These essays were written about
Covid 19 for the Machon Menoras Hachochma 2nd annual Esther Malka
national writing contest by the 9th grade students of Mesivta
Shaarei Chaim.
By Yisrael Lauer
It was March 10, 2020, and it came.
We were not prepared. It killed, it ruined lives, it changed the course
of history. Now, you might be asking, “What is, it?” Well, its name
is COVID -19.
It was a lovely day, the sun was
shining, candies were flying. It was the one time of year that parents
are happy to see their kids eating candy. It was Purim! But then
“it” ruined everything! That dumb sickness called COVID-19. The
next day schools were closed. All classes moved onto ZOOM. I have
to admit, I learned very little. For the first time I wanted to go back
to school. Now, you might be thinking that I am crazy, but I can assure
you, I am not. I missed one of the greatest trips that my school goes
on. It’s called the eighth-grade trip. I know it is not such a cool
name, but I can assure you it is a good trip. You would go to New York
City on a coach bus with your entire grade, and get to go to whichever
restaurant you want. You are there the whole day having a good time with
your friends. But I missed it, the best part of school, because of
COVID-19. There were some benefits of having school on ZOOM. During
class we could ignore our teachers. Yes, there were pros and cons about
the new situation we were in, COVID-19.
You might be saying to yourself,
“Well, at least you were able to go to shul and go shopping.” That
is wrong, very wrong. It was all closed. We could not even leave
our house for about a month. When we were able to leave our house there
was a whole new set of rules and restrictions. We had to wear a mask
wherever we went, it was mandatory. I cannot even begin to tell
you how many times I was about to go into a store without a mask and I got
kicked out. There was one store that let me walk around the whole store
without a mask, then I waited in a long line to pay. When it was finally
my turn, the owner screamed at me, did not let me pay for my items, and kicked
me out. Because of COVID-19.
Now, you might be saying, at least
you had your family.” Well, that’s very, very, wrong. Here is how
it was. It was called quarantine. I don’t even want to say the
word, so I am just going to call it, “The Thing.” Now, if you had to do
“The Thing,” you had to be stuck in your room, not seeing anyone, no social
life, and worst of all, you had to do “The Thing” for 12 days. Later it
was lowered to 10 days, but that was still really hard and annoying. My
family actually had a funny quarantine story. One time, my doctor thought
I might have COVID-19. So my family and I all had to quarantine until we
got the results of the Covid test. The funny thing is, when we got the
negative test result, it was around 11:30 AM. Since I end school at 9 PM,
I went back to school. The rest of my family ends school earlier so it
wasn’t worth it for them to go back to school. So everyone else in my
family was home because of me, and I wasn’t even home. Because of
COVID-19.
Another strange series of events
was in Politics. It was crazy. There were two candidates running
for president, Donald J. Trump, and Joseph R. Biden. It was a huge fight;
it was going on for many months. It was the cause of riots, protests and
demonstrations. Some even turned violent with looting, burning of cars,
houses, and stores. My school even closed one day because of a planned
political demonstration in my neighborhood. This was fueled by a
combination of a heated political debate and the anger over
COVID-19.
If I would have to choose a
favorite Holiday, I would probably say it is Pesach. My second favorite
one would be Chanukah, and then Simchas Torah. I will tell you about what
Covid-19 did to my favorite Holidays. Let’s start with Pesach.
During Pesach we had the Seder, that sounds good, right? Usually, but, this
year my Dad had Covid-19. So imagine the Pesach Seder with no
father! Next, Chanukah, no family Chanukah parties, no class parties, and
no Lubavitch Chanukah Parade. That really stunk! Finally, Simchas
Torah. This is how it usually goes, my grandparents and uncle come, and
we get together at Shul. We dance, have fun, and get all sugared up, but
not this year. No family, no dancing, no sugar highs or fun. You
guessed it, COVID-19!
Food, during Covid-19. They
had free food pickups. Let’s just say, they gave out far more food than
we needed. We got free steak, chicken, beef, cream cheese, string cheese,
yogurt, cereal and much more! There was one time that they offered us 50
bottles of milk. Of course, we said, “No Thank you!” We took 8,
which is also a lot for us. Our freezers were stuffed to the brim with
food. Our fridge, stuffed to the brim with food. Our cabinets,
stuffed to the brim with food. Let’s just say a lot of food. COVID-19
food!
