Is G-d Under Attack? Part I

Synagogues, study halls, yeshivos, and schools are all closed.

Public worship has been banned, even "porch minyanim" (in which each worshiper remains on his own property)!

Attendance of weddings, circumcisions, and funerals have been outlawed. No one may observe the mitzva of visiting the sick or comforting the mourner.

All public observances in Judaism have become verboten.

The mayor of NYC singled out the Jewish community and threatened them with summons and arrests. Oddly, this discriminatory ultimatum was ignored or rationalized by the very community that was targeted. In fact, most Jews were ashamed of their coreligionists who dared to observe a mitzva (and attend a funeral procession) in violation of social-distancing orders.

Rabbinic supporters of these restrictions parrot the "science" of the so-called public health policy. They cite pikuach nefesh, the moral imperative to save lives that is paramount in Judaic law.

However, none of these rabbis bothered to take the time to provide any halachic rationale or precedent for their sweeping and far-reaching application of this principle. Furthermore, none bothered addressing the actual science behind these policies and whether Judaism even recognizes it as a legitimate factor in pikuach nefesh.

To make matters worse, these same outspoken rabbis who were eager to enforce the policies were strangely silent while liquors stores, coffee shops, hardware stores, etc., were all permitted to remain open in their own communities. The policy allowed "essential services" to continue, but religion (communal prayer, Torah study, etc) was deemed non-essential by its own practitioners and clergy.

A close relative of mine left his house to recite the kiddush levana blessing last night. As he stood in the street with his children, a pedestrian with some shopping bags shouted out: "Nu!? The rabbonim ruled: no praying outside!" My relative responded: "But shopping is okay?" The shopper reacted angrily: "Sakonas nefoshos! You're endangering lives."

The bizarre encounter has become remarkably commonplace in Brooklyn. Pikuach nefesh has become the battle cry of social-distancing proponents, but no explanation is ever given. It's a mantra with no meaning.

The actual death rate to COVID-19 is quite low, relatively-speaking. The WHO estimates the mortality rate to be 3.4%, but that based on the number of patients who tested positive. It is assumed that many multiples of that number of people had been infected but presented no symptoms. For argument's sake, let's liberally assume that the rate is one is a thousand.[1]

Question: does a risk of 1/1,000 invoke the principle of pikuach nefesh?

Answer: depends.

Halacha prohibits killing spiders on Shabbos, even though there is one-out-of-a-thousand chance someone might be endangered by the spider falling into his food[2]. Apparently, one out of a thousand is insufficient risk. On the other hand, one in a thousand is considered substantial risk elsewhere in laws of Shabbos.

Childbirth for example, is considered a potentially-life-threatening situation. Consequently, we may violate Shabbos for the needs of a birthing mother. However, since the mortality rate is “less than one in a thousand,"[3]our sages were strict and required us to avoid Biblically-prohibited labors on her behalf, but to endeavor to do these labors in an unusual manner that isn’t Biblically prohibited. Nevertheless, if no alternative, the labor may be performed the regular way too. Even less than one in a thousand is considered adequate risk to override Shabbos. How do we reconcile this law with the apparent contradiction from the law against killing spiders?

It’s quite simple really. The spider hasn’t even fallen into the food yet. It’s crawling around elsewhere. One may not kill it, since even in event it falls into the food, the risk factor would be a mere one in a thousand. Conversely, a birthing mother is presently experiencing a condition which can potentially result in death, even in less than one in a thousand cases, but that present condition allows us to violate Shabbos on her behalf. [5]

The takeaway is this: if it is indeed true that COVID-19 has a mortality rate of .1%, it would justify violating Shabbos on his behalf once the patient presents with symptoms and tests positive. If the individual is healthy and hasn't tested positive, then the potential risk of 1/1000 in the possible event that he might be infected does NOT constitute valid grounds for violating Shabbos on his behalf.

Clearly preventative measures to avoid possible exposure to COVID-19 do not rise to the level of pikuach nefesh necessary to override Shabbos observance. However, the primary concern here is not with regard to the individual himself, especially as his own mortality risk might in fact be far less than 1/1000, but to elderly and immunocompromised who have a considerably higher risk of dying from the virus.

Let's imagine that 15% of infected octogenarians die from COVID-19. The question here is whether the commandment "Do not stand by idly over your fellow's blood"[4] obliges an individual to comply with social-distancing precautions to forestall the spread of the virus in order to prevent octogenarians (let's say) from contracting the illness.

We are not discussing going out and coming in close contact with such an elderly individual. Surely an elderly person ought to be sheltering in place, since the disease is far riskier for him. Instead, the question here is: does halacha recognize a rabbi's authority to ban a healthy individual from engaging in tefila b'tzibur or attendance of shul/beis midrash, since there is a concern that a) the individual is possibly an asymptomatic carrier, and b) might possibly pass it on to another person in attendance who c) might later come in close contact with an octogenarian and d) infect the latter, who now has e) a 15% risk from dying from the disease.

