Rav Pinto in a Dramatic Message: Why the Plague Came to the World

"We sit and perform a soul-searching accounting at every moment regarding everything happening to the people of Israel. Every single moment we hear about another Jew in pain, another Jew on a ventilator, another Jew passing away. This is a heavy heart and great sorrow; it is difficult for the soul to contain this great distress and this great sorrow."

"The whole world is in sorrow, the whole world is in a difficult state. There has never been a time when the entire globe was in such a difficult state; this shows us that Hashem is not pleased with the conduct of the world. What is happening today is on the scale of when Hashem brought a flood to the world."

"Due to our many sins, everyone is great and wise and full of thoughts on how to judge the other. Everyone judges the other: 'This is okay, this is not okay, this one did good, this one did not do good.' Everyone has all the opinions on how to blame everyone for every accusation in the world. But, when a person looks at his own interior, at his selfishness, at where he is not okay, this is the most difficult thing—that the evil inclination has put to sleep and killed in the hearts of all of us the ability to look at our own interior."

"We already said yesterday that one must know a great fundamental principle—that this entire pandemic could be because of one person who is suffering, one person who feels pain. Sometimes the pain of one person can bring destruction to the world."

"Each of us must think about those around him; enough fighting, enough arguing, enough tensions, enough disputes, enough bad things—erase lashon hara (evil speech) from the world."

"We will get through this pandemic; people will die, there will be difficult things, but this pandemic will end. But know, the world will not be the same world. Whoever thinks that the situation will just pass and he will return to doing bad things, in the sense of 'Cursed be he who strikes his neighbor in secret' (Deuteronomy 27:24), that will not be. Hashem is going to change His world completely. Just as after the Flood and the Generation of the Dispersion the world changed, just as after all the times there were such shocks throughout the world and the world changed, here too the world will change."

"Whoever does not know how to grasp himself properly, whoever does not know how to bind his soul strongly to Hashem—for what was it like in the people of Israel? In the past, everyone in the people of Israel 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 broken in heart and his heart is humbled, Hashem is close to him. Hashem distances Himself from people who do not have a humbled heart, 'A broken and contrite heart, O G-d, You will not despise' (Psalms 51:19); a person who is humbled and broken, G-d does not despise him."

"Whoever harms the wise must be ostracized due to loathsomeness, be ostracized due to loathsomeness! Once, could someone say something about tzaddikim? The foundations of the world would tremble. Today, striking tzaddikim has become a beautiful thing; they enjoy striking tzaddikim."

"Rabbis striking rabbis; a rabbi who speaks lashon hara about a rabbi, one must tell him: you are disqualified, disqualified, disqualified, disqualified, disqualified, there is no one more disqualified than you. Why are you speaking lashon hara about a tzaddik? It is forbidden to speak lashon hara about tzaddikim."

"To argue about Torah, yes, I can say yes and you can say no; in Torah, it is permitted to argue. The House of Hillel and the House of Shammai would argue about the holy Torah, they would argue and fight, but they would marry among themselves, they were friends—this is the way of Hashem. But when a person disqualifies others—'whoever disqualifies, disqualifies with his own blemish.'"

"Whoever tells you so-and-so is not good, know that he is not good, because whoever is not good speaks evil of his fellow; whoever is good does not see evil in his fellow."

"The holy Baal Shem Tov once saw a desecration of the Sabbath and began to cry bitterly. They asked him, 'Rebbe, why are you crying?' He answered: 'Because I saw a desecration of the Sabbath. If I saw a desecration of the Sabbath, it is a sign that I heard lashon hara about a Torah scholar and I did not protest.' A Torah scholar is in the category of the Sabbath, and whoever saw a desecration of the Sabbath, it is a sign that he saw harm done to a Torah scholar and remained silent."

"To argue about the Torah is permitted... that is how the Torah was built. Moses received the Torah from Sinai and delivered it to Joshua... the people of Israel were built like a pyramid with Moses at the top, but we have reached a state where one kills the other, and that is forbidden."

"To argue about the Torah is permitted... this is my way of Hashem and this is your way, but to enter into disputes, to hate, to do bad things, to lead people into bad things—this is something that is over; every person should take upon himself that he cuts this off."

"Cut off lashon hara from himself; whoever speaks lashon hara is disqualified, he is ostracized due to loathsomeness. We have Hashem, we have simplicity, we have 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 with his life on the sides."

"...Whoever goes 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 man acquires his Creator."

"Hashem gave us a blow and a spiritual shock that we need to look at our interior. To straighten our lives, our behavior, our deeds, to know why this evil came to the world. Until we know how to strike this pandemic in a pinpointed way and kill it, nothing we do will help us. Not vaccines, not protection, nothing."

"'The law of the kingdom is the law,' certainly the doctors sacrifice their lives to treat and die for the sanctification of Hashem, they do great and good deeds, but 'Ascribe power to G-d' (Psalms 68:35), if we do not know how to kill this pandemic, it will not die. 'Unless Hashem guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain' (Psalms 127:1). We can have cannons, soldiers, with tanks, with missiles, with an atomic bomb—well, what helped everyone? Nothing! We have an atomic bomb in space, we have it on land, at sea, the whole world is full of atomic bombs; in one moment the entire globe is destroyed and ruined. What did Hashem do? He sent something that no one sees that causes destruction without equal. What are atomic bombs worth, what is everything worth? It is worth nothing. Hashem sent an invisible thing that destroyed the world. How can one 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 us strengthening ourselves and finding the bad thing, why G-d did the bad thing, and killing it; then they will find a cure to kill it. This can be in one moment—a person who harmed a person will ask him for forgiveness and the other will forgive him; in one moment they will find a cure."

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

"As long as we play games, even if we put it to sleep, we will cry and pray and Hashem will accept the prayers, the cries, and the supplications, we will only put it to sleep; if there is another accusation, it will rise from another place. One must kill and put it to death, find the reason for which Hashem did evil to the world and do teshuvah for that reason. Then Hashem will put it to death, will give strength to the doctors to find a cure and healing for the matter, and in one 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 him—no one has done like you for hundreds of years. The angels gather once a year in some place and distribute medals to them according to the number of people they killed, and that evil angel is given many medals for all the destruction he has caused."

"Therefore, let everyone rectify his deeds, 'And the living will take it to heart' (Ecclesiastes 7:2), let everyone think about his thoughts, rectify his environment. Afterwards, we will think more deeply about the collective, what we did, what we sinned, for what G-d brought this evil to the world, and everyone will do a strong teshuvah. Whoever knows that his hand was in this transgression will do a stronger teshuvah. And regarding lashon hara, everyone will do a great, great, great, great teshuvah... teshuvah from the depths of the heart, and then he will kill the lashon hara from his heart until it is erased from the hearts of people. Then Hashem will bring healing and all this evil will be erased from the world."