The coronavirus epidemic caught the haredi world off guard, as it did the entire state of Israel and everywhere else. Society might not know exactly how to handle this unprecedented situation, but the battle within the ultra-Orthodox sector is even more complicated.
One of their main challenges is, that the haredi public is based on community; synagogue, Hassidic celebrations, family meals, Torah study and kollel study. For the ultra-Orthodox, even leisure activities center around family events or friends getting together for cholent on a Thursday evening. Because the battle to contain coronavirus focuses on quarantine and separation, haredim are having a particularly difficult time complying with these dictates.
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By the middle of this week, it looked like the haredi world was starting to accept the new situation. While news broadcasts showed images of dozens of yeshiva students continuing to study in close quarters, against Health Ministry instructions, Rabbi David Yosef (the son of the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef) called on the students at his yeshiva to study at home. The Hebron Yeshiva moved its benches and Talmud stands out to the courtyard; Yiddish PSA posters were put up in the strictest Hassidic enclaves, where residents don't have the option of getting updates on the radio or TV; and many family celebrations were canceled. Some were moved out of doors and held with 10 people or fewer.
Nevertheless, on Tuesday evening a Hassidic wedding in Beit Shemesh was attended by masses of guests who – according to the footage that made its way to the mainstream media – didn't follow the rules about social distancing. Shortly after the images were made public, the police arrived to break up the wedding. The next day, the Health Ministry issued orders to close down all yeshivas and kollels. The order was a blanket order and not dependent on the number of students in any one institution.
The ultra-Orthodox sector argued that most of its members do not watch television, which is why instructions were slow to be followed. A day after the Beit Shemesh wedding, Chief Rabbi David Lau characterized it as a serious violation that must not be repeated. Incidentally, the same day the wedding took place, a Hassidic man from Bnei Brak was reported to be a confirmed corona case, and the Hassidic sect of which he is a member is worried that they must all go into quarantine because he was present at a Purim reading of the Scroll of Esther.
What posed a conflict for the haredi public and also scored it some negative headlines, were instructions from Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, considered one of the greatest Lithuanian rabbis of this generation. After the press conference in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that all schools would be closed, Kanievsky instructed Torah students, yeshivas, and kollels to hold study as usual. This set off a wave of criticism about the haredi world.
The haredi public tried to explain the instructions and why they were being followed, in the face of outrage about irresponsibility. For example, Moshe Glassner, a resident of Elad and a senior figure in the haredi media, who hosts a show on the haredi radio station Kol Barama as well as a program on the Knesset Channel, said, "Israelis don't understand haredi codes. After an instruction like Rabbi Kanievsky's, they're sure these are reckless people who don't care about health. But they don't understand how the haredi mind works and what compels us to not automatically stop study in yeshivas and Talmud torahs.
"Here we see the total commitment to the commandment to study Torah, which the haredim make an effort to observe even in the face of health warnings," Glassner said.
Q: People aren't afraid their sons will get infected at institutions of Torah study?
"When Rabbi Kanievsky speaks, there is a huge sector that calms down and trusts him. The Lithuanian public might not be involved in mysticism, but when a rabbi as great as Rabbi Kanievsky, a Jew of the utmost holiness whom we see has a direct line to 'up there,' it's something else.
"When someone at that level of Torah knowledge and spirituality says something, people are mum. I remember a lot of people thinking that the order not to close Torah study institutions was reckless, but the moment Rabbi Kanievsky spoke, they were silent. Me too – the moment it was announced to go on studying, I couldn't say too much and I sent my sons to yeshiva. I'm a rational person, even a bit jaded, but when Rabbi Chaim says something, there's no need to worry," he said.
Despite the impression that the haredim are apathetic or even isolationist, Glassner wants to make it clear that haredim feel the same fear as the rest of Israel and, for the most part, fully take part in public life.
"This is a sector that flocks to volunteer with all the rescue and charity organizations; the first to rush in any time help is needed. They see themselves as committed to the health regulations, they take care to maintain distance, disinfect, the shops are closed, and you don't see the haredim at the beach. This is not a sector that is dismissive. But when it comes to Torah study, they think that continuing to study is a way of looking out for the entire Jewish people."
Meanwhile, these times of plague and fear and uncertainty are sending Israelis to seek solace in Jewish mysticism. Rabbi Chaim Foox of the Sgulat Emet Institute, says, "People don't know what's going on, don't know when it will end, don't know what effect it will have and want to adopt every cautionary measure there is, so we are receiving lots of calls asking if we have amulets, talismans or prayers that can contain the disease."
"There is one amulet against an epidemic – a sort of square divided into smaller squares that contain the verse, 'Then Phinehas stood up and intervened, and the plague was stayed.' [Psalm 106:30] Note the word 'intervened,' which is actually prayer. We need to pray, every person needs stronger faith."
According to Foox, more than a few charlatans have been popping up and saying that the epidemic is the result of the Gay Pride march or other things.
"That's not true. Yes, when the Lord brings trouble like this upon the world, he's telling us something, but he is telling us we need to be stronger, not anything specific," Foox says.
