Where is our Chabad Mettle in the Face of COVID19?, Shoshanna Silcove

•       During the times of the previous Rebbe in the Soviet Union under the evil Stalin, a group within Chabad  formed a special brotherhood. Each member of this brotherhood pledged their lives to the Rebbe, that they would fight to the death to continue and spread the practice of Torah and mitzvos. Many Jews were killed in those dark and dangerous days as Judaism was outlawed. Merely having a learning partner or a Torah book in one's home was an act of defiance and, a knock on the door from the Soviet authorities could mean banishment to the gulag, torture, or death. Informers were everywhere, and secrecy was imperative. There are stories of heroic acts in the face of torture and death, carried out in some cases just for the observance of one small mitzvah. There are stories of nine year old boys being sent by their parents to travel alone, through the vast Russian expanse, to make their way over many weeks in the cold and hostile land with empty stomachs, to yeshivas, all so they could learn Torah. Their parents had no idea if they would ever see or hear from their sons again. There are stories of young men lining up in the forest for hours to get a chance to put on the one tefillin that was available for hundreds of miles knowing if caught it could mean the end of their young lives. Yet these brave Chabad Chassidim kept the fires of Torah observance burning through their fearless self sacrifice.
•       When the previous Rebbe came to America, in a body broken by years of Soviet imprisonment and torture, but still with a great fighting spirit, he declared, "America is not different!" The same self sacrifice for Torah and mitzvos they had in Russia would continue in America, a land that many Jews believed to be a spiritual wasteland with no hope for a revival of Judaism. Of course, we all know that revival came about not only in America, but worldwide under the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, and as the saying goes the rest is history.
•       In present times, the question that begs for an explanation during this COVID19 crisis is, where has this Chabad fighting spirit of fearless self sacrifice gone? When Chabad community leaders and Rabbis acquiesce to Draconian measures with nary a protest and with no apparent regret, and go even beyond government requirements and unnecessarily close down shules, schools, mikvot, and everything that a Torah observant life demands, one wonders, is this even Chabad anymore?
•      These days there is no threat to life and limb, no imminent threat of imprisonment and torture or death by our government. The threats these days to our community is of modest fines, withholding of government funding to institutions, and some bad press. None of these consequences are in any way as destructive to our lives as what the Jews under Stalin faced. These are very much first world problems. And yet the fear of these consequences for not kowtowing to the government's requirements is way out of proportion. There is a lack of resistance  on any level.  The willingness on the part of these communal  decision makers to go even beyond government requirements,  so as to please their government overlords, is astoundingly disappointing and embarrassing.  There is even a lack of motivation to consider and try to find legal loopholes that would enable our Torah community to exist as it should. There is a complete and total capitulation and acquiescence to the government closing down of our Torah communal life that is so great, that it would not be too outrageous to say the Chabad spirit of yesteryear seems to have dissipated completely. 
•        Of course, there are the rationalisations for this. This must be done for pekuach nefesh, but is going even beyond the letter of the government law saving any lives? Not at all! Furthermore, there are the pseudo-spiritual explanations given by certain Rabbis and teachers to lull the community into a false sense of security and used to justify this lack of Chabad spirit. This is definitely the last gasp before Moshiach, they say. We all hope so, but no one really knows for sure when he will finally come or how much suffering we will have to G-d forbid endure until he gets here. They tell us that this is Hoshgacha Protis and it means that Hashem is happy with us not to be davening in minyanim, not doing mivtzoim, not sending children to proper yeshivas, not having frabrengens and kiddushes, He is suppossudly happy with the us not doing all the communal mitzvos Torah demands of us and that we have been doing for a few millenium. That now Hashem wants us to be more 'spiritual' and that all these mitzvos are not needed at the moment.
•       There are more than a few problems with all this from a Torah and from a Chabad point of view. Putting aside all the debate about COVID19 and how much of a threat it is or isn't to life etc., and putting aside that not a single person in our community has died from it Baruch Hashem, meaning we are not in a crisis here at all, and putting aside the fact that the communal leaders have contributed greatly to the unnecessary hysterical trauma and fear of many in our community, how can they simply turn Judaism on its head and suddenly say that all those communal mitzvos are not what Hashem wants? On its face that is an absurdly wrong assertion and one could even say it borders on heresy.
•       Torah is in the doing of mitzvos, not in sitting at home by oneself being 'spiritual' whatever that means. These mitzvos are largely communal and thereby we are required to do them together in groups as a community. Without that there is a gigantic lacking in our service to G-d. Or are we now adopting a new and different reformed religion in the era of COVID19, G-d forbid?
•       Then there is the issue that keeps coming up of our obligation to protect and save lives. Certainly, that is of utmost importance, as Torah teaches us. Yet, if life is all that counts, then why did those Chabad Jews risk theirs, and why did many die, all so Jews could observe Torah and mitzvos? And where is our bitachon? Do we not believe that Hashem gives and takes life, and we are not supposed to live in fear of dying? Is it suddenly the Chabad way to cower in our homes in fear of death, in fear of government fines, in fear of everything? Or are we to be the faithful bold audacious Jews who refuse to cower?
•       Certainly, we have an obligation to protect the vulnerable. Nevertheless, our over reach and incredibly exaggerated over reaction is now doing much more harm to us spiritually and psychologically than is necessary. We are greatly harming our children. What sort of lessons are they gleaning about what it means to stand for Chabad principles by this gross over reaction and hysterical fear? 
• Where is our Chabad mettle? Have we become so timid that we are ready to throw in the towel after all the decades of blood, sweat, tears, and self sacrifice, after all the work and toil?