Bilvavipedia - Epidemics

The first time where the Torah mentions the term of mageifah (epidemic) is by the plagues that Hashem inflicted on Egypt. (As a hint, the numerical value of the word mageifah,  מגפה without the letter yud as it is sometimes mentioned, is 127. The first Jew to become “exiled” in Egypt was Sarah, when she was abducted by Pharoah. Sarah lived 127 years, which hints that Sarah’s abduction by Pharoah would later turn into the source for mageifah in Egypt!)

The Torah calls the plagues of frogs and also hail with the term mageifah, where Hashem said, הנה אנכי נגף,“Behold, I will bring all my plagues upon them,” and the plague of death of the firstborn was called a נגף, nagaf (epidemic), from the word mageifah.

There is a possuk in Yeshayah, which says נגף רפוא, “nagaf rafo,” where the navi is describing the final plague in Egypt, the death of the firstborns, that it was an “epidemic that brought healing.” The final epidemic upon Egypt brought “healing” to the Jewish people, for it heralded the redemption from Egypt. In the final two plagues, darkness and death of the firstborns, the Jewish people received blessing as Egypt got afflicted. The plagues of darkness and death of the firstborn both forced the Egyptians to be secluded in their houses, while the Jewish people had light in their homes in the midst of the darkness of Egypt. Hashem struck down the firstborns of Egypt and sanctified all Jewish firstborns, and brought death upon the Egyptians while protecting the Jewish people. And when leaving Egypt, everyone left together in groups, in contrast with the last two plagues in Egypt where everyone became secluded.

But there is also mageifah that comes uniquely upon the Jewish people. In the times of Dovid HaMelech , a plague broke out amongst the Jewish people after they had all been counted by numbers. And the Torah lists 4 events were there was mageifah amongst our people: After the Eigel, by the story of Korach, after the event of Bilaam and baal Peor, and after the Meraglim. In the Tochachah, Hashem said that mageifah comes whenever people veer from the word of Hashem.

When Moshe went above to get the Torah, he was given the secret of the Ketores as a gift, the power that saves from mageifah which he would later use after the sin with the Eigel to stop the epidemic that raged then. But Dovid HaMelech  also stopped a mageifah in his times.

The Gemara says that a bull (and all animals as well) has no mazal, and therefore when a bull pushes another bull (the act of goring is called negifah, similar to the word mageifah), it was done without intention to damage the other bull, since the bull has no mazal. [Rashi explains that an animal does not have daas (mature intelligence) and therefore it has no mazal, whereas a person has daas and therefore a person getting damaged is a result of having a bad mazal. Hence, the concept of mazal is connected with daas]. Thus, negifah (pushing) comes when there is an absence of mazal, and that is why a bull will attack another animal. The word negifah comes from the word mageifah – we can learn from this that a mageifah thrives whenever there is no mazal.

Now we can understand the difference between mageifah of the Jewish people and by the gentile nations. When the nations of the world are in the midst of a bad mazal, the result is a mageifah, amidst the nations of the world. However, regarding the Jewish people, Chazal said, אין מזל לישראל “There is no mazal for Yisrael.” The Baal Shem Tov explained that “no mazal” for the Jewish people, which is spelled as אין מזל ain mazal (there is no mazal) can also be read as “ayin mazal l’Yisrael.” The mazal for the Jewish people is אין, ayin, the higher dimension. In other words, the Jewish people have a higher mode of conduct (or a higher mazal) than what the nations have. Thus, when we rise to the level that is above the jurisdiction of mazal - which is essentially the higher dimension, known as ayin - we can rise above the dangers of a mageifah.

