Corona - Core of Corona

The Release of The “50^th Gate of Impurity” Into Our World Today

Let us try to understand a little, with siyata d’shmaya, about the way which Hashem is running the world today.

Anyone can see that there is a certain inner force which has penetrated into our world so that there can be an equal counterbalance between the forces of good (holiness) and evil (impurity).

The Sages teach that “The world was created with 50 gates of understanding (shaarei binah), and all of them were given to Moshe, except for one.”[1] According to some views, Moshe merited the “50^th gate of understanding” at the time of his death. This means that at the end of his life, Moshe received the 50^th gate of understanding, the highest level of holiness, and this is a hint that in the final days, in the time directly preceding Moshiach’s arrival, the “50^th gate of understanding” will become available to us.

In the final days, where the 50^th gate of understanding becomes revealed in the world, there must be an equal counterbalance between good and evil, and therefore the 50^th gate of understanding is countered in the final days by the 50^th gate of impurity, the shaar haNun d’tumah, which is essentially the “war of Gog and Magog.” When the “50^th gate of impurity” reaches it total and absolute level, the “light of Moshiach” comes.

Each of the “50 gates”, both in the sides of holiness and impurity, each have another set of gates within it, and each of those 50 gates contain another 50 gates within it. In the “50^th gate of impurity”, the first 49 gates are at one level, while the 50^th gate within the 50^th gate of impurity is at an entirely different level. The first 49 gates within the “50^th gate of impurity” are logical to understand, while the 50^th gate within the 50^th gate of impurity is so hidden and concealed that is totally beyond comprehension. It is a kind of tumah that goes beyond logical understanding. The 50^th gate within the 50^th gate, both in the side of holiness and in the side of impurity, cannot be logically understood. They are beyond our level of comprehension.

The 50^th gate within the 50^th level of impurity is otherwise known as the force of “Erev Rav”, the mixture in this world, which is also known as the evil kind of daas, the mixture of good and bad daas which was contained in the Eitz HaDaas, and it is a kind of daas, a kind of knowledge, which isillogical.

Media Use Is The “50^th Gate of Impurity” In Full Force

Anyone who is aware of the situation in the world today can recognize this quite well. The world today is a terrible and disturbing mixture of the worst kinds of influences, with everything bombarding us all at once. The entire world, especially since the year 5760 and even more so in the recent years, has become enveloped in a certain spiritual darkness that has come into the world. It is all the presence of tumah, an invisible but spiritually present force of defilement, which surrounds everything in Creation, bringing confusion with it to everything that it touches. It all affects us, in the depths of our souls. It supersedes anything else that came before it.

The confusion and mixed-up values created by all of the tumah has entered into the places of Torah, penetrating even into our innermost circles where people are the most careful to observe Torah and mitzvos. It has entered into our once-sheltered society in the sneakiest way possible, and it destroyed everything. It has destroyed the entire generation already [from a spiritual standpoint].

Without getting into all the details, this is all a general force known as the “50^th gate of impurity” (shaar HaNun d’tumah). It’s all the media and all of the "smart" devices which have entered our environment and into our direct social circles, and into our homes. Some people have a “hechsher” on their use of social media, by placing filters on it to make it “kosher”, but any sensible person understands that although this was well-intentioned, all it has done is totally uproot Jewish neshamos from within.

Anything in the world of social media, all of the communicating, all of the messages and all of the videos and all of the terrible peritzus (obscenities) that people can view today through it, has reached an abysmally low point.

The recent epidemic has now forced people to stay in their homes, resembling the verse, “Go my nation, come into your rooms, close the doors behind you, reflect for a moment, until the wrath passes”[2], and all places of Torah (yeshivos and shuls) have been closed, forcing everyone to stay at home. And what happened now? There are places where bochurim in yeshiva can go to so that they can hear shiurim on the Internet being given by their Rebbeim, so that they shouldn’t miss any shiurim….!

It’s true! The generation today has become so spiritually deadened!!

This is all the “50^th gate” within the 50^th gate of impurity itself, the lowest point to be on. The wonder is that things have been like this for a while yet Hashem didn’t send us any wake-up calls like this until now.

