The entire time I was in Canada I was petrified of getting COVID. We had our mandatory PCR COVIDs test before entering Canada.  I was fine. But a day after our arrival, I felt like I was catching a cold. That’s when the anxiety kicked in to full swing. If I had Omicron, would I be able to make it back across the border? How long would I have to stay in Canada?

My mother in law told me I was fine. But naturally, I assumed my cold had to be COVID. Why else would I have caught a cold in Canada in December? The average temperature outside was -10 Fahrenheit, and we had taken the kids sledding outside for hours. I walked the dog outside for twenty minutes when it was -20 Fahrenheit. These were all irrelevant, as n my mind, I had caught “the black death.”

We have a choice. The way we are hardwired these days, we tend to assume the worst. We avoid living our lives. We shut ourselves away from the world. For fear of dying, we can forget to live.

Yet the Torah commands us to choose life.  A biblical leper responsibly goes into quarantine. But after seven days, the quarantine ends. The leper does not live his or her life in quarantine. He or she comes out and is purified to live once more.

We had a wonderful time reconnecting with Amy’s family after nearly three years of not seeing one another. I loved watching my kids reconnect with their cousins. Of course, our re-entry tests to the USA were all negative.  So was the rapid test I took after I first felt the cold.  I did not have Omicron.  Sometimes, a cold is just a cold.

– Rabbi Dan Dorsch