the sides will manage their life on the sides."

"..Whoever walks in simplicity in the way of Hashem, happy are those who dwell in Your house, this is the true way of Hashem, this is the way of Hashem in which a person acquires."

"Hashem has given us a blow and a spiritual shock that we need to look at our inner selves. To straighten our lives, our behavior, our actions, to know why this evil came to the world. Until we know how to target this plague specifically and kill it, nothing we do will help. Not vaccines, not precautions, nothing."

"The law of the kingdom is the law, certainly the doctors are risking their lives to treat and dying for Kiddush Hashem, they are doing great and good deeds, but "Give strength to God" (Psalms 68:35), if we do not know how to kill this plague, it will not die. "Unless Hashem guards a city, the watchman stays awake in vain" (Psalms 127:1), we can have soldiers with cannons, with tanks, with missiles, with an atomic bomb, what helped everyone? Nothing! We have atomic bombs in space, on earth, in the sea, the whole world is filled with atomic bombs, in one moment the entire earth can be destroyed and ruined. What did Hashem do? He sent something that no one sees that causes unparalleled destruction, what are atomic bombs worth, what is everything worth? Worth nothing. Hashem sent something invisible that destroyed the world. How can we defeat it? How will they find a cure for the disease? By having a miracle clothed in nature."

"A miracle clothed in nature will come by strengthening and finding the evil thing, why did God make the evil thing and kill it, then they will find a cure to kill it. It can happen in a moment - a person who harmed another will ask for forgiveness and the other will forgive them, in a moment they will find a cure."

"It is in our hands, this thing was created by the pain of something, by the distress of something, perhaps the distress of many people who harmed many people, perhaps the distress of one person. Until we know how to do teshuvah (repentance) for what we have done and take upon ourselves resolutions to stop doing the same thing that the whole world did - because here it is a problem of the whole world - then they will find a cure and remedy for the matter."

"As long as we play, even if we put it to sleep, we will cry and pray and Hashem will accept the prayers, the cries and supplications, we will only put it to sleep, if there is another accusation it will rise from another place. We need to kill and put it to death, find the reason why Hashem brought evil to the world and for that reason do teshuvah. Then Hashem will put it to death, give strength to the doctors to find a cure and remedy for the matter and in a moment it will disappear from the world."

"As long as we do not know how to kill this evil angel, then this evil angel runs and continues, and all the evil angels applaud it - no one has done like you for hundreds of years. The angels gather once a year in some place and distribute medals according to the number of people they have killed and that evil angel is given many medals for all the destruction it has caused."

"Therefore, everyone should correct their deeds, "and the living will take it to heart" (Ecclesiastes 7:2), everyone should think about their thoughts, correct their environment. Afterwards, we will think more deeply about the community, what we did, what we sinned, why God brought this evil to the world and everyone will do strong teshuvah. Whoever knows that their hand was in this wrongdoing will do even stronger teshuvah. And for gossip, everyone will do great, great, great, great teshuvah.., teshuvah from the depths of the heart and then they will kill gossip from their heart until it is erased from people's hearts. Then Hashem will bring healing and all this evil will be erased from the world."