“…a time for embracing and a time to refrain from embracing”Â
—Ecclesiastes 3:5
In this time of rumors, uncertainty, physical dangers and pandemic:
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This is a time to embrace a positive attitude and refrain from embracing fear.
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This is a time to embrace facts and science and refrain from embracing false prophets who deny the danger.
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This is a time to embrace our mortality, even as we refrain from embracing each other in order to prevent disease transmission.
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This is a time to embrace our spiritual nature and refrain from blaming HaShem.
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This is a time to embrace love and to refrain from hate.
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This is the time to embrace the opportunity to connect in new ways and to refrain from isolating ourselves mentally and emotionally from those we love.
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In this time we must learn to embrace the words of Ecclesiastes:
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A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under heaven:
A time for being born and a time for dying
A time for slaying and a time for healing
A time for loving and a time for hating
A time for war and a time for peace
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Let us learn to accept it all yet refrain from embracing helplessness.
We are not helpless. We are fighters for our own survival.Â
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Though the darkness seems foreboding
Light waits it’s chance to return
COVID-19 seems overwhelming
Yet this, too, shall pass
We will embrace our spiritÂ
We will refrain from giving up