Dovid HaMelech  was called a bar nafli [a stillborn who was supposed to die at birth, who received all 70 years of his life from Adam], which also means “fallen one.” Thisa hint that he had a impaired, “fallen” mazal, for his life was destined to be fraught with perils and all kinds of danger and suffering. He had no mazal protecting him, so he was vulnerable to mageifah. That is also why there was a mageifah in his times which was brought by him, when he counted the Jewish people. But ironically, his very disadvantage of having no mazal was actually the key to his survival and his ability to save the Jewish people from mageifah in his times. Having no mazal also meant that he could rise above mazal. Dovid HaMelech  [through his humility and his closeness with Hashem] reached the level of ayin, and Dovid HaMelech ’s very level became ayin, the dimension of the spiritual which is above the level of the human being. Thus, Dovid HaMelech  rose to the level of ayin, essentially being above mazal and, by extension, transcending all mageifah. He fully reached the level of ayin that is above mazal - the very root of the Jewish people, which is in ayin, which places the Jewish people above mazal.

The mageifah of the Jewish people happened as a result of sinning with the Eigel/golden calf which looked like a young bull. This sin caused their illustrious level to plummet, and ever since, the mazal of the Jewish people has fallen because of this evil “bull.”

The sin with the Eigel was the root of mageifah for the Jewish people alone, whereas the sin of Adam was the root of mageifah for the entire world (both the Jewish people and all the nations). According to one view of the Sages, the Eitz HaDaas (Tree of Knowledge) that Adam ate from was a grapevine, a gefen, which has the same root letters as the word mageifah. The sin with the Eitz HaDaas caused mankind to lose his higher daas and fall to the level of an animal, like the verse “They were comparable to animals” [which is the detrimental effect of sin]. Thus, mageifah is the result of losing daas.

The root of mageifah in the Jewish people, however, was uniquely the sin with the Eigel, which brought mageifah only to the Jewish people. After falling in this sin, they fell down from the perfected level of man which they rose to at Har Sinai, and they fell back to the level “They were comparable to animals” – in particular, the “bull.” By the Eigel, the Erev Rav declared about the golden calf: “This is the god which took you out of Egypt.” So the eigel was the “bull” that brought mageifah to the Jewish people.

But the Jewish people can rise above mazal and thereby be above mageifah. The Gemara says that it is the way for a bull to get pushed around by another bull, but it is not normal for a person to get pushed by a bull. This is a hint that a mageifah only affects a person who falls to the level of the “bull,” an animal (that is, when he loses his daas), and when he is not on the level of the human being.

Even more so, Dovid HaMelech  was compared to Adam, which stands for “Adam, Dovid, Mashiach,” a hint that Dovid contained the illumination of Mashiach, which is above even the level of a person. The illumination of Mashiach, personified by Dovid HaMelech , is the ability to rise to the level that is above a person, the level of ayin – the root of the Jewish people which is above mazal.

The Poskim also discuss what defines a mageifah: how many people have to be dying in order for it to be considered a mageifah, how many cities are being affected, and how quickly, etc. But it is clear that in the end of days, there will be a mageifah like in the times of Dovid HaMelech , who also represents the Mashiach ben Dovid.

This mageifah is a result of hester panim, the concealment of Hashem’s Presence when we don’t clearly feel Hashem, and His Presence feels so hidden from us. Mashiach ben Dovid will soon become revealed, and this will be the fully revealed level of Dovid HaMelech . Whereas Dovid HaMelech ’s righteousness and full potential remained mostly concealed his whole life, he made himself into ayin/nothing, Mashiach ben Dovid will be the fully revealed potential of Dovid HaMelech  (a more revealed level of ayin), which will be the level that is above the human being, above the level of daas (human comprehension). Dovid was called bar nafli, one with a fallen mazal, and this was connected with the concept of the mageifah that appeared in his times, which caused people to feel concealment of Hashem’s Presence. Because of this, people during a mageifah will be exceedingly worried of what’s going to be, what troubles are going to be next, etc. They become disoriented and they lose their daas.

[Interestingly], the mageifah in the end of days came upon us at Purim time. This tells us about the spiritual nature of this mageifah. Purim is a festival that is above daas, it is entirely a festival of losing our regular daas, rising above our daas. Thus, the root of the mageifah, which started shortly before Purim [in Eretz Yisrael, which is the central place of the world] was in a time period in which there was absence of daas. The root of a mageifah shows us how to repair it. Since the mageifah started from a point where daas was absent, the way to transcend the mageifah is therefore by going above daas – by rising above the level of the human being (daas) and accessing the level beyond the human being, which is ayin.