This is not just a safek sakonas nefashos, but a s'fek s'fek s'feiko, i.e. a doubt within a doubt within a doubt. Seems highly implausible that halacha recognizes tefilo b'tzibur of healthy individuals (who DON'T live with a vulnerable at-risk elderly person) as safek sakonas nefashos. The question here is whether the recommendation of public health officials has merit. These officials are looking at statistics for an entire population. Even a mere .1% amounts to many thousands dead out of a population of millions. Based on the advice of certain doctors, they determined that by imposing a stay-at-home policy that prohibits gatherings and "non-essential" public exposure, they can stymie the spread of the virus thereby saving lives. So while there might be no actual risk for any one particular minyan to convene, there is statistical risk to a population if this policy isn't enforced.

The sofek is compounded by the fact that even proponents of this policy concede that social-distancing cannot stop the spread of this highly-contagious disease, and that ultimately the vast majority of the population will invariably contract the virus. Instead, they contend that the policy will arguably slow down the proliferation of cases in the short-term, thereby ensuring ample hospital beds and ventilators for patients who need them most. [This contention is dubious for the simple reason that nearly 90% of patients who were put on ventilators succumbed to the disease, so the question remains whether the so-called "flatten-the-curve" policy succeeded in saving any lives.

Apparently, there are rabbis who see this statistical risk as sufficient grounds to prohibit all tefilo b'tzibur and limud haTorah b'rabim, and to shut down schools and yeshivos, even though the virus poses an infinitesimally-small risk to children and young adults. To most teachers in their 20s, 30s and 40s and in good health, the risk isn't numerically significant either. Yet these rabbis shut down the school back in mid-March, even before public schools were closed! In fact, certain rabbis insisted on banning porch minyanim too, even though it was allowed by Dept of Health/CDC guidelines, under the extreme principle of lo plug (i.e. the risk was allegedly so severe, the rabbis refused to allow any exceptions).

Furthermore, even now as the Dept of Health has eased restrictions, many rabbis are still adamant in being more strict and continuing to ban minyanim in their communities!

[This is fascinating in and of itself, since last year, when 10,000 Jewish children were banned from school due to halachically-unjust reasons, these rabbis claimed that we have no choice but to obey the Dept of Health, and did NOT insist on examining the actual risk-factor themselves].

This is startling given the fact that plenty of doctors and scientists were opposed to the entire rationale of social-distancing to begin with. Yet the rabbis ignored these experts' view and instead deferred to the opinions of doctors who were endorsed by the mainstream, i.e. the CDC and Dept of Health. Yet now, as these same doctors have recommended easing restrictions, some rabbis insist on being "holier than the pope," or more concerned about "public health" than the public health experts themselves.

Some rabbis cited the halacha: "If there is a plague in the city... one should hide himself in secrecy and shouldn't appear in the marketplace."[6] The problem here is this current virus doesn't fit the halachic description of a plague, which requires a mortality rate of .3% from an entire population within three days![7] In NY, the alleged mortality rate was barely .1% over the period of two months! Some might suggest that this virus might not it into the rubric of a plague (dever), but is nonetheless considered a public calamity due to contagious disease that doesn't require such a high death rate in such a short time [8], and in which case halacha obliges parents to evacuate their children from the city.[9] 'Evacuating children from the city' is akin to keeping them away from public exposure, they reason.

This is a rather weak argument, since in that case, the children were at serious risk from dying from the illness, whereas in our case the disease poses no risk to children. If anything, this is a sound rationale to require elderly and immunocompromised to isolate and stay away from the public, or from anyone who is not isolating. It does NOT require children, young adults, or anyone else who is not in significant risk, to isolate.

[Parenthetically, some Chabad rabbis and mashpiim pointed to a law concerning disposing of one's fingernails, which are said to be hazardous for pregnant women: "One who burns them is pious...,"[10] implying that a chassid takes extreme precautionary measures to protect someone else from potential harm. Of course, this suggestion is absurd. Limud haTorah and tefila b'tzibur aren't fingernail cuttings.]

It is an extreme stretch to apply the rationale of 'pikuach nefesh' to shutting down shuls, yeshivos, banning tefila b'tzibur, and dubbing them as "non-essential" activities, all while other business which these same rabbis have seemingly accepted as "essential," like liquor stores and coffee shops, remain open. "Do not stand over your brother's blood" cannot be cavalierly cited as a pretense to ban public prayer based on a s'fek s'fek s'feiko or on statistical models for an entire population, or even just the advice of secular "public health policy" officials or their particular doctors, unless a competent posek is ready to take responsibility for such an unprecedented psak. These are all bold assumptions that require a source and/or precedent in Jewish law. As of this writing, I have found no such source, nor have I found any competent posek who has been willing to put such an extraordinary psak into writing.

Strangely, the letters from the Crown Heights Beis Din that banned tefila b'tzibur and the shutting down of yeshivos and schools, etc., bore no signatures from any of the members of the Beis Din. The letters claimed that it wasn't possible to obtain signatures due to the urgency of the matter, but nearly two months elapsed since then and still not a single authoritative signature! This is truly shocking and unbelievable. As such, there is no reason to believe that the Beis Din ever issued such a psak in the first place. Rather, it seems to have been a policy that the community leadership insisted on implementing, with or without rabbinic imprimatur.

