One line caught me during Rosh Hashanah davening. I’m sure I’m not the only one who saw it. “Ki sa’aveer memsheles zadon min ha’aretz — Because You will remove evil’s dominion from the world.”
The wording struck me as passive. It will be G-d, not us, who will come to remove the evil. All we have to do is stay true to Him. He will do all the heavy lifting.
“Evil’s dominion” sounds so medieval. Unfortunately, it’s still alive and well. Evil’s dominion just looks a little different in 2020. It dresses more like a philanthropist in a pair of khakis and a sweater.
G-d will make use of some pretty strange resources to make sure this one-line prayer gets fulfilled. The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, came forward as an unlikely player on the team of G-d. He acted like that blunt dinner guest who says what everyone else at the table of polite society already knows but won’t say, and while everyone else is busy talking about their golf game, he says it. Bless him for it. He gave me the biggest gift: An explanation.
There are countries, such as Australia and Israel, that are still imposing extreme lockdown measures seven months later. It makes no sense to me. The virus has shown itself to be minimally lethal and we know many ways to treat it, including the drug that works but can longer be mentioned. I hate when things don’t make sense. It drives me crazy.
Lockdown measures are no longer warranted, helpful, or proportional to the threat. These measures are antithetical to a thriving country, a country rooted in freedom and self-determination. These lockdowns suck the life out of people and destroy the morale of a country. World leaders aren’t stupid. They know this. There had to be a clandestine reason that countries were still putting a chokehold on their honest, hardworking citizens. I just didn’t know what it was. Until now.
President Alexander Lukashenko gave me a beautiful gift, a peek behind the curtain. Although the world is still a strange place right now, at least I have a flickering glimmer of clarity. Clarity is Windex on greasy glasses. Clarity nods a knowing smirk amidst the chaos. Clarity can endure almost any madness because it sees beyond it.
I understand that countries around the world have been offered multimillion-dollar relief loans from the World Bank and the IMF. There are strict conditions that come attached to these loans, conditions beautifully exposed by the politically incorrect Lukashenko. He reportedly said, “The IMF continues to demand from us quarantine measures, isolation, and curfew.” The IMF offered Lukashenko $940 million in aid if he would comply with WHO recommendations to slow the spread of COVID-19, including increasing enforcement of lockdown, masks, and curfews.
According to Gerry Rice of the Communication Department of IMF, “We did not demand quarantine, isolation, lockdown, but we sought assurances for steps to contain the pandemic in line with WHO recommendations, which is our standard operating procedure in all countries.”
President Lukashenko, in openly refusing the tainted bailout, revealed to us the exact corruption being dangled in front of other world leaders. The mysterious motivation behind these inexplicable lockdowns suddenly starts to reveal itself. It all comes down to money. Complicit world leaders are kicking Lukashenko under the table.
This shocking revelation cleared up another baffling phenomenon, in case you were wondering why airlines have also gone communist crazy. If you have seen the viral videos of babies being made to wear masks on airplanes or exhausted moms forced off airplanes, we now have an answer to that one, too. Airlines are also being offered the same massive financial bailouts in exchange for tighter enforcement of mask policies. Airlines are hurting right now and desperate to survive.
What could the World Bank and IMF possibly stand to gain from crashing so many countries’ economies via prolonged lockdowns and controlling the airlines? I don’t know. Dominion of evil, perhaps.
The Hebrew letters of this year — tav, shin, pei, aleph — a year that is being played out on a global stage, forms an acronym that translates as, “you will be amazed.” The language is passive. It is not our responsibility to do the amazing things; we have the privilege of being grateful spectators while G-d does the amazing things for us. What a relief.
To prove it, G-d started the first night of this new year with something only He could do. G-d selected this most auspicious night to escort 87-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg to her portion of heaven.
Candace Owens, who has found fame by repudiating her former criticism of President Donald Trump, also found “G-d’s timing is always perfect.” G-d made sure that none of us could miss His Hand in that deliverance. Quite a kick-start to the Year of Being Amazed. Trump is set to announce her replacement this Saturday. What a gift. The world keeps spinning in the right direction. Thank you, Hashem.
