The initial letter for CV19 guidelines for the Chabad Melbourne Community, which were sent out to the email lists of Yeshiva Centre and Young Yeshiva, left one with many perplexing questions.
This letter was written on the Melbourne Beis Din letterhead and signed by several community Rabbis and local G.P.'s.
It is perplexing as to why they felt the need to go above and beyond the government restrictions at the time. For instance, back then the government allowed indoor gatherings, yet the Yeshiva guidelines only gave permission for outdoor minyanim. Why were they even more restrictive than the very strict Victorian government? Moreover, it seems there was no scientific justification for this.
Equally perplexing was the restriction on davening with a minyan for shacharis while mincha and marriv were allowed. In their second letter they tried to explain this but, their explanation was even more perplexing. It said that since shacharis davening was longer in duration than the other two, one may tend want to sit down, implying that the virus could be caught from the seats. Additionally, one brings tefillin bags and talleism which could also make the virus spread. This begs the question, do the doctors who signed this letter believe that sitting down, tefillin bags, and taleism are able to spread CV19? This seems improbable that they believe this as this goes against the known science.
Another inexplicable restriction was the closure of the men's mikvah. The women's mikvah was still open, so why close the men's? Also, did this mean the doctors who signed this believe that the virus lives in chlorine? If so, this would be inexplicable because to believe so would be absolutely against the known science. So why close any mikvaot at all?
One of the Rabbis actually directed the community to call the police should they see anyone violating the CV19 restrictions. Even a lay person who is not a Rabbi or a doctor finds this extremely problematic considering that this could fall under the category of mesirah (the prohibition against informing on a Jew to the gentiles). Now one could argue that this directive to inform was because of the commandment of pekuach nefesh (the saving of a Jewish life) which takes precedence over everything else. However, this argument does not hold water when one considers that the Yeshiva restrictions went above and beyond even the very strict Victorian government restrictions, and those very extreme restrictions would therefore not, according to science, going to be effective in saving any lives at all. So one is left perplexed as to why a Rav would instruct Jews to inform on other Jews?
So all this begs the questions: were the signatories of this letter following science or not? Moreover, why did they feel compelled to go above and beyond the restrictions that the government required? What could have possibly motivated these contradictory, inconsistent restrictions that do not seem to be based on the known science and seem to make no sense at all? Were they just basing all this on their own fear ? If so, then could one assert they are spreading mass hysteria?
From where or what do the signatories of these letters base their directives on? Inquiring minds would like to know.
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