Can it be that the Jewish body and soul are under attack?

Are we experiencing an assault on Judaism? Have our rabbis been co-opted into silence or collaboration?

Is 'social distancing' a thinly-veiled attempt at distancing us from our Father in heaven? 

[Click here for Part II]

Notes:

[1] It is difficult to estimate actual mortality rate since current figures only include diagnosed cases who tested positive, and it is assumed that there are innumerably more people infected who never presented symptoms. Furthermore, the mortality rate allegedly includes many deaths that were dubiously identified as COVID deaths without definitive proof that the virus was indeed the cause of death. [2] Shulchan Aruch Harav Orach Chayim 316:23.
[3] Ibid 330:1.
[4] Leviticus 19:16.
[5] See my blog post on this topic with regards to bodily autonomy vis-a-vis last year's measles outbreak.
[6] See Bava Kama 60b. Shulchan Aruch haRav Hilchos Shmiras Guf vNefesh, 13.
7] See Shulchan Aruch Orach Chayim 576:2. [8] Ibid 576:5, Ramo.
[9] Magen Avraham ibid 3. Note that he specifies "pox that afflict the young children" (אבעבועות הפורחין בתינוקות), which the Pri Megadim (Eishel Avrohom) defines as measles and small pox.
[10] Nidah 17a, Shulchan Aruch HaRav, Orach Chaim 260:4. "One who burns them is pious. Who who buries them is (minimally) righteous, and one who throws them away (to where one might later step on them) is wicked.
[11] Acknowledgment to Rabbi Daniel Green of Brooklyn, NY, for assistance with some of the points of this article.

Woe to Us -- G-d Under Attack, Part II

In my previous post, I drew attention to the stunning rabbinic silence while shuls and yeshivos were shut down, wondering why no source, precedent or rationale in Jewish Law was ever offered in defense of these unprecedented policies. For the sake of accuracy, in this present post, I'd like to correct that. These policies are not unprecedented at all. They have been attempted several times before in history...

770 chained shut for first time in history of Chabad Lubavitch

"And it was in the days of Corona..." Oy vay.

Our sages taught[1]:

The scriptural term vayehi ("and it was") denotes calamity, (i.e. vay)[2]...

"And it was in the days of Ahaz..."[3]

Which calamity was there in those days?...[4]

A king once entrusted his young son in the hands of a pedagogue. This teacher hated the child. Said he: "If I kill him, the king will have me executed. Let me withdraw his wet nurse and he'll die on his own." So said Ahaz: "If there are no young kids, there are no mature goats. No goats, no flock. No flock, no Shepherd. If there's no Shepherd, there can be no world."

Likewise Ahaz reasoned: "If the young ones don't [learn], there are no adults [learning]. No adults [learning], no students. No students, no sages. No sages, no elders. No elders, no Torah. If there is no Torah, there are no houses of prayer and houses of study. If there are no houses of prayer or study, G-d no longer causes His presence to dwell in the world."

What did [Ahaz] do?  He rose and locked up all synagogues and houses of study, so that Jews can no longer occupy themselves in Torah study...

Why was his name "Ahaz?" It is because he seized (and shut down) the synagogues and houses of study[5]...

There had never been a time that was as severe for Israel as then, as it states: "And I shall hide My face on that day on account of all the evil that he did..."[6]

(Prophet Isaiah challenged Ahaz:) What do you hope to accomplish? "Behold, I and the children G-d gave me will be for signs and wonders in Israel (from the Lord of Hosts Who dwells in Zion." Isaiah asserted that he and his students[7] will continue to study Torah and will ensure that G-d continues to dwell in Zion, i.e. among His people.)

Once everyone saw that Ahaz seized the synagogues and houses of study and locked them up, they begain to moan: "Vai, alas. Vayehi bimei Ahaz -- woe in the days of Ahaz."...

[Similarly] Vayehi bimei Ahashverosh, it was (woe) in the day of Ahashverosh...[8]

In another midrash, our sages describe how Haman plotted to first eliminate Jewish school children. "I will first lift my hand against these children."[9]


Jewish school children (tinokos shel beis rabban) are the foundation of our people and the secret of our survival. Haman understood that the only way to destroy the Jewish people is by interfering with the studies of Jewish school children, shutting down yeshivos, locking up houses of worship and houses of study.

When Jews are prevented from teaching their young and from congregating for study and worship, it is truly woeful. 

Woe to us in our current times.

Who is responsible for this dire situation?

Will it someday be said: "And it was in the days of current Jewish leadership..." -- woe to us in the days of current rabbinic leadership, those who presided over the shutting down of yeshivos, Jewish schools, synagogues and study halls?

Our rabbis? Following in the footsteps of wicked King Ahaz, Haman, Hadrian and Stalin? 

What went wrong these past two months?

How have we stooped to such unprecedented actions of shutting down schools, yeshivos, shuls and study halls? 

Truly a nadir in Jewish history with no real precedent. Stalin shut down chadorim and shuls. Jews risked their lives to keep them open or to take them underground.

