Yes, One Is Halachically Obligated To Get The Covid Vaccine By Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman and Who Designed Israel’s Flag? By Saul Jay Singer and Rabbi Recites Jewish Prayer as He is Sworn into Western Australia’s Supreme Court and retirement jokes: Retirement to do list: Wake up. Nailed it!" and other gems and Chabad's Jerusalem to the world concert tonight
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
Retirement to do list: Wake up. Nailed it!" and other gems
My doctor asked if anyone in my family suffered from mental illness. I said, "No, we all seem to enjoy it.
My bucket list: keep breathing.
Camping: where you spend a small fortune to live like a homeless person.
Just once, I want a username and password prompt to say, "Close enough."
Being an adult is the dumbest thing I have ever done.
I'm a multitasker. I can listen, ignore and forget all at the same time!
Retirement to do list: Wake up. Nailed it!
Went to an antique auction and people were bidding on me.
People who wonder if the glass is half empty or half full, miss the point. The glass is refillable.
I don't have grey hair; I have wisdom highlights.
Sometimes it takes me all day to get nothing done.
I don't trip, I do random gravity checks.
My heart says chocolate and wine, but my jeans say, please, please, please eat a salad!
Never laugh at your spouse's choices. You are one of them.
One minute you're young and fun. The next, you're turning down the car stereo to see better.
Losing weight doesn't seem to be working for me, so from now I'm going to concentrate on getting taller.
My body is a temple; ancient and crumbling.
Common sense is not a gift. It's a punishment because you have to deal with everyone else who doesn't have it.
I came. I saw. I forgot what I was doing. Retraced my steps. Got lost on the way back. Now I have no idea what's going on. But, I remembered to send this to you.
The Three Musketeers at the Kotel
Yes, One Is Halachically Obligated To Get The Covid Vaccine By Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman
Editor's note: Some readers requested expansion upon Rav Hershel Schachter's ruling that one is obligated to get the Covid vaccine (in the July 9 issue). So we asked one of Rav Schachter's leading students, Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, to expand upon it.
Thank you to The Jewish Press, as always, for publishing the rulings of Rav Schachter, shilta, especially on the crucially important topic of vaccination at this most perilous time. While I cannot speak on behalf of Rav Schachter, there are many points he has made in the past that, together with other classic sources of halacha and hashkafah, expand upon the published position and may serve to further emphasize its message. (Any mistaken interpretations or extrapolations are my fault).
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It should be stressed at the outset that, as Rav Schachter noted, individuals may have specific medical advice that is particularized for their circumstances, and they should consult medical professionals familiar with their personal situation. Regarding the general population, however, it is appropriate to speak more broadly.
The obligation to protect one's health is defined by the current state of medical knowledge. While there are always points of disagreement, as in all areas, there is a process within the field for weighing and assessing the various views and opinions and emerging with a dominant direction. In the case of the Covid-19 vaccines, the overwhelming conclusion has been that the vaccines are safe and greatly effective, and that Covid is horrendously dangerous.
This certainly exceeds the standard established in the Shulchan Aruch (O.C. 328:10), that one doctor should be followed when advocating for a patient to eat on Yom Kippur, out of abundance of caution in the preservation of life.
Some have pointed to this source as a reason not to take the vaccine, arguing that even a minority opinion among doctors fearing the vaccine is sufficient basis to avoid it. However, this application is difficult to sustain. In the context of Yom Kippur, the two choices are to factor in a minor health risk, or not to. The conclusion is that the mandate of preservation of life is so central that even the less-likely possibility is acknowledged.
On the other hand, in the context of the vaccine, the decision to validate a minority opinion does not result in greater sensitivity to the sanctity of life; it results in the disregarding of a clear majority view and a consequential risk to human life – of the individual deciding as well as of others.
Similarly, some have argued that it is better to decline the vaccine even at the risk of contracting Covid, based on the halachic principle of "shev v'al ta'aseh adif" – i.e. it is preferable to avoid a deliberate action that may be harmful, even if the passive alternative is also connected to a possible negative outcome. Here too, this is a difficult application; failure to adhere to medical direction in a situation of such serious risk would certainly be considered willful negligence. This is in no way analogous to acting passively in the face of a difficult choice.
