Passover Advice

 

Some unsolicited rabbinic advice for Passover for uncertain times:

While I am not a fan of the current public health policy and believe that it is inherently flawed, it is all we have at this present time. [I'd rather not elaborate on the specific halachic problems of the policy here, but plan to do so soon and will share publicly.]

Of course, this is a serious illness with potentially fatal consequences. It's not a 'mere' flu, and is nothing to sneeze at, pardon the pun. It is particularly dangerous for individuals of certain age groups and/or medical conditions, and for those who live with such individuals by extension. Fortunately, for the vast majority of the population, the virus carries no serious risk. Unfortunately and tragically, no effort has been made to differentiate between those at high risk (or who live with those at risk) and those for whom the virus carries minimal risk.

Consequently, at this present time, for the individual who cannot affect public policy, some degree of social distancing seems like the only prudent option.

As such, it would be advisable to scale back on Passover stringencies ('chumraot') that require more shopping and social interaction, especially for individuals in the at-risk category. Perhaps order kosher wine, matza, and other supplies by internet. There are loopholes that can be relied upon to avoid need to immerse new dishes in mikva. PM me and I'll explain.

Although selling chametz is always important, it is particularly important his year, as supplies might be low and/or it might not be practical or safe for you to replenish your staples right after pesach like you might do in regular years. [I will be posting a link to sell your chametz online].

Instead of inviting multiple guests to your seder, perhaps gift them a special hand-baked shmura matza with instructions how to fulfill this awesome mitzvah at home. I will be sharing link to order shmura matza too.

Most importantly, even if you will be in isolation, make your seders meaningful and memorable. Observe each step of the Seder night with joy and inspiration. Relive the experience of going free from Egypt. Remember how G-d leaped over the doors of our ancestors and spared them of the plague, thereby liberating them from bondage. Recall how they too were cautioned not to leave their home on the eve of the Exodus, but how the promise of redemption was right around the corner. Think about the promise of Redemption in our times. 

Are you psyched and ready to be redeemed?

If you have no child present to ask the 4 questions, tap into your inner child and ask the questions yourself!

Then tell your inner child the story of our Exodus. Make it animated and fun, relevant and meaningful.

Embrace the reality that you don't need to go elsewhere to have an authentic Jewish experience...

Have a transformative seder experience in the comfort of your own home!

The shul doesn't make you a Jew, nor does your religious cousin's house. Be a Jew where it counts most... inside your own domicile.

Be authentic and be you.

You are a descendant of Abraham Isaac Jacob, Sarah Rebecca Rachel and Leah. YOU are the children of Israel.

YOU are getting redeemed on this night "by G-d and none other."

Take ownership of your birthright and your destiny.

Don't be a guest or a passive participant. The Exodus is YOUR story. YOU are the main character. Lead your seder with courage and conviction.

Don't feel alone. Open the door to welcome Elijah the Prophet. Pour him a cup too and enjoy his company. Know that he's enjoying your company too.

You are NOT alone. You are one with your people. All your ancestors are rooting for you. You are never alone.

Don't fear disease. Let go of anxiety. Instead, savor the taste of faith and healing*. Eat your shmura matza and digest its powerful message.

Don't cower or sulk in isolation. Instead, revel in the joy and empowerment of redemption.

Wishing you and yours a truly happy and healthy Passover.

Rabbi Michoel Green 

*PS Matza is called the "bread of faith" and "bread of healing" in the Zohar.

A Novel Idea!

The disease which holds the world in its grips isn't just any corona virus. It's a "NOVEL" corona virus.

This is precisely why it's so feared. 

The virus is novel. Our immune systems have never encountered it before. And that's what makes it so potentially hazardous and unpredictable. We have nothing to compare it with and no way to anticipate how dire consequences might be.

Everything in the physical world reflects a spiritual reality. The key here is novel. The perceived reality features a novelty that causes fear and uncertainty, but perhaps there is something much deeper at play in the true reality.

Something truly novel and unprecedented in the works, and it's not a virus:

Scriptures state: "Torah will emerge from me"[1], and our Sages interpret it to mean: "A new Torah will emerge from me," meaning that new and unprecedented insights into the Torah will be revealed at the time of the Redemption.[2]

This Shabbos we shall read Parshas Hachodesh in which G-d commanded Moses the mitzva to sanctify the NEW moon. Indeed, the new moon of Nissan 2448 ushered in a novel idea, redemption, as the Exodus from Egypt took place on the full moon of that month.

Fast forward over three millennia later, and here we are today, at the cusp of a new era, ready to usher in the new month of Nissan.