During the typhus outbreak in 1918 and again in 1920, the yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim in Rostov remained open, even as nearly all the students and staff became stricken with the life-threatening illness. Even as the previous Lubavitcher Rebbe's life hung in the balance, the yeshiva was not closed.

How have the tables turned? Why have prominent chabad rabbonim become the most vociferous enforcers of government policy to shut down schools and shuls?

What has become of mesiras nefesh for Torah learning upon which the world verily relies for its existence?

The Tanya teaches[10]:

"Ten Jews that sit together and occupy themselves with Torah, the Shechinah dwells amongst them."[11] This is the whole (purpose) of man. Moreover, (man's) very descent to this world was for the purpose of this ascent, of which there is none higher. For the Indwelling (shechina) of His Might which is in the heights of the upper realms, and whose dread the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain, dwells and becomes magnified among the children of Israel. Thus it is written[12]: "For I, G-D, dwell among (toch) the children of Israel"— through the group occupation with Torah and mitvos by ten, expressly, as our sages, of blessed memory, said: "We compare toch-toch..."; of this it was said: "The Holy One in your midst"[13]; and "There is no matter of holiness with less than ten."[14]
...But "woe (vay) unto those reject the Shechinah"[15]...Indeed, "on account of three things are the Jewish people detained in exile -- because they reject the Shechinah, and because they shame the Shechinah," and so on, as stated in the sacred Zohar.[16]

This explains Ahaz' (and Haman's) zeal to lock up the shuls and yeshivos. "If there are no houses of prayer or study, G-d no longer causes His presence to dwell in the world."  Preventing group Torah study is the way to effectively "ban" G-d from His world.

But how can we explain the bizarre zeal of some modern-day rabbis to shut down shuls and yeshivos?

How far can one cynically exploit the concept of pikuach nefesh?

In my previous blog post, I asked the obvious question: why haven't any of these rabbis offered a written psak with rationale and precedent to justify the sweeping and extraordinary extent to which they have applied the concept of pikuach nefesh?

This question remains unanswered.

Perhaps the clue is in Haman's own words, "I will first lift my hand against these school children."

Indeed,the current assault on Torah learning and tefila b'tzibur was already set into motion a year ago when the same rabbis presided over the ousting of over ten-thousand Jewish children from Talmud Torah because of so-called "public health policy." Some went as far as to ban healthy families from shul.
 
Their crime? Simply because they weren't fully vaccinated in accordance with state law. Since when does a state law have any bearing on who is entitled to learn Torah and who isn't?

In deference to halachically-unjust state policy, thousands of children were shockingly banned from learning Torah, a dire situation which continued unabated even after the so-called measles outbreak was declared over past September.

It is no wonder that these same rabbis were shamefully quick to enforce yet another halachically-unjust state policy to shut down all school and shuls, and even to prohibit all tefila b'tzibur anywhere.

Like the accomplices of Ahaz, it has become painfully obvious that these rabbis have ceded their authority to secular officials, due to willful ignorance and profound misinterpretation of Jewish law.

Where are the Isaiahs to boldly challenge this grave assault on Yiddishkeit?

"In a place where there are no men," we have no choice but to serve as Isaiah's mouthpiece:

What do you hope to accomplish with your bans and shutdowns? How do you intend to 'keep us safe' by removing the foundation upon which our very existence depends?[17]

You have recklessly and perilously endangered us all, but to no avail. We shall no longer submit when you kowtow to secular anti-halachic policies. We will no longer tolerate your foolhardy enforcement of "public health policy" in violation of our holy Torah and in betrayal of our children. We shall prevail. "Behold, we and the children G-d gave us will be for signs and wonders in Israel. We shall protect our children and insist that they all be entitled to chinuch al taharas hakodesh with NO discrimination or government meddling. We have not survived two millennia of exile, replete with Hamans, Hadrians, and Stalins, only for our shuls to be shut down and our children to be banned from school by our own errant rabbis. Hashem yerachem.

No, we shall no longer remain silent when you ban children from school in defiance of our holy Torah, in defiance of the poskim of our generation who have ruled unequivocally that Jewish children may NOT be excluded from school simply because of non-compliance with state-mandated vaccine schedule.[18]

We do NOT consent.

Judaism is under attack, no, G-D is under attack, and it is high time for us to defend Him.

Notes:

[1] Pesichta to Esther Rabba, 11.
[2] Phonetically, vayehi sounds like "vai hee וי היא" -- it is woe.

[3] Isaiah 7:1. Ahaz was the twelfth king of Judea in sixth century BCE.

[4] Ibid 9:11 implies that there was a cataclysmic disaster even after the siege and hostilities of the Aramaeans and Philistines.

[5] Ahaz אחז literally means "he held or seized."

[6] Deuteronomy 31:18. 
[7] The midrash continues: "Were they indeed his children? Were they not his students? From here we learn that one's student is called a son," since they are beloved to him as a son.

