Before going further it is important to understand how Emunas Chachamim works, because Torah Judaism depends upon it, and often our lives do as well.
The Gemora says that Vespasian was prepared to grant Rebi Yochanan ben Zakkai three requests (Gittin 56b). Rebi Yochanan had helped Vespasian with a personal problem, and he had also predicted his rise to the position of Caesar, so Vespasian thanked him with three requests. Rebi Yochanan asked that Yavne and its scholars be spared, the line of the Nasi be allowed to continue, and a doctor for Reb Tzaddok who had fasted for 40 years until the Temple was destroyed. He was granted all three.
The Gemora however questions Rebi Yochanan’s choices. Why didn’t he ask that Yerushalayim be spared instead, including the Temple?
The Talmud gives two answers. First, perhaps Rebi Yochanan was afraid that if he asked too big, he’d get nothing. Instead, he kept his list to what he felt might be granted. The second answer is far more troubling: “Rav Yosef read the following verse about him, and some say that it was Rebi Akiva who applied the verse to Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai: “I am God…Who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish” (Yeshayahu 44:25).”
From the Gemora it seems that Rebi Yochanan may have indeed been willing to ask Vespasian to save Yerushalayim and its inhabitants, but God didn’t let him. God caused the Gadol HaDor to bypass the opportunity to save Yerushalayim and its inhabitants, causing him instead to focus on other, but seemingly less important salvations. As a result, Yavne was saved, the line of Rabban Gamliel was preserved, and Rebi Tzaddok got his doctor. Jerusalem and the Temple, on the other hand, were completely destroyed.
The Maharashah says on this, do not think this makes our Gedolim any less reliable than they always are. On the contrary, there is nothing more reliable after God than Gedolei Yisroel! Rather, our Chachamim get their heavenly help and divine direction based upon the merits of the people, and the people of Yerushalayim in Rebi Yochanan’s time did not merit to be saved. In conclusion, Rebi Yochanan’s requests were one percent right by God, even if they led to a lot of death and destruction.
In fact, had the people inside Yerushalayim trusted Rebi Yochanan when they had the chance to (Gittin 56a), it might have been the merit needed to be saved from the Romans. He only had to risk his life and sneak out to meet Vespasian because of the renegades back in the city who refused to follow his advice. By disregarding the Chachamim, trying to save their lives their own way, they actually undermined the very merit they needed to survive. But then again, they believed the Romans determined history more than they believed God did.
Yes, Gedolim consult with scientists and experts when trying to make health decisions for Klal Yisroel. Yes, they base their decisions on scientific evidence and opinion when they have to. It’s part of the hishtadalus—effort they have to contribute to any miraculous situation. But as it says Parashas Beshallach: “If you listen to the voice of God, your God, and you do what is proper in His eyes, and you listen closely to His mitzvos and observe all His statutes, all the sicknesses that I have visited upon Egypt (or the rest of the world for that matter) I will not visit upon you, for I, God, heal you” (Shemos 15:26).
This is one of the main perks of being part of the Jewish people and living by Torah. Those who don’t are condemned to live in the world of nature and by its laws. The laws of Physics apply to them, but not to the Jewish people who try to go with the verse just mentioned. And part of that means trusting that God works faithfully through His Chachamim, regardless of how much science they know or understand, in every generation.
Some don’t hear this, or want to hear this, at all. It makes them feel too insecure. Others hear it and would love to live by it, but find they fall short when it comes to getting their hearts around it. They just feel “safer” being pragmatic, even to the exclusion of bitachon and emunah. But though they may feel safer, history has shown the opposite to be true in the long run.
The last group knows that all of history is just one huge distraction away from the real issue in life. We’re all going to die when we’re supposed to, and by the way that was decided long before coronavirus became an issue for all of us. And if we’re going to healed, that was also previously decided (Avodah Sarah 55a). And we’re all going to eventually stand in judgment before God, to decide what our decisions down here meant in terms of Eternity. The only issue at that time will be, “Did you do the Torah right thing?”
That may not mean too much now in light of all the evil, conspiracies, and countless sources of discomfort and death we currently fear and flee. But when this very short period of history finally ends, now sooner than later, it will be the only issue that will ever have mattered…forever.
Just saying.