Oddly enough, during Covid-19 there
was a toilet paper shortage! People panicked and bought out the toilet
paper stock. That left others with none! Oddly enough there was
nothing else that had a shortage. This too, COVID-19!
Thank you for listening to my
story, I hope it wasn't gory.
Surely next time it will be happy
and we will be able to sing a song that’s rappy.
I hope this was pretty swell, if
not, I will buy you a new Dell.
Bye, see you next time, little
lime.
By Eli
Dixler
There are lots of things to learn from the
Coronavirus pandemic, my children.
At the beginning of the pandemic there
was so much to get used to. We had to start wearing masks, practice social
distancing, and use hand sanitizer. By Pesach time many people got the
virus in Baltimore, but in New York and other places there were many more.
The virus was spreading rapidly. It kept on spreading even when the country was
shut down and people had very limited direct contact. It was a long and
drawn out ordeal.
At the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic
we could not meet with people in person. Most families did not
have guests for Pesach or Shavuose. It was hard not having guests or
friends and family on Yomim Tovim, Sundays, or Shabbos. My sister,
brother-in-law, and niece came over, but only on the doorstep and had to stay
six feet away. The nice thing about being alone with my immediate family
on Pesach was that I was able to say more Divrei Torah. For
Shavuose, the weather was nice. On Shavuose night my chavrusa, Yehoshua Garry,
and I, learned outside on our porch. There was still something missing.
The guests that didn't come, the Chazan we didn't have, the shul we yearned
for, and the family. I missed it all. Even
regular family gatherings were non-existent. Our family resorted to Zoom
meetings a few times for family gatherings. Twice, my cousins, my family, and
my grandparents got together on Zoom. Another time, on Chanukah, my two married
sisters, my grandparents, and my family played bingo together on Zoom. A
few times we went onto Zoom with my cousins. We also used Zoom for school
every day for the two months left at the end of my 8th grade year. In the
summer after the first half, I learned everyday with my chavrusa in the
mornings, but not in person. Are you feeling lucky now?
Even though there were no open shuls, I still
felt special davening with my family. It made me feel closer to my
family. Since we did not have a Sefer Torah, my family took turns reading the
Parsha from a Chumash and my brother would practice the brachos for the
Haftorah. This helped him get ready for his bar mitzvah, which was only a
couple of months away.
Later in the year, after about 2 months, we
were allowed to have outdoor minyanim. It was amazing, the first Kadish, after
2 months of no Kadish, felt like a whoosh of wind passing by. I felt like I was
lifted closer to Hashem. Our outdoor miyan had a Sefer Torah. We were very
lucky to have this, others were not so lucky. After about a month we started
going to shul about a mile away. This shul was very careful about the virus.
This was not the best for me because I usually went to a Shul near my
house.
School isn't your favorite thing, you have
tests, homework, and some annoying people. But, imagine being in your house
alone with your family, no guests, no friends, having to wear a mask, and
staying six feet apart from everyone in public for two months. You would start
to feel lonely and not have fun. When the lockdown first started, our school
started to have us listening to our Rebbi on the phone. I would answer
questions over email on my father's computer. After a week or two we started
using Zoom for school. Now, you might ask, “How did you have finals or
tests?” The answer is, we had some classes with regular tests and in some
classes just finals. Our finals were on Zoom except for one. For one class the
teacher had the screen on us, while two teachers sent the final and we had to
send it back in an email. Another class just made us make a project and read a
couple of pages and make a video. I had trouble making the video perfect so I
just sent it to my teacher with a few mistakes. Now, do you believe you are
lucky to have your family, shul, and school in person?
I don't know about the economy that much, but
I know that it was at its best shortly before the pandemic. When the pandemic
started, the economy got bad. Due to these troubles, the government started a
number of programs. We got free lunch every day from Bnos Yisroel.
The food distribution gave a lot of milk, our fridge was full of milk.
When Schools started, the food program also started to give food for Shabbos at
the end of the week. There was deli, popcorn, chips, cereal, cookies, and
other yummy stuff, depending on the week. The point of the food
distribution was to get food to the people struggling without a job. Boruch
Hashem, my parents were still working, but it still gave us a little more food
for our table, especially for Shabbos.
I do not know that much about politics
either, but I do know that it was affected by the coronavirus. Before the
virus it was pretty clear that President Trump was going to win the 2020
election, but then the virus came and ruined history according to some.
