These days in Argentina, people are talking about the infamous Swine Flu, or Flu A, or H1N1. Classes are being suspended, court recesses are being declared, even the Argentine Football Association (AFA) is suspending all activities for the month of July! If even the football world is addressing the issue, it means it's important, right?
Among the various precautions one can take to avoid infection is frequent handwashing. The virus thrives in damp environments, and when an infected person sneezes, covers their mouth with their hand, and then touches a doorknob, a handrail on a bus, or anything else where the virus can remain, anyone who touches that surface and then touches their mouth, nose, or eyes will become infected within the next ten hours. Therefore, those who wash their hands frequently are at lower risk.
As we have mentioned many times, the Baal Shem Tov teaches us that we should extract a lesson from every matter we see or hear for our service to God. For God creates nothing in vain and, in turn, directs everything that happens in the universe, even a leaf in autumn swaying in the wind as it falls to the earth, is directed, moment by moment, by God. Therefore, the occurrence we see or hear was evidently placed before us by God for a reason: so that we may learn something from it.
La gripe es, obviamente algo negativo. Podríamos decir que significa aquellos asuntos que no están directamente conectados con Di-s o, más aún, aquellos asuntos que se oponen a la voluntad de Di-s. Siendo así, esencialmente, nadie quiere contagiarse de gripe… nadie desea estar separado de Di-s. Ahora bien, ¿qué podemos hacer para no contagiarnos de gripe? Lavarnos las manos.
Nuestros sabios explican que uno de los significados espirituales del lavado de las manos (luego de levantarse a la mañana) es el refinamiento del potencial de acción. En resumen, al alma se inviste en pensamiento, palabra y acción para afectar el mundo a su alrededor y hacer del mismo una morada para Di-s. Cada una de estas «vestimentas del alma» debe ser refinada y perfeccionada para extraer el máximo provecho de ellas y, como mencionamos, refinar a través de ella el cuerpo y el mundo alrededor.
Therefore, the flu is giving us a very clear message: we must wash our hands! That is, it is time for us to realize that we must improve our actions, that they be according to what God wants, with humility, honesty, joy, for the sake of heaven, refined, etc. Each person according to their level, from the one most disconnected from God to the great Torah scholar, we must cleanse our potential for action so that we may definitively reach the Final Redemption, with Messiah, now!.