I went out to a lunch meeting on Wednesday and received a phone call just as I got back to my office. I stayed outside to finish up the call, and as I stood there I watched the sky grow darker, the air become thick, and a deep orange hue completely take over the city.
New York had become the most polluted city in the world, hitting 484 on the air quality index, which tops out at 500.
Social media blew up. “What’s going on? Is it the apocalypse?” My children came home with stories from school and how they could hardly breathe. One of the kids in our preschool asked her teacher if the world is ending.
The ominous yellow haze smoked out visibility and slowed flight traffic at all three major airports. Broadway shows were postponed, the Bronx Zoo shut its gates, and all public schools shut down through the end of the week.
Close to 100 million people are currently affected.
There are three basic things we need for survival: air, food, and shelter. Out of these, air is the most critical. Shelter we can forgo temporarily, and food we can also live without for a few days. But when our air—which we absolutely cannot live without—is compromised, it brings sheer terror.
We know that everything comes from G-d; there is nothing in this world that does not have a spiritual source and His direct involvement. Maybe the mass pollution is here to send us a wake-up call.
We need to purify the air ASAP!
How?
Next time you’re on the subway, recite a chapter of Psalms. When you’re walking through Central Park, say a Mishna. Walk into a store and make sure you have some part of Torah on your lips. This elevates and purifies our surroundings—something the world needs now more than ever.
Just like we can’t live without air, the Torah is so basic to our survival that we simply cannot exist without it.
So go out today and do any mitzvah. Put on tefillin, give charity, light Shabbat candles, eat a kosher sandwich … the options are endless. Let’s permeate the world with Torah and mitzvot until it actually purifies this entire world!