Dear Luna,
I campaigned on other threads, that comforting the mourners, tending the ill, etc comes before finding a minyan or reopening shuls. I wondered if we are better off without them. But the dead and the ill are not the worst of the pandemic. People always cope and move on.
Let me share about three people that I know well. I consider these the hardest hit.
Someone who moved his family here and there to support them. This year they finally bought a house and settled into a community. He then took his savings and started a business. That is now shut down.
A child has returned home to family situation that they spent years getting out of.
An adult that beat mental illness and had it under control for years, but is now slipping.
These are things one has to figure out. They cannot be coping or just move on. I call this the hardest, because the unknowable nature of a pandemic leaves them unsure of where to place their next step. Considering that they invested years just to get were they are now, is what makes these stories into ‘karbanos’. These are isolated stories. But if we would look for one group to call in crisis, it would be Yeshiva Bachurim that were transitioning. About 400 new guys come to BMG every summer. And more than that go to EY. And that is just a fraction of the full picture.