The mageifah that takes place in the end of days [which is currently taking place] is not like mageifos of the past, where the concern was simply about how many people are dying in each city, etc. The mageifah in end of days is a mageifah affecting the entire world, spreading to every corner of the earth. The way to spiritually repair [and transcend] the mageifah in the end of days is by doing the avodah of Dovid HaMelech  which was personified by emunah (faith in Hashem), and namely t’mimus (simple, unquestioning faith and loyalty to Hashem). Both emunah and t’mimus are levels that transcend logical daas. The entire root of mageifah is when there is no mazal (as explained earlier), and the way out of this, then, is to go above daas  through having emunah and especially t’mimus.  This will place us above mazal, where we will not be affected by mageifah. 

Getting more specific, in the end of days, our avodah of connecting more with Hashem is deeper than the level we achieved at our first redemption, which was the exodus from Egypt. Our redemption from Egypt was personified as “An infant nursing from its mother,” where we received all of our sustenance from Hashem. But during the final days, when we are on the way out from the final exile into the final redemption, our avodah is to be “like a fetus inside its mother,” which is a deeper level of closeness.

At the exodus, we left with Moshe, and in his merit we received the manna, where we were “nursed” our sustenance directly from Hashem. But at the final Redemption, when we are on the way out from this final exile, we can receive an even deeper power than manna. The power of Dovid HaMelech , the bar nafli, is that he had no existence of his own, he was ayin. He lived with total emunah and t’mimus and survived only because he lived completely in Hashem’s embrace.

Dovid was called a “stillborn” [because he was destined to die at birth, and his entire survival was miraculous]. He survived because he was like the “fetus in its mother,” which has no place of its own because it cannot survive if it enters the world. Its only chance of survival right now is to be inside its mother, where it is protected and nourished. Although the fetus is at a disadvantage because it has no place of its own where it can live, this is however, its very source of survival since it can only be inside the mother.

When an mageifah/epidemic is raging, there is nowhere in the world to run to, because it is spreading all over the world, to every place. The posuk says that during an epidemic, “Close the doors behind you, come into your rooms.”  The possuk is really giving us the deep answer to be saved from an epidemic. We need to “close the doors” to the world outside of us.  We need to become “like the fetus in its mother,” concealed from everything in the world [where are our only place of refuge is to be alone with Hashem, where we are getting all of our nourishment from Hashem, and we where weare entirely found with Hashem]. This is the way to survive the “birth pangs” before Mashiach’s arrival – by being like the fetus in its mother! And that is the deeper meaning of “close the doors behind you.”

We are currently in the “birth pangs preceding Mashiach’s arrival,” but if we want to survive it and be safe from a mageifah that rages in the world around us, we need to be like the fetus inside the mother, closed off from the world outside of us. If we are found “outside” in the world, then we have nowhere to run to from the mageifah, because the mageifah in the end of days will be all over the world. But if we are found on the “inside” - being like the fetus in its mother [alone with Hashem and depending solely on Him for our survival, recognizing that we have nowhere to run to other than Him], then we will be safe. There is no real place in the word to run to, except for running to take shelter under Hashem, for only Hashem is called the true “Place” of the world as Nefesh HaChaim, shaar III explains. There is no place to run to, there is only Hashem to run to.

A fetus survives only by getting all its sustenance from its mother. By the exodus from Egypt, we were like an infant nursing from its mother, protected by Hashem. But at the final redemption, we can reach an even deeper level than this. We can be like the fetus inside its mother, which is not found on the outside world at all, where we have no place to be in other than being with Hashem! This is the depth of transcending a mageifah. When we are actually zocheh to enter this level by having total bittul (nullifying our self) to Hashem, then the birth contractions before Mashiach’s arrival will lead us to the birth that we are waiting for: the birth of the Geulah. May it come quickly, Amen.

[adapted into english and abridged from the hebrew derasha ג-פ מגיפה בלבביפידה מחשבה תשפ"א]