Two years later, those Covid-inspired kabbalos and resolutions are still keeping us going.Eight personal accounts
Eytan Kobre
Eons ago, when COVID-19 first burst onto the world scene and into our lives, I realized I needed to somehow respond to it personally. In my weekly column, I had cited the Rambam’s famous words that the Jewish response to tribulation and tragedy is soul-searching and self-betterment, and a modicum of self-honest consistency called upon me to live up to that.
But where to begin? When people asked that question to Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, he said it’s not difficult to know what to take on; just open a Shulchan Aruch to the first page and ask yourself, “Do I already fulfill all it says here?” If so, go on to the next page. You’ll soon have your answer, and then some.
Still, it made sense to first check what Torah sources might say about how a Jew ought to respond to this very predicament — a plague loosed upon humanity. And that’s how I came to adopt the practice — it’s not just a minhag or an “inyan,” but the halachah, and according to several Rishonim, one of the 613 mitzvos — of meiah brachos, reciting 100 blessings daily.
That’s not to say I was totally unaware that something called meiah brachos
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