One would THINK that as time goes along, people would be MORE careful about the
guidelines b/c of the COUNTLESS people who have died and gotten sick. Not just
people we have never met in Italy or Spain. No. We ALL know people in Lakewood,
Five Towns, Monsey, Beitar, Yerushalyim etc. etc. who have suffered from this
horrible virus. As one of my good friends who was VERY sick for close to two
months [an otherwise healthy man of about 40 years old] said "This is NOT the
flu". But no. ALL over the place, otherwise AMAZING Jews disregard the Halacha [and דינא דמלכותא דינא which is like a forgotten Halacha that has almost taken the status of a long forgotten minhag whereas in fact it is an absolute, obligatory law, as we spoke about in a recent shiur] that
mandates that we do everything we can to preserve our life and health.
If anyone reads this blog [besides me - I read it sometimes. Sometimes I just write but don't bother reading b/c there are SO MANY other more interesting things to read:-)] and thinks that I am too extreme in this matter - I thank you for the compliment. I am a קנאי, an extremist, when it comes to preserving life and limb. Dying can really cast a pall on enjoying those glorious Sunday afternoons Hashem gave us and all of the MILLIONS of other pleasures of this BEAUTIFUL world. More importantly - it is VERY hard to keep mitzvos when one is sick or dead....
I also find it EXTREMELY troubling that people are not only lax about their own safety but wantonly disregard the health and safety of those around them. It is hard for me to think of a worse aveirah. If there is some heter for this - I would be interested in seeing it.
The NUMBER RULE of Mussar may be that 'yenems gashmiyus is my ruchniyus" - the other person's physical well being is my spiritual obligation.
So I
reprint the article of Rav Meyer Twersky Shlita. I hope that even ONE PERSON is
moved by this to be more careful. ויהא זה שכרי!!!!!
Rambam (Hilchos Shabbos 2:3)
writes:
Furthermore, it is forbidden to delay such violation of the Sabbath for
the sake of a person who is dangerously ill, for Scripture says: "Which if a man
do, he shall live by them" (Lev. 18:5), that is to say, he shall not die by them
(Sanhedrin 74b). Hence you learn that the ordinances of the Law were meant to
bring upon the world not vengeance, but mercy, lovingkindness, and peace. It is
of heretics - who assert that this is nevertheless a violation of the Sabbath
and therefore prohibited - that Scripture says, "Wherefore I gave them also
statutes that were not good, and ordinances whereby they should not live"
(Yechezkel 20:25).[1] In our family, we have a tradition regarding the following
story: When Rav Chaim Soloveitchik's oldest grandson (the Rav, Rav Yosef Dov
Soloveitchik) was an infant, he became gravely ill and the doctor came to
examine him on Shabbos. During the examination, Rav Chaim asked the doctor if he
needed more light. The doctor, neither accepting or dismissing Rav Chaim's
offer, replied, "nu, nu." Immediately, Rav Chaim instructed the family member
who was standing closest to the fire to tend to the fire to provide more light.
The family member, however, was deterred by the doctor's neutral answer, and did
not immediately comply with Rav Chaim's directive. Rav Chaim excoriated him: "du
bist a am ha'aretz un an apikores -- you are an am ha'aretz (ignoramus) and an
apikores (heretic)!"