Don't be frightened by something novel. Be encouraged that something truly novel is here ready to materialize...

The dawn of a new era, the Era of Redemption.

Nu, are you ready for renewal? Not just 're'-newal, but total innovation 

Let's reinvent ourselves and and proceed into the Era of Moshiach.

Happy Shabbat Hachodesh!


[1] Isaiah 51:4
[2] Yayikra Raba 13:3
 

Gather the People!

This Shabbat, the Torah portion that is supposed to be read in synagogues throughout the world is Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei:

"Vaykhel Moshe" -- "And Moses gathered the entire assembly of the children of Israel..." 

It doesn't state: "And Moses quarantined the children of Israel" or "Moses broke up their gatherings." It says: "And Moses gathered."

How are we to interpret the timeless relevance and symbolism of this parsha in light of current events in which gatherings have become verboten?

How shall we make sense of the name of this Torah portion sitting alone in our homes while synagogues and study halls are shut down? Where is the "Vayakhel Moshe" when we need it most? 

The answer is painfully obvious:

Jews gathering for prayer and Torah study is an eternal value. It is an essential, a vital necessity for the continuity of our people. It is not a luxury or a non-essential.

Tefila b'tzibur must certainly continue. The Torah studies of children must surely go on unabated.

Any effort to close down yeshivos or talmud Torahs must be met with strongest resistance.

Rabbis who issue such draconian rulings must be challenged: "מהיכן דנתונו" -- What is your basis for imposing such a dire ruling on our people? Please provide source, rationale, precedent for such a brazen breach of all that is holy.

The very survival of our people relies on the Torah learning of tinokos shel beis rabban, children in house of their studies. This disease poses no mortal risk to children and vast majority of their teachers. 

Surely the onus of isolation lies on those individuals for whom this virus poses serious risk. Halacha requires evacuating healthy children from the public during an outbreak only if there is mortal risk to the children themselves.

Ask these rabbis: have you consulted Rav Chaim Kanievsky or the rabbanim of Lakewood who ruled that the yeshivos should NOT close? Have you consulted Dr Paul Offit, a renowned medical expert who stated that closing schools is unnecessary, uncalled for, and excessive?

Yidden! Demand from your community's leaders: "למה נגרע!?" Why must we be deprived? Why can't we have bold Torah leadership who will stand up and assert our community's right to maintain Torah education as an essential need that may not be tampered with unless halacha itself so determines it?

And if halacha indeed requires locking the doors of yeshivos and study halls, then we demand rabbinic leadership who will produce an authoritative written psak that takes responsibility for such a drastic and unprecedented move.

No such luck for the poor residents of Crown Heights.

What Antiochus, Hadrian, Stalin, et al, couldn't accomplish in thousands of years, the Rabbinate of Crown Heights accomplished in 15 seconds....

with one single unsigned letter!

This letter was released several days ago, but still no signed copy. Are the authors ambivalent about affixing their signatures to such a ruling? Or was the letter forged?  

Can it be that Chabad is now bereft of any competent rabbinic leadership? How did we stoop to such a nadir?

Rough times. Unprecedented and bizarre.

Esther decreed that all Jews gather in prayer. Mordechai Hayehudi gathered 22,000 Jewish children for Torah study.

Conversely, modern-day Jewish leaders decreed that NO Jews may gather in prayer, and that Jewish children may NOT gather for Torah study.

This week's parsha begins: "Vaykhel Moshe" -- Moses gathered the entire assembly of Israel to teach them how to construct a sanctuary for G-d where Jews may gather in His holy presence.

Today's rabbis are evacuating and locking up G-d's sanctuaries, desecrating His holy Name and isolating His holy people from one another, even for whom there is minimal risk.

They are doing so over and beyond the dictates of the state or even medical experts.

They are doing so over and beyond the dictates of halacha as well. No where do we find any source for sequestering healthy people for whom the disease presents no mortal risk. No where in Jewish law is there any source for regarding a healthy person as a presumed asymptomatic carrier without empirical evidence that s/he was in fact exposed. Instead, individuals who are at risk are the ones to be isolated and distanced. 

No where in Jewish history is there a precedent for closing all yeshivos, talmud Torahs, synagogues and study halls unless there was significant mortal risk looming over the entire population. 

That is clearly not the case with regard to this current virus.

These rabbis have chosen to cede halachic authority carte blanche to the doctors or askanim who are presumably advising them.