The reason for this turn of events is that the president was blamed for the
mistakes in dealing with the virus. The election was different than
usual, instead of voting in person, the government mailed ballots to
everyone. This was a problem, it allowed for many “dead people” to vote.
Once the vaccine came out we slowly moved
away from constant situations that required quarantining and testing for
covid-19. To conclude, I want to address how lucky you are to be able to
go on trips with your school and family. See smiles, have guests, go to
shul, see friends, have simchas and have toilet paper! You should never take
these things for granted.
By Yehoshua Garry
The Coronavirus pandemic
was an atrocious worldwide pandemic. It attacked every single place in the
world. The pandemic caused damage to society in general. Schools
were shut down for a while and then had to make major adjustments. There
was a major impact on the economy, and politics. Specifically for Jews, the
pandemic changed what we did in many ways. We were not able to daven with
a Minyan because it was too dangerous, we had to daven in a backyard Minyan.
The Coronavirus also affected our Yomim Tovim, Pesach especially, was
totally different. I will tell you about these areas we were challenged by this
global pandemic.
In the first days of the
Coronavirus the Vaad Harabanim decreed a Yom Tefilla. They said everyone
should say a Tefila together at exactly 12 PM. Almost the entire Jewish
world cried out in Tefillah together. It was a very inspiring
scene.
The Coronavirus affected
our ability to daven with a Minyan. In the middle of March, all of the
Shuls were required to close down, we had to daven at home. This
continued until mid-June. At that time we were allowed to daven with a
Minyan, but only outdoors. This was very hard, because of the heat, the
rain, and the bugs. The good thing about davening outside was that we
were able to see the sunset, and other inspiring natural phenomena.
Eventually, we were able to return to our Shuls. This was in July.
We were now required to wear masks and stay 6 feet apart. During laining
there was also a divider between the baal koray and the oleh. I found
that people were being more careful with Kedushas Bais Hakneses and acted with
greater respect to the Shul. Being away from shul definitely made us improve
the way we treated Tefilah Betziboor. It gave us a greater appreciation
for our Shuls.
The Coronavirus also
affected our Yomim Tovim in a big way. Before Pesach, the Vaad Harabanim
announced that people were not able to have guests for Yom Tov. It was
quite sad because we were not able to invite the many families that we usually
invite. We were able to have my sister and brother in-law for the whole
Pesach. Even though they usually go to Denver for part of Pesach they
stayed with us the entire Yom Tov. By Shavuose time the Vaad Harabanim
said people were able to host guests, but only outside. We found it to be
too much of a hassle, and not practical to have guests like that.
Although it was quite hard, we still enjoyed the Yomim Tovim very much.
This pandemic definitely
affected the Yeshivos and all schools. On the Friday after Purim, the TA
middle-school announced they were closing for a week. This was a
week before Pesach vacation. Everyone thought that everything would be
back to normal after Peasch, but this did not happen. Instead, we started
learning via ZOOM and phone conferences. This continued for the next
couple of months, until the end of the year. Although it was quite hard
to learn during this time, we managed to learn quite a bit.
The Covid-19 pandemic
affected the economy in a very big way. At the beginning of the pandemic
all non-essential stores were closed. Essential stores were allowed to
remain open, but with social distancing, masking, and occupancy limits.
At the beginning, many people were opposed to masking, then it became
voluntary. Finally, the CDC made it a requirement for everyone indoors to
wear masks. At the time that stores were closed it was very hard both for
the owners and the consumers. Owners lost a lot of business during this
time, and some stores even had to close down forever. Eventually, in
mid-June, non-essential stores were allowed to open, but only for curbside
pick-up. By mid-July, most stores were back in service, but everyone
still had to wear masks, practice social distancing, and sanitize surfaces
often. These were only some of the ways the virus affected the economy.
Politics were also
affected by the pandemic. It was an election year in the United
States. There were two candidates running for President, Donald J. Trump,
and Joseph R. Biden. It was a really intense campaign. Donald Trump
had been very good to the Jews, and many Jews wanted Donald Trump to win. He
did not. It was probably because of the pandemic that he lost. It
made a lot of people sad. On the other hand, it made me feel like I was
really in Galus and it made me become closer to
Hashem.