[8] According to Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Shneersohn (the sixth Rebbe of Lubavitch), the same woe (vay) that existed in the days of Ahaz (i.e. the closing of shuls, study halls, talmud Torahs) was attempted by Haman. Hence the Scroll of Esther likewise begins: "And it was [woe] in the days of Ahashverosh -- vayehi bimei Ahashverosh." See Maamar V'kibel hayehudim, Purim Kattan 5687/1927, publicly delivered several months before his arrest and imprisonment in Stalinist Russia for the "counterrevolutionary crime" of teaching Torah to children. Printed in Sefer Maamarim 5687, page 111. See also Sefer Maamarim 5689 page 237, a similar idea expressed two years after his arrest and incarceration.
[9] Esther Rabba 7:13
[10] In Igros Kodesh, Epistle 23, by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, known as the Alter Rebbe and the Baal HaTanya v'haShulchan Aruch), the founder of Chassidus Chabad.
[11] Avot 3:6 
[12] Bamidbar 35:34
[13] Hoshea 11:9.
[14] Berachot 21b.
[15] Cf. Zohar II, 7a. The Tanya applies this to those who speak idle chatter during a minyan of ten, i.e. spurning the presence of the Shechinah, but it certainly is relevant to our discussion, those who ban the minyan altogether, effectively banning the indwelling of the Shechinah in this world.
[16] III, 75b. 
[17] Berachot 61b. 
[18] Rabbi Dr Avraham Steinberg, leading world expert on halacha and medicine, ruled conclusively that unvaccinated children may NOT be banned from school unless during an actual outbreak. Furthermore, he and other rabbis ruled that certain vaccines on the mandatory schedule (i.e. hepatitis B, chicken pox, etc) should not be required at all, and should certainly not be used an excuse to ban children from school. Written psak available on request.
[19] Acknowledgment to Rabbi Daniel Green of Brooklyn, NY, for assistance with some of the points of this article.

Are Rabbis Inerrant?

Question:
Dear Rabbi Green, I recently came across a long recording of a very intelligent prominent rav in our community. He was very strongly opposed to outdoor minyanim and cited various halachic reasons, but mainly he insisted that everyone must comply simply because of the fact that he, the rav, said so. I would love to daven with my block on my porch (obviously while following the strict social distancing laws), but shouldn't I be following the psak of a rav even when I may not agree with it? Strangely, there are some senior rabbonim in my community who have allegedly been permitting individuals to participate in porch minyanim when asked privately, but they haven't publicized this ruling. The only public rabbinic opinion is from the rav whose recording I described above. Please provide some food for thought on this most confusing topic. Thank you.

Answer:

Generally speaking, we should follow the rulings of the rav moreh hora'ah bpoel [qualified decisor on Jewish law] with whom we consult. If we are part of a certain community, we should generally follow the rulings of the rav of that community if there is one. This is the case even if one disagrees with the rav's ruling.

If there are multiple rabbanim in one community, you can pick one to serve as your go-to rav or posek [decisor]. Just because one rav issues a ruling, you are not beholden to adhere to the ruling if you have not accepted his authority and your own rav rules otherwise.

If the community rav whose authority one generally accepts has ruled a certain way, one should do accordingly. Certainly if a number of community rabbis issue a joint statement endorsing a certain policy, one ought to oblige.

However, there are rare exceptions.

If the rav ruled precipitously and/or recklessly on a matter which is out of his skill-set or expertise, then that particular psak [ruling] carries no weight. If he is merely parroting medical advice from a doctor (or group of doctors), or worse, if he is enforcing a politically-motivated policy, without fully understanding the science of this advice or policy, then his ruling has no halachic authority. Much worse, if the doctor(s) whose directives he is enforcing is compromised and/or inept (due to empirical evidence or to his own admission), then the psak is most certainly null and void.

It is a sin to comply with such a psak. Instead, the person should consult his own competent doctor or medical expert, even better if it's a doctor who is also a friend. In our case, it would be preferable to simply follow state guidelines, or, if there is a question as to whether the guidelines contradict Torah law, should consult a competent and objective posek in this matter.

With regards to your specific question, it is deeply painful for me to divulge that numerous contemporary rabbis have seriously erred this past year in precisely the above fashion. 

For example, one particular rabbi -- although an erudite scholar and erstwhile colleague of mine whom I otherwise hold in highest esteem -- has lost jurisdiction to rule on matters that pertain to public health policies of this degree, since he relinquished his rabbinic authority to a certain doctor in that community who has sadly deemed himself unfit to serve as an objective rofeh mumcheh (competent medical advisor) in areas that regard public health.

This particular doctor claims to be the "chief medical practitioner" of his community, but there is so such designation in halacha. Moreover, he has disqualified himself due to unspeakable conduct that amounts to mesirah (informing non-Jewish authorities) against local Jewish children who weren't compliant with halachically-unjust state policies. Much worse, he petitioned the state to enact a fanatically-anti-halachic policy that banned Jewish children from school for no just reason. He instructed local schools to exclude children for no other reason than missing a single vaccine for a sexually-transmitted disease that poses no risk to school-age children. Even more shockingly, this rabbi had the temerity to abuse his rabbinic authority and enforce that doctor's bizarre policy by instructing school administrators to comply.