What Hashem is sending us now is all rachamei Hashem, it is all in Hashem’s great compassion for us that He has sent us this! The generation simply cannot continue the way it is. It is all filled with the influences of tumah coming in from all directions.

The Sages teach that at the time when the Beis HaMikdash was destroyed, every rooftop had an idol on it. Today it is the same idea: there is tumah everywhere. And now that people are being forced to stay in their homes, what is everyone remaining with? People are remaining with nothing but their smart devices and their connection to social media, and that’s all they have in their life right now! Naturally, people can’t be alone, they can’t feel so separated from the rest of the world, so they are spending all of their time now communicating through internet and media. This is all the 50^th gate of impurity.

At The Core of the Coronavirus

It is clear to anyone that the world will not return afterwards to the way it was before. There have been easier times and harder times that we have seen, but the world simply will not go back to the way it was, for now the “50^th gate of impurity” has been released full force in our world today, and that changes everything. It is no longer hidden, it is obvious, that there has never been anything like this before.  

The “coronavirus” is not the problem. Rather, it is just a physical manifestation, an outer appearance, of a deeper issue behind it. The real issue here is that the entire world has become infected by the widespread influence of the most depraved elements possible, which is called the “Keser d’kelipah”. The world today is a “generation entirely deserving of destruction”[3] as the Sages said long ago regarding the final generations.

All that is left for a person now, for one who has become so infected by the impurity of the world today, is to be stuck his house where he can be connected to the “50^th gate of impurity”, to the media, which he gets everything from - all of his news, all of his communication, and all his needs….

Even when people learn Torah from the internet, it is all coming from the most impure source possible, the “Erev Rav”, and it is all a Torah being nursed forth from the Erev Rav! The Erev Rav stood far away from Har Sinai at the time of the giving of the Torah, as the Ramban says. But in our generation, it is not that way. Today the Erev Rav is right within our hands.

People are secluded in their homes and still connected to the internet and to the media, connected to the deepest filth of the “50^th gate of impurity” within the “50^th gate of impurity” itself, on varying different levels, whether they know of this or not.

The Way Out

But ultimately, it is all being countered by the light of Hashem that is shining strongly now.

There is a verse, “My soul desires You at night”[4], which refers to the inner depths of holiness of the soul that are available now, in the darkest times where we at the lowest spiritual level possible, we have the opportunity to attain extraordinary closeness with Hashem.

The innermost point of our soul is called “Yechidah l’yachdecha”, (a “yechidah”, to declare Your oneness”.[5] We have a soul in us which contains a nefesh, ruach, neshamah, chayah, and yechidah. The Sages teach that the nefesh is seated in the liver, the ruach in the heart, the neshamah in the brain, the chayah rests on one’s clothing, and the yechidah is accessible through one’s home. The verse, “Close the doors behind you…until the wrath passes”[6], the entire idea of being secluded in our homes, is really the light of Moshiach that counters the “50^th gate of impurity”.

For how long will this period last? That is unknown, because “Matters of the heart are not revealed by the mouth”[7], but one thing is certain: During this period we are in, a person can connect to Hashem more strongly than ever, through being secluded in his house. It is the opportunity to reveal the depths of our neshamos, to become connected in our souls, earnestly and simplistically, with Hashem. To recognize how Ain Od Milvado, that there is nothing else other than Him.

Throughout our history, there were always times of joy and times of crises. The Gemara says that tzaros come to us in order to awaken us to do teshuvah and return to Hashem and to pray to Him for salvation. But the teshuvah which Hashem wants from us now, and the kind of tefillah which He wants from us now, is the kind of teshuvah and tefillah which is usually not accessed by most people. The kind of teshuvah that Hashem wants to see from us now is that we should choose a kind of life that is eternal, to choose what we want our souls to become forever connected to, for all of eternity.

There are two sides to the coin before us. Now is the time in our world when we are bombarded by the worst kinds of tumah, the availability of knowledge and media connection which is all the “daas of the Serpent”, the terribly harmful mixture of the Erev Rav, the evil knowledge contained in the Eitz HaDaas. But on the other hand, we are being given now the chance to have eternal life, the chance to live forever, the Eitz HaChaim.