With my newfound clarity of all things COVID and my optimistic anticipation of a year of amazement, I come to one conclusion. No matter how dirty the game gets played behind the scenes, G-d is even better than Windex; he can clean up evil’s dominion in a single swipe. The only thing for us to do is to stand tall as players on G-d’s team. Hang tight, have faith, and watch. All will be revealed.
Editors Note: Lukashenko‘s government is widely characterized as authoritarian and he has often been referred to by media outlets as “Europe’s last dictator.” Elections are not considered to be free and fair by international monitors, opponents of the regime are repressed, and the media is not free. The columnist’s opinions on dictators do not necessarily reflect those of The 5 Towns Jewish Times or 5TJT.com.
Dr. Gila Jedwab has been practicing dentistry for nearly two decades. She graduated from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in 2000 and completed her residency in general practice at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her dental practice is in Cedarhurst.
I hate things that don’t make sense either.
What doesn’t make sense to me is how Gila Jedwab is still writing these articles. It reminds me of my children when they take the wrong opinion and dig in relentlessly until they’ve exhausted themselves. Unfortunately, Dr. Jedwab seems to never get exhausted parroting out Covid nonsense to the 5Ts faithful and thinks she’s a modern day “truth teller” shouting from the rooftops to save us from the evil people who seek to restrict our freedoms and rights. Let me be clear, I’m a conservative politically and I think this is all beyond the pale.
Let me be clear, I can’t sit here a read these articles any longer and I’ll happily just not read them, but I fear for the 5Ts people who do read them and then openly flaunt the rules putting my health, my families health, and the health of my friends at risk. Dr. Jedwab I’m sure is an excellent Dentist and I’ve heard from many is the kindest of people – but her views as expressed in this article are reckless. While I agree with her that “one size fit’s all” lockdowns and restrictions aren’t the answer, her angle that this is all a big conspiracy among all those seeking to restrict people’s actions… is frankly insane. While we know now that CV19 is lethal to vulnerable populations and less lethal the younger people are, that doesn’t mean we should walk around and allow our fellow person to get infected. In Jedwab’s previous articles and various discussions on social media, her approach the virus has been one that has given a free pass to our community to act in the reckless manner we’ve seen over the past few weeks. Yes, if you’re young, the virus won’t kill you. But who knows what the long term consequences of CV19 are? Should we shelter in place, no. Should we be considerate to try to limit the spread by wearing masks and observing a minimum of rules… YES! Rules should be simple, WEAR A MASK when in contact with people or SOCIAL DISTANCE, it’s not hard. I didn’t grow up in the 5Ts, but I’ve learned that in the 5Ts we have people who don’t care about others because of their selfish attitudes. It’s not a lot of people but it’s enough especially given how quickly and easily this virus spreads. We all know these selfish idiots, they don’t give you the right of way when driving, they’re rude, they’re unfriendly. Luckily they’re only a small fraction of our community, but unlucky for us, they’re all making decisions that have potentially adverse impacts on our health – with potential for LT negative symptoms. And they’re shielding themselves under the logic that some medical professional like Dr. Jedwab told them this is a hoax. Or they look around and see the “most popular” of us (as defined by social media followers) not following any rules and openly pushing for people to violate any civility we could show by just being considerate, and then these people wonder why they should follow the rules. It’s just embarrassing. The tipping point for me was a letter clearly from a parent at a Yeshiva advocating other parents NOT test their kids if they show symptoms to avoid having to virtual school their kids.
What is wrong with us? We are earning every negative stereotype that is associated with us and it’s a terrible Chillul Hashem. Maybe Dr. Jedwab should familiarize herself with that concept.
Ari D. Kadish
Thanking hashem effusively for the “ amazing” death of another jew (who was “taken” to make a political point, no less) is a new low even for Jedwab. I am amazed but not in a good way. This year sadly brings more of the same drivel as the last. 5tjt you need to stop providing a forum for this enfant terrible in need of attention.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/17/asia/indonesia-coronavirus-grave-diggers-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
Also, I’d recommend you speak with anyone living in Belarus who isn’t a government official before you praise a dictator.