I wrote numerous letters to this rabbi but he made no effort to correct this egregious error or even voice a single complaint to his state or kehila for such an unjust policy.

Over the ensuing months, I repeatedly asked him to speak up or at least provide halachic rationale for his silence and tacit approval of this unprecedented violation of Jewish law in his community, being perpetrated in his name.

Clearly, this rabbi has sadly relinquished halachic authority to this unscrupulous and unfit physician, whose highest priority is enforcing a political agenda that conforms with so-called "public health policy" with no halachic basis. In fact, this doctor insisted on being much more fanatically stringent than state policy at the time.

Fast-forward to the current dilemma. Here we are again discussing a matter that relates to public health policy. Lamentably, this is not a rabbi one ought to consult on this crucial topic regarding which he has exhibited incompetence and/or neglect in the past. In fact, his position in the current situation reflects the same compromised bias he demonstrated last year, i.e. zealousness to enforce a certain doctor's agenda over and beyond state requirements

This is not an indictment of any one rabbi in particular, but describes a general dearth of rabbinic competence that plagues our communities.

In many cases, these rabbis aren't malicious but innocently believe they are doing the right thing.

In no way do I intend to discredit these rabbis' aptitude or scholarship in other realms of halacha. To the contrary. They should certainly be respected in areas of their expertise.

An extreme example of this was a Torah giant of this past century, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who ruled to permit traveling on Zim Cruise Line over Shabbos. When the Lubavitcher Rebbe learned of this ruling, he stated gravely: "This is not a proper psak din according to the laws of the Torah." ("אין זה פסק דין אמיתי על פי תורה"). The Rebbe maintained that Rav Moshe's psak had been in error since he was simply misinformed, unfamiliar with the mechanics of ship engines and was undoubtedly listening to insufficient information from compromised Israeli-government sources. Of course, this in no way detracted from the Rebbe's esteem for Rav Moshe's competency in all other areas of halacha.

If you live in a community in which your rav has enforced public health policy in violation of halacha this past year, I would strongly encourage you to seek out another rav who isn't compromised in this regard. It sounds like you have several there whom you might consult.

You wondered whether their opinion is as authoritative if they haven't publicized it. This is a sad reality of our present times that many rabbis who know the truth are afraid to speak out and risk suffering negative consequences, i.e. government backlash, media scorn, criticism from community members, etc. I'd still encourage you to consult with them. It sounds like they are the senior and more-experienced rabbanim in your community anyway. Maybe you can ask them to explain the reason for their silence.

One limud zechus comes to mind:

The obvious question must be asked: does any rov have authority to ban you from doing something which halacha psuka and the state policy clearly allows you to do, in your own home? Can any rov say that it's forbidden to answer omein to a kaddish that someone else is reciting from his own porch? That rabbi's entire psak is absurd to begin with. In truth, there is no reason for the other two rabbis to counter it with a public ruling of their own since the very notion of prohibiting it is entirely without basis.[1]

Entitlement to form minyanim for communal prayer is a הלכה רווחת. In truth, it requires no rabbinic approbation. In this case, since questions have been raised concerning porch minyanim, it is certainly more than sufficient to receive private permission from one of the two rabbanim you mentioned.

It is worthwhile to consider the extent of authority that rabbis wield on their adherents and the limitations thereof:

In 5738 (1977), the Rebbe suffered a heart attack. In the aftermath of his recovery, the doctor instructed him to take a daily medicine. Due to halachic constraints, the Rebbe chose not to take the medicine on Shabbos, much to the doctors' disapproval. They consulted with Rabbi Zalman S. Dworkin, the rav of Crown Heights at that time. He responded that halacha permits it, so they asked him to prevail upon the Rebbe to take the medicine.

As he entered the room, the Rebbe immediately stopped him from speaking, saying: "Please don't tell me what you came here to tell me. It would cause me great anguish to not heed an instruction of a rav."

From here we clearly see that just because a rav offers a heter, one is not necessarily obliged to accept it, although one ought to feel anguish in rejecting it. That is with regard to shev v'al taaseh. Here you might argue that kum va'asei is worse. I'd argue that a rav has no authority to prohibit you from something of that nature in the first place. He is not a king or a despotic ruler who is מושל בכיפה. He is there to answer שאלות and rule on areas which halacha grants him authority[2]. Ruling on medical matters is outside of his purview. This is why the Rebbe once explained to a doctor why rabbonim cannot prohibit smoking, but just advise their adherents to listen to the directives of a rofeh yedid.

It follows that any rav who declares a rabbinic ban on smoking is abusing his authority[3]. Rabbinic statements banning laxity in social distancing is no different, and, in fact, is worse.

There are plenty of rof'im yedidim who will approve of porch minyanim. The rabbi you mentioned has clearly stepped out of the boundaries of his rabbinic authority. Sounds to me like you ought to consult those other rabbanim, or perhaps search for a new rabbi who has humility and respect for his position.

