If bad is contagious, is it not possible that good is also contagious?
Since the coronavirus crisis is creating chaos in our daily routines, let us try a bit of chaos theory. The essence of chaos theory is this: something as insignificant as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings can cause a typhoon halfway around the world. That is to say, the entire physical universe is interrelated, interconnected, intertwined. What I do here physically affects something somewhere else physically.
Long before chaos theory, Rav Yisrael Salanter anticipated it in spiritual terms. He said that when a yeshivah bochur in Warsaw ponders a difficult Gemara, it makes it easier for a Jew in Paris to return to Yiddishkeit. What I do here spiritually affects someone somewhere else spiritually.
John Donne said it well: “No man is an island entire of itself… Each man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind…. Therefore ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee….”
Certainly COVID-19 underscores for us the interconnectivity of all humanity. The food chain is interconnected, as is manufacturing, as is medication, as is the building industry, as is scholarship, agriculture, and science. The whole world is dependent on one another. As the virus spreads, it only underscores how intertwined all mankind is.
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