Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
A senior official in the Ministry of Health is being asked to resign because of "special authorization" he granted to one of Israel's richest people. After landing in Israel on a flight from Cyprus, this individual was allowed to go directly to a party without having to quarantine. This little, if maddening, story is likely to be a watershed moment, heaven forbid, because all of us are fed up. Because this incident shatters all the solidarity this period in our history demands. Because all the corona regulations are effective only if all of us together are strict about following them. There are countless children who have not hugged grandpa or grandma for several months. There are so many people here who have entered quarantine with responsibility and seriousness only because they were exposed to a corona carrier and now a full array of friends and family must bring them what they need to their door. There are many performers who cannot appear on stage, restaurants that operate under restrictions, many unemployed, and millions of Israelis who hate their mask but are conscientious about wearing it. Yet there are also those among us who think that these regulations, at the end of the day, are not meant for them.
Here is a wonderful allegory told by Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai (the same Rabbi Shimon whose annual celebration on the day of his death was so small this year, while all the bonfires normally lit in his memory were canceled precisely because of our sense of mutual responsibility):
"A group of people were traveling in a boat. One of them took a drill and began drilling under his seat. His companions said to him, 'Why are you doing this?'. Replied the man, 'What concern is it of yours? Am I not drilling under my own seat?'. Said they to him, 'But you will flood the boat for us all!".
It doesn't matter how much money and how many connections you have, or if it seems to you that the corona crisis is over. We are still all in the same boat.