Rav Simcha Zelig Rieger, who was also present, then
hastened to fulfill Rav Chaim's directive. This story is both awesome and
instructive; per Rav Chaim, Rambam's designation --apikores!-- includes even one
who subscribes axiomatically to the preeminence of pikuach nefesh, but is remiss
in acting commensurately. After all, of what value is one's nominal belief if he
does not act accordingly? The Rav's penetrating exposition is crucial to
appreciating the full ramifications of Rambam's formulation: "The saving of a
life overrides the commandments of the entire Torah; and he shall live by them
and not die by them. Desecrate one Sabbath on his account that he may keep many
Sabbaths" [Yoma 85b]. This law is the watchword of Judaism. "An authority who
allows himself to be consulted [when a life is in danger] is reprehensible, and
he who consults him (rather than speedily acting to save the life in danger) is
a murderer" (Tur, Orah Hayyim 328). Maimonides, that master of conciseness,
deviated from his regular manner and treated this issue with great
elaborateness... [Rav Soloveitchik, in the original, inserts the previous
citation of Rambam.] The teachings of the Torah do not oppose the laws of life
and reality, for were they to clash with this world and were they to negate the
value of concrete, physiological-biological existence, then they would contain
not mercy, lovingkindness, and peace but vengeance and wrath.[2]
One who makes
light of the mandate of pikuach nefesh is not only making light of one isolated
halacha. Rather, he is guilty of distorting and perverting the entire Torah. His
flippancy depicts the laws of the Torah not, r"l, as "merciful, kind and just,"
but as vengeful and vicious. It goes without saying that such a distortion
constitutes a chillul Hashem. I write the following without pretensions; I know
all too well that I am sorely lacking in Torah, yirah, and ma'asim tovim, and am
wholly unqualified to address -- or take a stance on -- issues which are the
province of Gedolei Torah. Chazal, however, adduce a clear halachic mandate from
the pasuk in Mishlei (21:30), "There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan against
Hashem" that "in a situation of chillul Hashem, we do not defer (our attempts to
redress the chillul Hashem) out of respect for the rav" (Sanhedrin 82a). Even
one as lowly and insignificant as myself is still sensitive to, and pained by,
the chillul Hashem which occurred recently as a result of the heretical (per Rav
Chaim) flippancy regarding the dictates of pikuach nefesh, and, ipso facto, the
concomitant distortion of Torah itself. When the doctors with relevant expertise
-- some of whom are observant, God-fearing Jews -- alerted us to the dangers of
this extremely contagious, frightening disease, their warnings initially went
unheeded, and we did not all immediately listen to their pleading. Baruch
Hashem, we did merit that some gedolim and other rabbonim of stature acted to
enforce social distancing with all due haste. It is, however, a matter of public
knowledge that many prominent, leading rabbonim did not act in this manner. To
compound matters, even when we belatedly heeded the calls for social distancing
and isolation, we then characterized our compliance with these measures
--regretfully!-- as a concession to outside entities instead of our complying
with the mandate of pikuach nefesh. This (mis)characterization of our motives
also caused distortion and perversion of the Torah.
Moreover, mischaracterizing
our compliance with social distancing as a mere capitulation to the standards of
outside entities had significant practical ramifications. The standards of all
outside entities do not value life as absolutely as does the Torah. Tosafos
(Yoma 85a) comment, "'You shall live through them and not die due to them'
[means] that we must under no circumstances allow for the death of a Jewish
person."Woe is to the eyes that saw, the ears that heard, what transpired in our
midst. How can it be that others recognized the reality and hastened to save
lives, while some of us were avoidant and resistant? How is it that some of us
eventually had to be compelled by others to fulfill the Torah's mandate of
"v'chai bohem?" Isn't our charge "lishmor v'la'asos -- to guard and carry out"
mitzvos? What of the Torah's depiction of a universal recognition (an organic
result of scrupulous performance of, and fealty to, the mitzvos) that Hashem's
nation is a wise and discerning one, am chacham v'navon? This, too, has
intensified the chillul Hashem. In addition to a perversion of Hashem's Torah,
there has been a perversion of the image of Hashem's nation. While nothing else
compares to the gravity of chillul Hashem, we must not ignore other severe
consequences of our failures on this front. The chillul Hashem stemmed from the
flippant attitude adopted to an immense danger to life. Who can possibly measure
the dreadful ramifications of this attitude? Only God Himself can truly know.
At
this juncture, our obligation is twofold. We must mend -- to the extent that
such is possible -- the mistakes of the past, while simultaneously,
prospectively, charting a communal path which accords with the authentic Torah
position. Regarding the past mistakes, we are obligated to publicly declare our
guilt in having been willingly blind and deaf to the manifest reality and being
shockingly flippant about the immense danger posed by that very reality. As for
the future, we must emphasize -- clearly and decisively -- that the Torah
demands our absolute alacrity in the face of danger to life. We must not look
for pro forma loopholes or so-called solutions which --at best-- may mitigate,
but certainly will not eliminate, the dangers of this disease. The Torah
absolutely condemns and forbids acting in a way which - under any circumstances
- may allow for the death of a Jew. If we take these steps, perhaps we can
demonstrate to the world that our previous intransigence, opposition, and
tarrying in the face of mortal danger is not the derech haTorah, but that the
laws of the Torah are merciful, kind, and just, and that we, Hashem's nation,
the sheep of His flock, are in fact truly wise and discerning. May Hashem, in
His great mercy, pity and save us speedily in the very near future.
[1] Translation adapted from A
Maimonides Reader. [2] Halakhic Man, p. 34