What We Need Now Is Teshuvah, Tefillah, and Deeper Connection to Hashem

This is the deep choice which each person has now, to be able to choose to live our life for Hashem. The first step we need to do is teshuvah, and the second step is tefillah. But we also need to reach a third step: To attain a deeper and absolute bond with Hashem!

If one does this, one will pass through all of this in the correct way, and he will see miracles beyond miracles, of seeing Hashem’s Divine Providence! We will pass it all with the light of Hashem accompanying him, going through this entire ordeal while being connected with Hashem! This is what it means to merit eternal life, the light of Moshiach, the light of the resurrection of the dead and the state of the World To Come.

Understanding The Seriousness of Today’s Situation

If a person today thinks that this is just another difficulty we are facing, and he attempts to make some improvements, being mechazeik (strengthening) himself in certain areas where he knows he can use chizuk in, this is all nice, and it is a truthful thing to do, but he must understand that merely making improvements in our life is just the first step. If one takes a more truthful look at the situation in the world today, he will see that this is not just another tzarah happening to us. Nothing like this has ever happened!

People are so connected with tumah all over the world with an unbridled desire to know everything at the quickest pace possible. This has unleashed this epidemic which has quickly swept through the world.

We should understand that Egypt was being stricken with plagues right before we got out of Egypt and we left Egypt amidst wonders and miracles. We were almost in the “50^th gate of impurity”, and we wouldn’t have been able to escape from Egypt had we remained one more moment. In our times, we are indeed in the “50^th gate of impurity”, as the Ohr HaChaim says, but we still have the power of the Torah with us, something we did not have with us in Egypt. The power of the Torah can take us out of even the 50^th gate of impurity, which is essentially the pleasure that one can find in G-dliness.  This “50^th gate of holiness” can take a person out of the 50^th gate of impurity. This is what lies behind the test that we are going through in these times.

If someone today is totally superficial, they are busy only with what to do practically: What to eat, where to get food, where to get household items from, what to do with all of his time so that he shouldn’t be bored, etc. Someone a little more inner oriented will look to strengthen themselves in some area. Although this is truthful, it doesn’t get a person to the root. A person may want to recite 100 berachos a day, recite Ketores (incense) every day, avoid speaking lashon hora, increasing love to other Jews, thinking about Divine Providence each day - and all of this is good to do and it is all true - but this alone doesn’t get to the root of this tzarah (plague).

One needs to know the depth of the tzarah we are in and then one can know the depth of how to come out of it. Hashem is yelling to us from every direction, that the entire lifestyle of the last couple years is unacceptable [to Him, and for us]. The entire connection that people have to the whole world, to all of the entertainment and restaurants and social mingling, all under the name of “kosher” entertainment, is really all sheker (falsity). It is like a sheretz, an impure insect, which we cannot ever make tahor (pure) no matter how many reasons we can come up with. The entire way of life today, even amongst the Torah observant, in which people have become too connected to the way of life of the world today, is totally unacceptable! It just cannot exist by us!

Hashem has shown every person now that he cannot depend on anything, not on his money in the bank, not on his doctors, not on the army. How can an army fight an epidemic!? There is nothing we can depend on now, other than Him. There is an awesome revelation taking place today, for anyone who doesn’t stubbornly refuse to see it, in which we can see that the entire way of living of the last couple of years is totally against Hashem’s will, period. Hashem doesn’t want us to live in the way we are living, because He finds it totally unacceptable.

Weddings Today

There are endless details that we can elaborate on about this, but here is one example of it which happened this week.

Many people could not make chasunahs (weddings) normally. People who made weddings had to find 10 people to make a minyan, and that was it. [If you think about this, this was to show us that] all of the chasunahs being made today are really sheker. There is too much extravagance, too much food, too much materialism, and terrible peritzus in the clothes that people wear at chasunahs today.

There is no simchah by any of these chasunahs. The entire way in which weddings are done today is all against what Hashem wants, and Hashem has no simchah in these chasunahs. One of the seven blessings by a chasunah is that there be “joy in His abode”, but Hashem does not rejoice at a wedding that goes against His will. All of the food at weddings today is kosher, but the sheer abundance of it and the variety of food today at weddings, is not.

