Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
It’s impossible to live in a permanent state of hysteria. In recent days many people have been predicting horrible scenarios and have been walking around with a feeling of impending disaster. Rav Chagai Londin teaches in a hesder yeshiva in Sderot, a Gaza border city where people over many years have learned to live, unfortunately, with the constant threat of rocket attacks. In light of this experience, Rav Londin writes about how we should conduct ourselves at the present time:
"Julius Caesar is identified with the arrogant expression 'I came, I saw, I conquered'. From then until today we want to conquer every adversary with a single knock-out blow. And so we thought we had conquered the corona, and that was that. But in the real world we conquer point by point, little conquests that are accompanied by little retreats. The world advances little by little and we need to be prepared for hard work and for patient devotion to the cause. We are not running a sprint, but a marathon. Just as a human being learns to live with passions and weaknesses which never disappear, so we must learn to live with the corona for the foreseeable future.
This is an opportunity to build character. To enhance qualities of tolerance and restraint. This is expressed in strict adherence to a routine: wearing a mask, maintaining social distance and primarily – in continuing to build our lives with faith and optimism. Enough hysteria and despair".