Dentists should not opine on medical issues. Dental school is not medical school. I went to medical school for 4 years and then did 6 years of surgical training and even then- Covid-19 is not something to treat lightly. I spent a week working in a Covid ICU in April and young people died too. Stay in your lane, Dr. Jedwab. Also, looking forward to her next article on Putin.
I’d no sooner go to an infectious disease expert or Rabbi for treatment of a root canal. Why on earth do we continue to give a dentist a platform on either mask wearing or matters of faith?
This is what the first wave of the virus you call “minimally lethal” looked like at the hospital where I work, two miles from your dental practice. You don’t even have to cover your eyes to willfully deny the reality of the situation when you’re blessed to not have to confront it.
https://youtu.be/EsqdBz-_noQ
Even if you were correct (and oh, how I wish you were), glossing over the long term adverse sequelae for those who survive in order to bolster a politically motivated and scientifically unsupported agenda is simply irresponsible and unbecoming of a health care practitioner. Fine, you’re willing to sacrifice a “few” deaths. What about the scores more who will suffer ongoing cardiovascular, neurological, pulmonary, and other deficits? What about the quality of the rest of their lives in the balance of our temporary drop in quality of life for the next several months? What about all those whose suffering could yet be prevented?
It has come to my attention that Mrs. Jedwab is a dentist. So I’m sure she’ll truly understand my sentiments when I say that I’d rather get all of my teeth pulled than read what she wrote again. Unfortunately, in today’s society, for some bizarre reason and too often, an unqualified person’s opinion on a subject is taken at face value, or worse, granted more importance than a qualified professional’s opinion. This was the unfortunate state of affairs even prior to the Covid outbreak. But now here we are with the likes of Mrs. Jedwab preaching to any mental midget who will listen (and even championing a Soviet-style dictator in the process. Can’t make this #%$! up) except now the stakes
involve life and death.
Dear 5TJT:
How much in advertising does Dr. Jedwab pay your paper that you decided it would be appropriate to have her write a column. Her ideas are truly insane. Normally it wouldn’t matter but in this case her “advice” could actually lead to sickness and death. I knew she was conspiratorially minded from the outset when she made that veiled swipe at Bill Gates as evil dressed in a sweater and khakis. Gates is out there spreading truth and trying to save lives while you (and sadly by extension this paper) are spreading complete nonsense. I hope you at least raise her ad rates so you can justify this garbage.
“The virus has shown itself to be minimally lethal.”
In making that statement the author admits that the virus does kill.
If even one person dies as a result of the “opinion” in this column then the author is no better than her opinion of RBG, whose death the author lauds.
This seems to be the turtle’s back on which the whole article teeters: “What could the World Bank and IMF possibly stand to gain from crashing so many countries’ economies via prolonged lockdowns and controlling the airlines? I don’t know. Dominion of evil, perhaps.”
Or maybe, like, Occam’s Razor? Maybe they want to preserve people’s health. Oh, all they care about is money? Then what they stand to gain is averting the economic disasters experts caution will accompany our health disasters. It’s not economy vs. health, it’s always been that the economy is bound up with public health for those who are not so short-sighted. Expert economists around the world, from all political stripes, have attested as such. Here are two examples linked below.
No, it’s just dominion of evil? There’s no real evidence or support for that, it’s just turtles all the way down, but golly it sure is fun to make flippant, unfounded, implausible speculation and use it as a foundation to endanger your community. Thank you for giving us the Windex to see with clarity who you really are.
https://stage.econstrat.aspen.byf1.io/publication/economic-strategy-group-statement-covid19/
https://theconversation.com/open-letter-from-265-australian-economists-dont-sacrifice-health-for-the-economy-136686
May the evil being perpetrated by this wicked woman be removed from the world’s dominion speedily in our days