Response to voice message of a member of the Beis Din of Crown Heights

B.H.

15^th of Teves, 5782

 

 

With sincere anguish I write the following response to a most disturbing voice note message I just heard. The message was touted as having been said by a member of the Beis Din of Crown Heights, no less, and it was publicized widely throughout the Jewish community. As such, I have a moral obligation to issue the following rebuttal, for no other reason but to save lives.

I will try to keep this short, or as short as possible – as per the Torah's warning, קול כסיל ברוב דברים      (קהלת ה:ב, a profound instruction that was demonstrated loud and clear by the said voice note).

In the message to the community, the rabbi says he will address “a debate which is raging in the community," but then says:

“I am not going to give an answer whether one should vaccinate or not…", reasoning that "medical questions are to be determined by doctors."

However, later in the talk, he says - “A question of pikuach nefesh is supposed to be determined by rabbonim and doctors"; prefacing "rabbonim" to "doctors".

If he is a rav, why is he afraid to issue a ruling? He himself just said that a question of pikuach nefesh is to be determined by rabbonim. Is he not "rabbonim"? Is taking a dangerous injection that has killed thousands and provides no benefit for most of its recipients not a question of pikuach nefesh? True, he intimates during the recorded talk that he seems to feel that we should in fact vaccinate our children, our teens, our adults and elders, as is the "mainstream medical opinion", and he adds, "I think my opinion is very clear." His opinion might be "clear," or so he thinks - yet he refuses to say it clearly.

Sorry, but a psak from a rav needs to be clear.

Now, after all these months, as he has refused and continues to refuse to state a Halachic opinion directly and openly, many religious Jews in the community have formulated their own opinion – as they should, when deprived the opportunity to hear a ruling from a rav, since the rav refuses to provide this.

But not only can he not provide a rabbinical opinion, he now chastises his community members for developing their own opinion, demeaning them that "you can’t even answer a question about v’sen tal umatar, you are going to decide about pikuach nefesh issues – issues of life and death?!”

"You shouldn’t have an opinion to begin with!" he berates them, with utter scorn and disrespect.

Sadly, I have no choice but to protest these statements. This man's job as a rav is not to bewail what he considers "an anathema to Torah," not to lambast his community members with vulgar contempt, but rather – to issue halachic rulings and to answer halachic questions.

But he chooses to answer only questions about "v'sen tal umatar." When it comes to issues of life and death – he consistently "passes the buck," as he did in this voice note.

And since he keeps passing the buck, his community members had no choice but to "shop around for a rov," to use his own accusatory words.

In light of the above, and in light of the profundity in preserving human life (as it says, "כל המקיים נפש אחת מישראל כאילו קיים כל העולם כולו"), and in light of the Halachic adage, "כל מקום שיש חילול השם אין חולקין כבוד לרב" (יו"ד סי' רמ"ב סי"א), I am morally obligated to protest some of the wildly misguided statements that were made in this voice note:

1) “You are not entitled to your opinion when it comes to medical matters!"

Mistake. Your opinion in medical matters is essential.

The rabbi gave no sources for his above outlandish and troubling statement, except for one:

He cited that the Rebbe wrote that "when it came to medical matters, they should not research this matter. They should listen to the doctors and not involve their minds in their condition other than to listen to doctors’ instructions."

So just to set the record straight:

The above answers were in instances in which someone was ill, and required treatment and healing. Since the patient was under the care of doctors he trusted, the Rebbe insisted that involving one's mind in the intricacies of the treatments and healing is detrimental to the efficacy thereof.

Here, however, there is no illness and no patient, no one under the care of any hospital staff. This injection is a prophylactic which is being forced upon a healthy person, whose need for any prophylactic is sketchy at best. It is a completely preventative measure to prevent an illness that presents little risk to the recipient, yet engenders negative side effects and exposes the recipient to unnecessary risk.

In such a case, there is no Halachic precedent to the rabbi's statement: "When it comes to medical matters, our job is to follow what doctors are saying." I'm sorry, but there is no source that indicates that we have any such "job." And if he thinks he has a source, he must provide it, before giving out jobs.

2) Furthermore, he states that not only is it our job to follow what doctors are saying, but that we must go with the majority opinion, and the mainstream medical opinion.

This is INCORRECT.

In reference to "majority opinions" in medical matters - the explicit ruling of Shulchan Aruch in Orach Chayim siman תרי"ח is that when it comes to matters of pikuach nefesh, we do NOT go after the majority opinion.

True, the view of ONE doctor is a "daas yochid – a sole minority lone opinion" – and is disqualified in Halacha when opposing the view of many, as he points out. But when there are two or more doctors who share a minority opinion, and in our case, hundreds if not thousands of doctors, who warn that the vaccine presents mortal danger – we are to follow the minority opinion and heed their monition.

Furthermore, the majority option, as he says, cannot Halachically be considered a majority opinion at all. For in our case, the "vast majority" of doctors are receiving their opinion from one and the same source, a governmental agency, while in essence, they themselves are not knowledgeable about the technology and are not privy as to the actual risk involved. As such, the numbers of their opinions cannot be counted quantitatively at all.

