"You need to listen to me Dr. Freedman! You don't even know what I did to cause this!"
I had what felt like a million messages, emails, and other assorted communications when I woke up one morning last week. At that moment, the most important one —and the only one that I needed to check before going to Shacharis —was the message from my shul’s rav telling our kehillah that the beit knesset in our yishuv was closed due to the Ministry of Health’s recommendations. He had consulted with gedolei Yisrael regarding our specific situation and determined that it was important for the safety of the community to close the shul and prevent the spread of coronavirus, especially for the most vulnerable members of our kehillah.
So I made a cup of coffee to strengthen myself for tefillah and made a bottle for my toddler, who woke to daven vasikin with me. And then I scrolled through the messages: the Ministry of Health’s updated regulations included limiting in-person contact to only a distance of two meters, starting within 24 hours. This meant that I would have one final day in the office for the foreseeable future.
As I raced into the office, I saw that Chaskel Goldshmidt had left me no less than three voice messages, and it wasn’t even 8:00 a.m. yet. He had also sent me at least 17 text messages about how he had “caused the Coronavirus.”
Over 20 bochurim had to come in and pick up prescriptions before they raced back to England, America, Switzerland, Australia, and everywhere in between. But Chaskel was here to stay, and struggling mightily with the matzav. He wanted to come in to tell me how he was single-handedly responsible for the current crisis.
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