Separating From The Extravagant Lifestyles of The World Today

Today everything centers around restaurants, which are usually of the strictest kashrus standards,and now Hashem has come and shut them all down. The magazines were filled with advertisements to spend Pesach in hotels in countries like Cyprus and Greece, and people think, why not? Is there anyone who thinks that this is the will of the Creator?? The wonder is that all of this falsity was able to continue until now, not that everything that has suddenly been halted.

Anyone with the heart of a Jew, with a heart that is open to the spiritual, can feel and think how, in the last couple of years, our hearts can bleed over Jewish souls who have gone lost. “Unknowingly, we have been sold, me and my nation, to be killed and destroyed.”[8] It is like when everyone enjoyed the party of Achashveirosh. Hashem is telling us, “Stop everything! Think!”

And don’t go now into your rooms where you can be alone so that you can connect to all of the media! Disconnect from it already!! A person thinks that he will get everything he needs from there, all of his guidance and all of his security. Woe to the person who thinks that his yeshuah will come from there! As if Torah will come from there, as if everything that Klal Yisrael needs to know will come to them through the use of the media!

Hashem is showing us now that “That is not how I think. This is all the thinking of the Serpent, the thinking of the Erev Rav”.

Now Hashem has given each person the opportunity to be secluded in his house. True, it’s not always easy to be home all day with the kids and to have some quiet and calm. But it is the house where a person can find his “Yechidah”. It is there where a person can be in solitude and reflect, and to understand that the Jewish people are a “nation that dwells alone.”[9]

When the Jewish people entered Eretz Yisrael they needed to conquer the seven nations living there because they needed to become a nation that dwells alone. The Torah was given in the desert, precisely because it is far from civilization, and it was given at Har Sinai, from the word sinah (hatred) because it is there that we gained a sense of revulsion towards the nations of the world.

There is a separation between us and the rest of the nations!
There is a mechitzah between us and them!
There is a life of kedushah for us!
There is such a thing as the reality of Hashem’s presence in our heart!
There is a bond that we can have with the Almighty G-d!
That is what our soul really needs to look for now.

The deepest choice is now being given to each and every one of us. Each of us has gone through many choices in our lives, and it seems that we don’t know how long this period will last for. But, we now have the bechirah, the power of choice, which is being given to us in the Final Days.

This is the choice:
Will a person choose eternal life, a life of the World To Come, in which there will be no eating and no drinking, just the tzaddikim enjoying the rays of the Shechinah?
Or will people just hold onto whatever they have now and keep enjoying whatever they can still enjoy…?

To enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah is what a Jew is supposed to want to live for! Any physical pleasure is only for the purpose of calming our body a bit so that we can immediately return to serving the Creator (as the Mesillas Yesharim teaches).

If one wants to see the salvation of Hashem and to see the redemption, to see the return of the light of Hashem (which really shines within us), one must return to the power of free will, by separating and distancing himself from everything that he has been used to until now. It was all going to fall apart anyway. And if a person chas v’shalom isn’t prepared to cut off from all of it, it means that he is trying to hold onto the innermost level of tumah within the “50^th gate of impurity” itself…

One must recognize and reflect on the absolute falsity that has been with us for so many generations and to disconnect from all connections with falsity, and to return to the ways of Moshe, Aharon, Dovid and all other tzaddikim. One needs to connect to the depths of the Torah and to HaKadosh Baruch Hu, with a true bond, to recognize that there is no power in control other than Hashem, as the sefer Nefesh HaChaim describes.[10] This is the simple thought that one needs. But that is not the end. The goal of this thinking is to form a deep bond in our soul with the Creator. If we do this, we can become a ben Olam HaBa already now.

Conclusion - The Rav’s Blessing

May Hashem merit us to separate from all of the falsity in the world, and that we should not wish that the epidemic should go away ‘so that everything can return to "normal again", because that would be an absolute curse, if the world would go back to the way it was before. That would be much worse for the world, than the situation we have now.

May the Creator merit us to see the light of Hashem, and that He should stop the epidemic today, by destroying the innermost level of the 50^th gate of impurity. And may we merit to be in the category of the verse “Upon you, the light of Hashem shines”[11], that the light of Hashem should shine, where there will be the revelation of Moshiach, when our eyes will see the return of Zion. Amen, and may Hashem will this to be.