In conclusion, the
Coronavirus was a very widespread virus which caused many things to change in
the world. Stores, Shuls, schools, and Yeshivas were closed. People
were unable to daven with Minyanim, nor learn as well as usual. It
had far reaching ramifications and affected us more than we ever could have
imagined. However, we have to realize, it was all for the best, gam zu
l’tova, it was the will of Hashem.
By Yosef Gabay
In
March of 2020, the Coronavirus came to us from Wuhan Province in China.
It quickly spread throughout the world. The virus was very traumatic in
many areas. I will tell you about some areas it was traumatic for me and
some of the ripple effects it created in the world around me.
We
all became more health conscious. We all had to follow the instructions
of our doctors on how to stop the spread of the virus. We sanitized
surfaces, and we were very careful about our personal hygiene. Many
people went to get tested for the virus on a daily basis. When I got
symptoms I went to get a test. I had bad flu symptoms, and nausea.
Surprisingly, my test came back negative. However, 3 months later I
tested positive for Coronavirus antibodies. So I guess I really did have
it at some time!
My
family life was altered. My four sisters and I were forced to stay inside
together longer than we ever had to in the past. At first, this was quite
stressful, even somewhat traumatic. We had to learn to get along and
share the space that we had. In order to make it work we began to develop
our relationship, for the better. Another big adjustment we had to make
was in our Yom Tov celebration. Before the Chinese virus came, my Aunts,
Uncles and cousins from near and far were thinking of coming to Baltimore for
Pesach. Due to the shutdown, caused by the virus they could not
come. I felt very sad not having them with us for Pesach. Instead
of having uplifting family sedarim, seudose, and trips, it was just sad and
lonely. We were only able to gather outdoors with local
relatives, it was not the same. We had to stay six feet apart, wear
masks, and meet outside. Some of my friends' families began using Zoom
and WhatsApp to connect with family and friends. My family also began
using video conferencing apps around Lag Baomer. We soon adjusted to the
new reality and made the best of it.
Religious
life was now completely different. For about three months, beginning
around Rosh Chodesh Nissan, we did not go to Shul. At first, we just
davened in our own house. Then, my cousins, the Fahkheri‘s, began to host
a backyard minyan. We did not have a Sefer Torah, but at least we had a
minyan. There were exactly ten people. Every person was important
and felt needed. When we were finally able to go back to Shul, it was
amazing! To be able to get an Aliyah, and be in Shul again was such a
good feeling. We were now required to wear masks, sanitize our hands, and
stay six feet apart. We adjusted to this new reality, as well, and
appreciated our blessings.
School
life was also torture in the era of Corona. Classes were on Zoom for the
end of my 8th grade year. I learned nothing! It did not feel like
school. There was no more hanging out with friends, no special events, no
presentations, or personal connections. It was distant, unnatural and
boring. The only good part about Zoom was that it kept us safe, we got
more time for assignments, and it allowed me to spread out my schooling to
convenient times. This too was a big adjustment, it definitely made me
appreciate my school and teachers.
The
Economy of the world was hit hard because of the virus. Right away the
stock market fell, businesses closed, some things became difficult to
obtain. My father’s Pharmacy remained open but with a lot of
changes. No one was allowed to come into the store anymore. All
customers had to use the drive-through. Doctors could only call in prescriptions.
People had to call to make a credit card payment by phone. Some of his
customers got a little annoyed by these new rules. A lot of people around
the country began complaining about the restrictions and blaming the people in
power for ruining their lives. President Donald Trump took the biggest
hit. It seems that the virus contributed to his downfall. Before
the virus it looked like he would win a second term easily. Now that
there were so many people upset about the changes the virus brought, Joe Biden
won the elections. In my opinion this was stupidity. It was not
Donald Trump's fault. It was China's fault. It seems that all the
sickness and death could have been prevented if China would have been smarter
in dealing with the outbreak of the virus from the beginning.
In
conclusion, the virus was terrible at first, but we adjusted. At first,
we were very bored and had nothing to do. We were stuck inside. Days
seemed to stretch on forever. Shul life was uncomfortable. Family
gatherings and social events became non-existent. After I adjusted to the
new reality I did grow from it. I developed closer and more meaningful
relationships with my parents and sisters. I gained a greater
appreciation for school and teachers. I learned firsthand about my
father’s business, and what is involved in running a pharmacy. We learned
to live with this new reality, and davened that it should have a good
outcome. These events had long term effects on the world and
me.