Good luck with your research

Notes:
[1] In one particular community, the Beis Din issued repeated written letters banning public prayer of any kind, but they were not signed. Instead, the letter claimed that due to the urgency of the corona virus situation, the rabbis had rushed to issue the letters with no time to collect signatures. That sounds mighty suspicious to me in today's day and age of intimidation, rabbinic silence and fear of opposing public health policy. Moreover, over six weeks elapsed since the issuance of those letters and still not a single signature was procured. Surely an extraordinary ruling of this nature requires signatures of rabbis who are willing to take responsibility. This makes one wonder whether the letter had any validity at all to begin with.

[2] On 2 Adar 5748, the Rebbe discussed the paramount importance of heeding rabbonim. However, this had an crucial caveat. The Rebbe called upon his adherents to conduct themselves in accordance with the instructions of a beis din tzedek of each place, and especially a beis din tzedek of rabbonei lubavitch whose halachic rulings are based and firmly founded on the revealed oral Torah (i.e. halacha) and pnimius haTorah, in a manner in which there is no separation between the revealed law and esoteric doctrine, so much so that it can be fully understood in a way of wisdom, knowledge and understanding (chochma, bina, daas). Clearly, the Rebbe never instructed his chassidim to blindly follow anything any beis din says, but only one whose ruling is clearly based on authentic halachic sources and which are in sync with chassidus in a perceivable and self-evident way. Recent letters banning any tefila b'tzibur from a prominent lubavitch beis din not only did not bear any signatures, but failed to cite even one authentic source or rationale, in nigleh or nistar. 

[3] In ancient times, our sages banned certain activities due to safety risks, and instituted precautions like hand-washing after eating. Such authority to issue rabbinic enactments aren't relevant to rabbis of modern times, when there is no sanhedrin who can impose decrees over all Israel. Instead, rabbis may offer recommendations and exhort people to listen to their doctors. They no longer have authority to dictate medical policy to anyone.

The Great Corona Divide

  
By now you have likely learned of the shocking neglect and abuse that is allegedly occurring in NYC hospitals.[1]

It amazes me to hear two opposite reactions from my social media friends when presented with the horrific nightmare that is unfolding in New York.

Some feel growing distrust for the health care system. They fear that the public medical policy is flawed and compromised. They suspect that some health care workers might not have the best interest of the individual patient in mind, but care more about a societal status quo or bottom line, or worse. This crisis has seriously weakened their trust in "public health policy."

Other people react by affirming their total faith in the medical system and doubling down on it. "See why we need to practice social-distancing? The hospitals are overwhelmed... We know it's imperfect but it's all we have," they maintain. This group would never suspect the establishment of foul play, negligence or incompetence.

This latter group ("B") is praying for "public health policy" to save us from the virus by providing a vaccine, and the sooner the better. They want it expedited. Risk of vaccine injury concerns them less than the uncertainty of the virus and the helplessness of having no other precautionary policy other than societal shut-down, which they wholeheartedly embrace since that's the "public health policy" which they will justify and defend at all costs.

Group A is growing leery of an expedited vaccine, or any vaccine for that matter from the same WHO & CDC that mishandled cv to begin with. They are growing tired of what they see as inept policies that don't seem to be saving lives, but perhaps the opposite. They view the 80%-90% mortality rate of patients on ventilators as appalling and unacceptable. They question what "flattening the curve" has accomplished. So that there be more available ventilators to kill more patients (while saving a paltry few)? So that there be more available beds in NYC hospitals where more people can be left to die with no nutrition or hydration? They want to know why the death rate is so bizarrely higher in NYC than in, say, Tokyo, where there was no social distancing? They are asking tough questions and sadly expect no honest or objective answers from a system they see as corrupt and self-righteous.

Instead of hoping for a WHO-endorsed vaccine (if there will ever be one), Group A is searching for any alternative therapies that have yielded results. They want to hear about vitamin C, zinc, and essential oils too. They want to hear about homeopathy and herbs, and general nutrition too. They are growing tired of surrendering their health to CDC-recommendations that aren't working.

Group B, on the other hand, is adverse to hearing anything that isn't sanctioned by the CDC. Anything that questions the status quo makes them feel uncomfortable, and it doesn't bother them at all when YouTube censors videos that offer such alternative therapies or treatments.

Group A sees such censorship as a grave assault on freedom of opinions and alternative views, and Group B chides them for being so upset, claiming that such opinions are illegitimate anyway since it's not endorsed by the all-knowing WHO & CDC. In fact, Group B accuses Group A of being "anti-science," since in their opinion, "science" means unwavering belief in the opinion of some experts over that of others if the former has been accepted by the mainstream.

Group B also accuses Group A of having "blood on their hands" for minimizing the need to submit to enforced social distancing and for (sic) not caring about the elderly and the immuno-compromised.

Group A accuses Group B of being thought police trying to suppress freedom of opinion. They also accuse them of obsequiously supporting govt overreach and unprecedented violation of the First Amendment, and of being cruelly indifferent to the plight of those suffering from poverty, mental illness or domestic abuse, all compounded under unjust govt shutdown that sequesters and isolates people by force.

