The Rabbanim of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, which serves the Chareidi communities in London in Stamford Hill, Golders Green, Hendon, and Edgware issued a sharply worded pesak din on Chol Hamoed addressing the issue of coronavirus carriers and their family members davening in shul, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported.
“Anyone who has a household member who, lo aleinu, is positive for the coronavirus or anyone who has a household member who has one of the symptoms of the virus, and even more so, anyone who himself is a virus carrier, lo aleinu – all the abovementioned and their household members are absolutely forbidden to come to any Beis Medrash or enter any public place,” the Rabbanim wrote.
“Anyone who is mezalzel this carries the responsibility for the public on his head. Safeik nefashos [a possible risk to life] for which we’re mechallel Shabbos surely is docheh davening with the tzibur.”
“All the Gabbaim of the Batei Hamidrash in our city are responsible to guard against any of the above from coming or remaining in the Beis Hamidrash under any circumstances.”
“And on this we took action to sign in the middle of Chol Hamoed,” the Rabbanim concluded.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
All the Gabbaim of the Batei Hamidrash in our city are responsible to guard against any of the above from coming or remaining in the Beis Hamidrash under any circumstances Does this responsibility of the Gaboim extend to not allowing people from overseas who have no symptoms, but are supposed to be in 14 day quarantine from entering their Shul & reporting them to the authorities if such people enter their Shul?
This Kol-Koreh definitely needs to be revised to clarify this point.
Is “Safek Pichuch Negesh” Doche the sin of
Chillul Hashem?
Hashem will watch us much better if we all make a Kiddush Hashem instead of the terrible Chillul Hashem made the last few nights.
I feel bad and wonder what the community looks like that needs rabbonim to sign such an obvious letter as an emergency on chol hamoed no less. That’s the tragedy here
ANON21 – I agree, but the London community must have seen the videos coming out of Brooklyn and total lack of Torah leadership in NY. I guess certain things are no always obvious to some.
I don’t feel bad, I feel sad that I am walking with Jews who seem to not care, have their egos attached to what was supposed to be a soul…..all this lacks is Seitchel…..time to learn Duties of the Heart…..
I do not see any “signatures”. I see a computer generated document. To the best of my understanding most Poskim do not hold that typing into a computer is “writing”. If the learned Dayonim in London had really wanted to make their point, they would have actually signed the document with a pen and uploaded that document. What they have said is 100% necessary to declare, as indeed it was before Succos as well as during Chol Hamoed. Corona is a killer.
@hashemlovesall
maybe you made a chillul hashem the last few nights but us in london didnt WE have been listening to the guidlines there was no simchs beis hashoeivos most shuls have two minyanim for social distancing the tidden make sure to ware masks where its mandotary. the letter is adressing the few rotten apples of the kehillos which might not listen and cause outbreaks but the general kehillos listen so come on everyone a bissul don lechaf zechus
They’ve never said this before about the flu, and the balloon in “cases” hasn’t led to a serious balloon in deaths, so …… it appears there’s some level of herd immunity.
there is a level of herd immunity in most jewish communities in the NY area (not sure about england or anywhere else) BUT even if there is herd immunity if an infected person goes to shul they can infect the members who are not immune and they can pass it on to family members who may be even more vulnerable and lo aleinu chas vshalom someth very bad things could happen
Complete nonsense to think they’ve achieved herd immunity. No subpopulation on the planet is anywhere but in the low double digits in terms of assumed exposure. If we haven’t yet (chalilla) seen an uptick in case fatality rates, it’s because (thank G-d) they’re able to keep more people alive (albeit with elevated risk for long-term helath deficits going forward). This chillul hashem is what happens when people with no scientific education get their news from Social Media and believe the virus is political.
immunity is not the only thing some people have in common with the “herd”. It is also the low level of seichel.