[Parenthetically:

Even if we could consider the opinions of doctors as a majority of expert opinions, and even according to the Halachic view that we follow a majority (although, as I mentioned, this is not the accepted Halacha as paskened in Shulchan Aruch) – the obligation to adhere to the majority opinion would only be in matters of "אומדנא" (assessing or treating a mortally ill patient). In prophylactic matters, however, there is no such precedent].

In reference to the rabbi's insistence in following "the mainstream medical opinion" - the fact that a medical view is "mainstream" is of no substance to G-d-fearing Jews whatsoever. For example, a well-known "mainstream medical view" is family planning, hysterectomy, or tubal ligation. Doctors say to do this in many instances. Is the rabbi then telling us to follow this mainstream view as well? There are numerous teshuvos from poskim in previous generations warning us that mainstream medical views are often NOT congruent with Jewish values.

[It should also be noted that the Rebbe instructed in תשמ"ח (Sefer Hasichos, pg. 240) that in medical matters to follow the advice of a "rofeh mumcheh", and even better, two "rofim mumchim". And that if the two doctors disagree, to ask a third and follow the majority. The Rebbe did NOT indicate to follow or seek the majority opinion of ALL doctors in the world or the mainstream medical view – but rather, the opinion of the doctor whom the person decided to ask, or the two doctors, or the majority of three, if necessary and if applicable. The Rebbe instructed to approach the rofeh mumcheh of choice! Not the government's choice. Not this rabbi's choice.

Furthermore, in matters of vaccines, the Rebbe NEVER indicated to ask any doctors. Perhaps because doctors do not produce the vaccines, and are not knowledgeable about their technologies in the first place. The Rebbe explained that if a vaccine was safe and effective, that it was advisable – without mentioning doctors at all. The safety and effectiveness of a vaccine, then, needs to be proven before our considering to take it. In the case of the covid vaccine, not only is "safe and effective" doubtful, according to many top experts, but another extremely troubling and unprecedented question must be posed – is it necessary?]

3) The rabbi states that not only is taking this vaccine not a Halachic question, but that a vaccine mandate is also not a matter that deserves his attention. He calls it a "legal or secular issue."

How incorrect this statement is! A governmental mandate that affects the religious education of our youth and threatens to close our yeshivas is a "secular issue"?! The fact that in two days from now our rebbies and morahs will be barred from instructing our children is not a matter that deserves the attention of a community rabbi?!

I have no words.

4) The rabbi states that "you have no ownership of your body to begin with. That’s another principle of Torah – nobody has ownership of their body. This whole concept of liberalism where I get to decide what I feel is right and you are taking away my rights to make choices for myself, is also not according to the Torah,” he said.

These words are most troubling. True, no one has ownership of his or her body to get a tattoo or abortion, or to harm oneself – that is because these actions are halachically compromised. But decision-making in all other actions surely belong to the person himself.

But more importantly – even if a person is not the owner of his body, he surely is the LEGAL GUARDIAN of the body. Not government, not rabbonim, and not doctors. As the sole legal guardian of his body, a Jew is not permitted to violate any Torah precept, including endangering his/her life.

Since the rabbi erroneously feels that we are not responsible for our own bodies nor are we entitled to an opinion about the maintenance and wellbeing of our bodies – just who then does own our bodies or is entitled to delineate our opinions – governmental agencies?

This is yet another questionable view the rabbi shares which must be addressed. The reliability of government and doctors in our present situation, as per Yoreh Deah siman קנ"ה. The nature of the vaccine mandate, in which neither vaccine manufacturers, governmental agencies, nor medical practitioners have any liability in regards to covid vaccine injuries, leaves us with a profound challenge in trusting their medical expertise in the matter. As such, it is highly questionable, Halachically, if they have any samchus at all in advising to take this vaccine.

But as the rabbis stated: “You are not to decide whether to get vaccinated or not – that is a flawed way of thinking." Unfortunately, when there is no communal rav to pasken on vital matters like this, and the reliability of the people pushing the vaccine is so questionable, we have no other choice but to think in this "flawed way", as he says so condescendingly.

I therefore must state for the record:

In my opinion, it is prohibited to take the said vaccine, until it can be proven safe, effective, and necessary. And all the more so, it is entirely prohibited to administer the vaccine to a child, ח"ו, for whom the injection is clearly NOT necessary, and is therefore exposing the child to unnecessary harm. Allowing your child to take the injection, in fact, is not a "flawed way of thinking" and "not within the purview of Torah" (to use this rabbi's own words). Just as you are the legal guardian of your own body, you are also the legal guardian of your child's body, and therefore responsible for his/her wellbeing.

With all due respect, until the rabbi commits to offering a comprehensible rabbinical ruling in this urgent matter of life and death, a newfangled technology which has taken the lives of many of our injected community members – it is imperative that the community find new rabbinical guidance in the matter.

Especially a day before the government is poised to oust our religious instructors (and in the coming months or weeks – our children, too) out of religious schools – it is a dire necessity that the said rabbinical guidance be found in the most imminent future.

The future of our religion, our lives, and the lives our children – depend on it.

I remain,

Rabbi Daniel Green, Crown Heights