Group A looks askance at rabbis who ban porch minyanim and  insist their communities be more strict than state requirement. They don't wish to be ordered to comply, as if they are not mature or intelligent enough to make safe decisions for themselves. Group B applauds such strict rabbis for their vigilance and for reigning in those rebellious yokels.

Group A's reaction to covid-19 is growing distrust in the medical establishment and its supporters.

Group B's reaction is growing reliance on the medical establishment and its supporters.

Group A wants to take ownership of their own well-being. They insist on medical freedom and the right to make their own health decisions.

Group B wants government to tighten its grip on all citizens, to make everyone conform to its cautious policies that profess to keep the population safe, if it will save one extra life.

Group A sees the novel corona virus as a turning point that calls for a novel and unprecedented approach to health and individual empowerment, one that sidelines the outdated and failed public health agenda.

Group B sees the novel corona virus as a time for unprecedented and extraordinary measures to enforce public safety, but beyond that, they yearn to return to same old public health policy in which the government safeguards our society's health.

Of course, these are two extremes, and most people might land somewhere in the middle.

I realize that many of you will identify with one of these two groups. I certainly lean towards one.

Let's hope that this polarity in world views won't succeed in isolating us from one another. We can have opposite views but not be polarized. We can learn how to respectfully agree to disagree in spite of our significant differences of opinion.

When we've reached the point that we cannot hear another view and hope it gets censored, then we are in big trouble.

Everyone's voice is important. It's vital we learn to listen to each other. That's the only way our nation will survive and prevail.

Praying for health, healing, and peace for all.

[1] I've heard numerous eye-witness accounts. The only videos I can currently provide are a) an interview with a son of a victim and survivor; and b) a grueling account of a NYC nurse. There are more, sadly, and I'll post them when I can locate them.

Holding up the World

The Talmud tells us that the world exists solely in the merit of the breath of Jewish children learning Torah in their rebbe's house ("tinokos shel beis rabban"), "breath that has no sin."[1] 

So this begs the obvious question: 

How is the world existing now? All schools and yeshivot worldwide have been shut down for weeks with no plan of reopening. We are now being told that schools will likely not reopen until September!

This is truly unprecedented. Never before in the annals of Jewish history has the world been completely deprived of the breath of tinokos shel beis rabban... It is inconceivable how the world still exists...

There is only one possible explanation.

Over a year ago, ten thousand innocent Jewish children were unjustly banned from schools across NY (and thousands more in other states) simply because their families' religious beliefs prevented them from complying with mandatory vaccine policy. Draconian laws passed in NY and CA that cemented their fate.

What happened to all these hapless alienated children?

Parents desperately scrambled to find solutions. Some began to vaccinate their children against their better conscience. Some moved out of state while others were able to sneak their children into school unofficially... 

The remainder had no choice but to home-school. Parents had to quit or juggle their jobs to become teachers at their home school. Living rooms became class rooms. Dining room tables became study halls. Melodious sounds of children's voices chanting Torah, mishna, and gemara were heard throughout their homes and (weather-permitting) in their backyards. Some of these families struggled, but many succeeded. Of course, it was challenging to combine siblings of multiple ages in one group, but it was ultimately quite rewarding. Parents confided to me that their children's learning flourished in their new home school setting. Learning independently and b'chavrusa with their siblings and parents, children felt empowered and took ownership of their learning in ways they had never conceived of in their erstwhile schools.

Lo and behold! When all schools shut down last month, the only serious learning (in "beis rabban," i.e. in their actual class room with their peers, or in this case, siblings) that continued unabated was the learning of those children in their home schools.[2]

So that settles it, folks. At this present time, the world is only existing in the merit of the breath of those unvaccinated children, breath that is untainted by sin (or vaccines).

If you know any such families who were alienated and shunned from your communities or schools last year, please pick up the phone and thank them profusely for sustaining the entire universe with their children's uninterrupted studies in these dark times.

These heroic families are a sole source of light, comfort and consolation for Klal Yisroel in such unprecedented societal shutdown.

Tell them how much you appreciate them for single-handedly bearing the weight of the entire world on their shoulders.

Ask them to teach you how to create a successful home school so that your children can also resume exhaling that holy breath of Torah study in their own "beis rabban," i.e. your home.

Seek their guidance and wise counsel. Beg their forgiveness for banning them from school last year (or for standing by silently while they were shunned, banned and humiliated).

Surely they will reply as Joseph did to his brothers: 

"Indeed, you intended evil against me, but God designed it for good, in order to bring about what is at present to keep a great populace alive!" [3] -- "ואתם חשבתם עלי רעה אלקים חשבה לטובה למען עשה כיום הזה להחיות עם רב!"

Befriend them. Learn from their wisdom, experience, devoted and responsible parenting.

Thank G-d for those "anti-vaxxers."

The world currently exists only because of their precious children.

G-d bless their souls.

Don't be כפוי טובה (ungrateful).

Show them some well-deserved appreciation today. 


Notes:

[1] Shabbos 119b.
[2] "Online learning" isn't called "beis rabban," but perhaps only in a virtual sense. Instead, it is solitary learning. Not enough merit to sustain the world, at least not according to the Talmud.
[3] Genesis 50:19