Oberlander Báruch rabbi (szerk.): A rabbi válaszol. Modern kérdések, hagyományos válaszok 4 - Zsidó Ismeretek Tára 38. A rabbi válaszol 4. (Budapest, 2021)
I. rész. Kérdezd a rabbit világjárvány idején - Zsinagóga és imádkozás
37 A rabbi válaszol grown tired of sitting closed up in their homes, and the need for a stable economy increases daily, therefore, they have reached the conclusion that the leniencies should begin. The best proof that the government still admits that the danger is great, is the fact that all these leniencies have been set in place on condition that people continue adhering to a certain level of social distancing, continue wearing masks, etc. Furthermore, the Israeli Prime Minister announced yesterday that all the leniencies that have been set in place, will only continue so long as the number of newly infected people stays under 100 (!) per day, and so long as there are less than 250 people who are on respirators. However, if those numbers are surpassed, they will have to reinstate restrictions. In other words, for a multitude of reasons and needs, the government is willing to risk having 99 new sick people per day, and have 249 people on respirators. Even though the government knows very well that amongst those people, there will be a certain percentage which G-d forbid will die (and we pray and hope this will not be the case!). But after all is said and done, the government is saying, that this type of risk is a risk, which under the current circumstances they have to make, because people have to get back to work, businesses have to get restarted, etc. This is the difference between a political medical opinion, and a purely medical opinion. All the doctors admit that sadly the danger has not ceased to exist and the pandemic is ongoing. HALACHA (AND NOT THE GOVERNMENT) DICTATES WHAT IS CONSIDERED TO BE DANGEROUS After we have clearly seen that also according to the medical experts, there is still a great danger in congregating in public, we can no longer use the governments as a measuring stick to determine the level of danger we are allowed to place ourselves in. Rather, for these matters we have the Torah, the Book of Life, which determines that a matter of life and death overrides the entire Torah. This is true not only in a case where death is definite, but even in a case where there is just a chance, even a slight one, of death ( ןחלש ךורע ח״וא ׳יס סכש ג״ס). When it comes to matters of life and death, we do not simply follow the majority (םש ב״ס), and sadly we are currently not in a