Please understand. I am not minimizing the risk of this disease for seniors. Surely octogenarians, septuagenarians, (and anyone for whom this disease poses mortal risk) should not engage in public life at this time, and should avoid interacting with people who have been out in the public. But to shut down the yeshivos, to interfere with the studies of tinokos shel beis rabban, to suppress tefila b'tzibur, to suggest that quarantined women (who have no symptoms for COVID-19) may be prevented from using the mikva (!!)... for all those who are NOT at serious risk... is incomprehensible and unfathomable.

As Rav Kanievsky observed, the danger caused by this reckless action is far greater than the worst-case scenario of potential danger caused by COVID-19.

Is Stalin shepping nachas from his grave?

ומסיימים בטוב -- let's get clarification and/or correction of this grave error at once, and may we merit to behold the ultimate "Vayakhel Moshe", the in-gathering of all our people, young and old, in the Third Holy Temple, in the most immediate future.

Urgent Questions

The current outbreak of corona virus has taken the world by storm.

While there is certainly valid cause for concern, the panic and extreme reaction that this virus has generated is truly unprecedented and somewhat perplexing.

As a truth-seeker and lifelong student of Jewish law, I must raise the following honest and legitimate questions. 

[If questions that challenge the status quo disturb you, please stop reading.]

Adherents to halachic Judaism have a different system of ethics and morality than that of the rest of the world. Physicians are entitled to offer medical advice and even determine medical policy, but a Jew defers to the Code of Jewish Law whenever this policy runs counter to Judaic tenets.

As such, serious clarification is required with regard to recent school and synagogue closings in Jewish communities throughout Israel and the Diaspora.

Who sanctioned such extreme actions? And did these rabbis provide written ruling with sources, rationale and precedent?

I have not seen any such ruling. If any exist, please send it my way.

Some rabbis sent letters to their communities announcing their decision to shut down synagogues and/or schools, and to prohibit private minyanim or gatherings at individuals' homes, but none did so in the form of an authoritative psak. Some rabbis issued letters exhorting their adherents to obey all directives of their state's Dept. of Health (or Ministry of Health in Israel), but no rationale or source was provided for closing schools, yeshivos, or eliminating tefilah b'tzibur.

This is rather alarming given such a high-handed, dramatic and unprecedented psak, truly the first of its kind in millennia.

In contrast, the foremost Posek of the generation, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, ruled precisely the opposite, that yeshivos may NOT be closed under present circumstances.

Not one single rabbi of Rav Kanievsky's caliber (or anywhere close) countered his ruling. The eminent rabbanim of Lakewood ruled accordingly.

Please understand. I am not arguing that schools and/or shuls ought to remain open. I'm simply asking a valid question that DEMANDS to be asked:

Who has taken halachic responsibility for bitul Torah of thousands of Jewish children in these communities?

Let's examine the stated rationale of the closings:

"COVID-19 is highly contagious and can present serious danger to senior citizens and immunocompromised people. By implementing isolation and social distancing, we can slow or delay the rapid spread of the virus, potentially saving lives of those most vulnerable."

While this might make sense at first glance, we must remember that halacha does not necessarily conform with conventional wisdom.

Let's agree on a few basic points:

COVID-19 poses little risk to school-age children and to the vast majority of adults.

Closing schools assumes a halachic obligation to sequester healthy people and/or keep them out of the public in order to theoretically or statistically protect others who might eventually contract the disease.

It further assumes that it is preferable (and therefore obligatory) to isolate the healthy individuals than to confine only the vulnerable individuals. It presupposes that if the public cannot be safe for everyone, then there can be no public for anyone.

Of course, even the state acknowledges that essential services must be provided, and that food stores and even other businesses may remain open to the public. However, school closings assume that the Torah education of children is NON-essential, or not as essential as, say, convenience stores.

And here is where we have problems. Torah education is of primary importance in Judaic law. It is the highest priority of a Jewish community. It is surely on par with most -- if not all -- other businesses that are allowed to remain open to public.

The Code of Jewish law acknowledges situations in which a child's education ought to be interrupted. During a local outbreak of dangerous illness, Jewish Law requires a parent to evacuate his children from the city. However, this is stated with regard to shielding one's own children from harm[1]. No where does halacha require a parent to remove his healthy children from the public in order to shield someone else from potential harm. Instead, the onus of public withdrawal presumably lies on the vulnerable party.

A child who is infected with a contagious disease should obviously be quarantined since s/he poses active risk to others. Likewise, an otherwise-healthy child who was demonstrably exposed to the contagion might arguably be quarantined during such an outbreak, since there is credible cause to suspect that he is an active asymptomatic carrier of disease right now, depending on the incubation period.

