What was the worst pandemic in history?  How do you think COVID stacks up to other types of plagues that people have faced?

The 10 plagues in Egypt are a microcosm of the types of plagues out there.  One particularly interesting plague on that list is the plague of darkness.  It’s the only plague that did not cause physical damage to the Egyptians.  You might wonder how it’s even considered a plague if it didn’t hurt them?

The plagues generally went in an ascending order of severity too, and darkness was number 9, so it should have been pretty bad.  But what’s so terrible about turning out the lights?

What happens in the dark?  You are isolated.  As the Torah says “No man saw his brother.”-Exodus 10:23

You are isolated right now. 

You may think the quarantines and the lock-downs are not so bad in our era.  “I have the internet” you say.  “I connect to people on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook.  I connect to many friends every day.”

But you do not see your brother.  You interact with their posts, but you do not see them squirm or ponder or blush as you talk to them.  You see the pictures they chose to leave up, but not the soul behind their eyes.

And it hurts you.  Not physically, perhaps, but it does.

“Neither did anyone move from his place”-Exodus 10:23 the Torah continues.  Because in isolation, you don’t have the free flow of ideas from others to gain appreciation for new outlooks.  In isolation, the only opinion that matters is the one you already have.

“Not me, I learn new things all the time,” you say.  “The internet is vast and I get information from all over the world.  I keep abreast of all the latest news and read diverse opinions online.”

But how diverse are they?  You have certain news sources that you trust  that happen to say everything within the narrative that you already believe.  There are other news sources of course, but you don’t listen to them, because of course they are biased towards some narrative … that is not yours.  Even Facebook and Google have algorithms that steer you towards media that only reinforces your beliefs.

You live in a digital echo chamber.

You are trapped and will find it hard to move from your place, to adjust your opinions, to change or grow. 

There is a physical plague across the land that people are hiding from.  But there is another plague hidden in the shadows affecting us just as deeply. 

Talk to people in real time.  Engage with those whose ideas make you uncomfortable.  Even as you isolate physically, don’t do so mentally, for that is one of the darkest plagues of all.

Shabbat Shalom,

The JET Team