COVID-19 and Tu b’Shevat

Reflecting upon the deeper meaning of Tu b’Shevat last week helped clarify for me the meaning of a difficult passage in Sefer Yoel – one of the books of the so-called minor prophets.

Joel 2:2, forecasting a mighty locust plague (according to Abarbanel it is a metaphor for the impeding invasion of Nebuchadnezzar’s armies) declares: “A day of darkness and gloom; a day of cloud and thick darkness, like the dawn spreading over the mountains…”

Why is “darkness” like “the dawn”? Isn’t dawn a harbinger of day, of brightness and of light?

Not in the sacred Hebrew tongue, it would seem. The word for dawn is “shachar” – related to “shachor – black”. Dawn is the moment when the dark blackness is at its peak. Anyone who has ever been up at the moment of halachic dawn would testify to this! Nary a chink of light can be seen!

This also assists us in elucidating the enigmatic superscription to the famous Psalm 22. “Lamenatzeach al eyelet hashachar – For the conductor upon the [rising of the] ‘dawn star’ followed immediately by My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”

Why would King David give vent to an expression of despair at dawn, of all times, were it not that he, too, can see, at that moment, only the nadir of dawn’s blackness? There is an English saying attributed to Thomas Fuller that “the darkest hour is just before the dawn”. Probably the Jewish version would be that the darkest moment is the moment of dawn!

But of course, precisely because dawn is the darkest moment, it is a harbinger of the coming day which is sure to follow. And here lies the paradox!

Both Joel’s “dawn” and King David’s “dawn” are moments of despair. Neither can see beyond it. All that each can visualise is the most viscous gloom.

All this relates closely to Tu b’Shevat. Shevat 15, say our Sages, marks the juncture when most of the winter rains have fallen and the sap starts to rise in the bark of the trees. In other words, it heralds the coming spring in Eretz Yisrael. Yet normally, at this time, Israel, like most other Northern-hemisphere countries, is in the grip of deepest, darkest winter! It is easy, like King David and like the prophet Joel, to be mired in the environmental gloom all around, the bare branches, the somnolent earth.

But the despair does not endure forever. A few verses on, David declares: “In You our fathers trusted … and You delivered them. To You they cried out and were rescued … They who commit to God, He will deliver … He will save them (23:5,6, 9). And later in the “day of darkness” chapter, Joel exclaims: Have no fear, O land, rejoice and be glad for God will have performed great things! (2:21).

These thoughts ought to speak to us with compelling relevance as we survey the ongoing and seemingly never-ending COVID-19 scene worldwide.

Many of us had hoped that we had reached the peak of the epidemic – the shachar if you will – already a year ago. Now it appears to many that the shachar has been prolonged. Even with the “dawn” of the COVID-19 vaccines that have been available now for the past year, it is hard for us to see beyond the gloom as cases rise again and more and more of us have sadly endured the demise of someone we knew who was in the peak of health and has now succumbed to the dreaded disease. And with the contagious new strain of Omicron, there is (as yet) no guarantee as to the effectiveness of existing vaccines or the current timetable for their administration.

King David and the prophet Joel also despaired. But only momentarily. It should not escape our notice that for both king and prophet their epiphany of light and hope and consequent joy only came when they took cognisance of God and His power to save. They lifted up their hearts and their voices to the Source of all help and succour.

Our salvation does not lie in the vaccines alone. Of course we must heed the advice of our GPs in that regard and in most cases that will probably be to take whatever vaccine or booster shot is locally available. God helps those who help themselves.

But maybe God wants something more from us. Such as heeding the verse in Eicha (Lamentations 3:40): “Nachpesa deracheinu ve-nachkora ve-nashuva ad Hashem. Let us examine our ways and analyse – so that we may return to Hashem.” As individuals, as a Jewish community and as a human society. Let’s take an injection of God along with the vaccine!

Playing around with numbers as I sometimes do, I found to my astonishment that gematria (the number value that arises from the letters of a word or phrase) supports this thesis. The word Israelis have adopted for the COVID-19 vaccine is “chisun”. This word comes from a Hebrew root meaning sturdy, strong or powerful. This betrays a secularist state of mind. The vaccine is powerful and strong and will cure the world of its COVID ills. Well I have news! Its gematria of 134 is the very same number-value as that of the word “ve-hanega – and [also] the plague (or affliction)”.

The “chisun”, the vaccine, may be very powerful. But so too is the “nega”, the affliction! Equally powerful it appears is the continually-mutating virus!

Sadly our world has become so secularised that many mock the idea that God has sent us COVID-19 as a wake-up call and that it isn’t a random accident or a statistical “once-in-a century pandemic”.

But of course these same people fail to marvel when winter turns inexorably to spring, the barren branches grow luxuriant leaves and succulent fruits and the earth is awash with fragrant flowers of all shapes, sizes and hues. All “by accident”?

Are we at the COVID “dawn”? Or are, God forbid, darker moments ahead? We don’t know. But we shouldn’t despair. God is teaching us through the holy tongue that the dawn, the “shachar”, is imperceptible. But it is a promise of better things. Provided that we do our part by penetrating the roots of our ills as well as fighting the symptoms.

When that concept dawns on us all, our horizons will well and truly light up!

Rabbi Chaim Ingram is the author of a series of parasha books available by contacting judaim@bigpond.net.au

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