My grandson Avi has me watching a lot of YouTube segments on science, so let talk a little science.According to nuclear science, there are two ways we can create vast amounts of energy.

The first is called fission, where by using heat or pressure, the nuclear bonds that hold the nucleus of atoms together are severed. The process releases an explosive amount of energy directed away from the center at tremendous speeds. When you think of an atomic bomb exploding, you are witnessing in your mind the process of fission.

There is an opposite force that creates energy as well, where the atomic nuclei combine together and by doing so they release an incredible amount of energy. That process is called fusion. When two atoms are combined, they transmute into something more powerful, and in their coming together, heat and light are produced.

Fission, discovered almost a hundred years ago, is a process that powers civilization, in the form of nuclear reactors. It also, as we know from history, destroys civilizations through the horror of the atomic bomb.

Fusion, on the other hand, is even more powerful; the light that is produced through fusion ignites the stars. The warmth of a summer day, the energy that is transformed into our food, and the beauty of a flower are all because atoms are fused millions of miles away in the heart of the sun.

We can live without fission; but we cannot live without fusion.

These two forces, fission and fusion, are at play all the time.

During this time when we have had to be isolated and alienated from each other because of the COVID-19 virus, we are experiencing our own kind of fission.

Our bonds are under threat and could be broken.

As we have all stayed home, we’ve looked outside our windows and felt the fission.

What was once very familiar to us, like going to a concert or spending time with friends in the park, now feels like a memory from some distant shore. A hug, a slap on the shoulder, even holding hands, is now forbidden on this strange new planet where the very idea of encounter is menacing.

This moment of fission affects us greatly, but while this unseen force threatens everything that keeps us together, other equally unseen forces are rising to meet it, both physically and spiritually. If you watch the news, as I know you do, you see incredible kindness, incredible heroism; incredible sacrifice.

What you are seeing are moments of sacred fusion. When bonds are made stronger, great energy and light explodes forth. Each moment shows us that love is the most unstoppable force in the universe.

We can live without fission; we cannot live without fusion.

When you really pray, you hear G-d calling you. And G-d’s call is sacred fusion.

In moments of great uncertainty, what God is calling for is to bring your love to the center of the universe in a monumental act of sacred fusion. Know that you are loved powerfully, and you have the capacity for a powerful love.

Because love is the most unstoppable force in the universe.