However, do we posit that an entire population of children and adults are to be viewed as if they had been exposed to disease in advance to actual exposure? May we treat them as asymptomatic carriers of disease a priori and preemptively ban them from school?

Perhaps the case might be made with regards to non-essential public activities, but as mentioned above, school is by no means non-essential. The mitzva of Talmud Torah is paramount. Every day a child is banned from school is an irreplaceable loss. Moreover, keeping children home from school often causes monetary loss to parents who now need to pay for daycare or stay home from work.

Do we impose monetary loss on healthy unexposed individuals in order to prevent potential/future exposure to vulnerable individuals instead of simply isolating the latter?

And even if one could argue in the affirmative, do we impose incalculable spiritual risk on klal yisrael by banning Torah study of children? [2]

Let's recall the timeless lesson from the Talmud:

Once, the wicked government [of Rome] decreed that the Jewish people were forbidden to study Torah. Pappus ben Judah saw Rabbi Akiva convening gatherings in public and studying Torah [with them]. Said he to him: “Akiva, are you not afraid of the government?”
Said [Rabbi Akiva] to him: “I’ll give you a parable.
“A fox was walking along a river and saw fish rushing to and fro. Said he to them: ‘What are you fleeing?’
“Said they to him: ‘The nets that the humans spread for us.’
“Said he to them: ‘Why don’t you come out onto the dry land? We’ll live together, as my ancestors lived with your ancestors.’
“Said they to him: ‘Are you the one of whom it is said that you are the wisest of animals? You’re not wise, but foolish! If, in our environment of life we have cause for fear, how much more so in the environment of our death!’
“The same applies to us. If now, when we sit and study the Torah, of which it is said, ‘For it is your life and the lengthening of your days[3],’ such is our situation, how much more so if we neglect it . . .” [4] 

Torah study is our lifeblood. The very existence of our people and of the entire world depends on it [5]. Never in Jewish history have yeshivos ceased [6]. Banning it during an outbreak constitutes extraordinary measures. It cannot be done flippantly without authoritative and comprehensive ruling from competent posek.

Instructions to obey state's health department are not sufficient. Rabbi Akiva didn't see dina d'malchusa (government rule) as sufficient grounds to ban Torah study.

Surely our rabbis can do better than that.


Addendum:

Curiously, the same rabbis who have permitted current school closings also sanctioned banning unvaccinated children from school during last year's measles outbreak, even though measles poses little risk to school-age children. Furthermore, many of these same rabbis also tolerated state laws banning unvaccinated children from school this entire school year even when there was no outbreak. (And not surprisingly, Rav Chaim Kanievsky ruled that unvaccinated children must be permitted to attend school).

My question is: is anyone holding these rabbis responsible to justify their rather extreme positions?

Have these rabbis ceded halachic authority carte blanch to medical policy makers?

Disturbingly, Jewish schools announced closures in Crown Heights (Brooklyn) well before public schools did. These schools claimed to have been doing so with rabbinic imprimatur. Can it be that the rabbis of Crown Heights deem Jewish education as less essential than the mayor of NY deems public school education!? Or were these rabbis acting with greater vigilance to protect the vulnerable than the City of NY deemed necessary (at that time)?  Surely dina d'malchusa cannot be the explanation. These rabbis have much explaining to do, with all due respect. Rabbis are not "above the law." Every community member has a right (and an obligation, in this case) to petition these rabbis and demand: "מהיכן דנתוני -- please provide the source and rationale for your ruling."


Notes:

[1] See Magen Avraham Orach Chaim 576:3: "כשאבעבועות פורחין בתינוקות ומתים...דכל אחד יבריח בניו מן העיר בעת הזאת ואם לא עשו זאת הן חייבין בנפשותם" -- "When lesions (i.e. measles, see Pri Megadim Eishel Avraham) breaks out in young children and causes deaths... every one should evacuate his children from the city at that time, and if they didn't, they are responsible for (their children's) own deaths."

[2] See recent letter by Dr. Paul Offit: "The precautionary principle dictates caution to prevent harm. But the precautionary principle also dictates that you don't cause harm in the name of preventing harm." Banning children from school... and bringing society to a standstill... is harm.

[3] Deuteronomy 30:20
[4] Berachos 61b.
[5] Shabbos 119b: "The world exists solely because of the Torah studies of tinokos shel beis rabban.
[6] Yuma 28b: “Since the days of our forefathers, the Yeshivos have never ceased [to be active] from them.