It is noteworthy that the Torah mandates healing the sick in the language of permission: "V'rapo yerape" (Shemos 21:19) – that there is permission granted to the doctor to heal (Bava Kama 85a). Commentaries offer various explanations as to the need to grant "permission" for an action which is actually obligatory (see Devarim 22:2 and Sanhedrin 73a). Among the suggestions is the recognition that every medical intervention carries some aspect of risk; accordingly, one might think that the healing act should carry a prohibition or liability (see Ramban, Vayikra 26:11). The message, then, would be to validate the active measure – one that has been endorsed by responsible and knowledgeable professionals – over any preference for passivity as policy.
This last caveat regarding the qualifications of the practitioner is emphasized in the codification of the Shulchan Aruch (YD 336:1), which assigns both guilt and liability to one who "practices without a license." This is presumably applicable also (at least in spirit) to one who advises against the recommendations of medical consensus, particularly in areas of great danger to life.
One might suggest that from a religious perspective, the question is even more straightforward. If one perceives that, rather than seeing his own decisions as determinative of his fate, Divine providence is guiding the result, then considering that there's a halachic mandate to follow professional medical advice (see Taz, YD 336), the conclusion is most clearly in line with the dominant medical consensus. In other words, Hashem decides what will happen, and our responsibility is to adhere to the process dictated by halacha and by medical instruction.
The language of "chiyuv" is somewhat subject to context. At times it conveys a literal application of a defined mitzvah; at other times, the circumstances are more complex and require a more subjective assessment of a situation, as well as the incorporation of broader values. Nonetheless, the great ethicists (see for example, R. Alexander Ziskind of Horodna, Yesod ViShoreshHaAvodah, sha'ar 1, ch. 9) emphasize that the service of G-d guides all behavior in terms of obligation and prohibition, and requires the path that responsible analysis indicates.
* * *
The question was also posed regarding someone who is in a low-risk group, and whether they should get the vaccine in order to prevent the spread to others, who may be more vulnerable, as well as to contribute to the broader battle against the virus.
It is hard to fully grant the premise of this question, as the virus has tragically killed individuals from all demographics and health categories, and caused devastating long-term consequences for many others, even if in actuarial terms there are distinctions among groups.
Nonetheless, even granting this premise, it would seem clear that vaccination is called for, in order to prevent or minimize the spreading of the disease to those more vulnerable, and to contribute to the possibility of herd immunity and then end of the pandemic.
However, the question presumes also that there is a risk inherent in taking the vaccine, and thus the question is whether one is obligated to undertake that risk to accomplish the positive goal.
Here again, that premise is difficult to validate, as per the above. Still, to address the issue in theory, we can briefly consider the critical question of whether one is obligated or even permitted to risk one's life in order to protect the life of another who is already at risk.
As one might imagine, the topic is highly complex and controversial. The implication of the Talmud Yerushalmi is that one is indeed obligated to take on a possible risk to protect another from a more definite harm.
R. Yosef Karo notes this in his commentaries to the Rambam and the Tur, but does not explicitly state this is the case when he codifies the obligation of life-saving in his Shulchan Aruch (C.M. 426:1). This has led many of the commentaries to assume that the position of the Shulchan Aruch is that the mitzvah of life-saving does not require, or perhaps even permit, risking one's own life, as that is the general standard for mitzvos. (See Sm'a; and Pischei Teshuvah, who cites Agudas Ezov, and who understands this to be the position of the Talmud Bavli.)
However, even if this is the normative halacha, it would still be necessary to note several qualifications. As this exemption is not mentioned explicitly by the Shulchan Aruch, it would presumably not be the case that no one is ever expected to take on any risk to save others; rather, a significant risk, enough to exempt one from general mitzvos, would seemingly have to be present. Similarly, the Radbaz (III, 627), who does assume there is no obligation to take on risk, emphasizes that one should not be overly eager to exempt one's self with insufficient basis; doing so, as the Talmud indicates (Bava Metzia 33a, and Rashi there), is morally wrong and invites Divine retribution. (See also Aruch HaShulchan, as well as the comments of Tiferes Yisrael, Yoma 8:3, regarding the smallpox inoculation.)
As such, even the self-preservation exemption, when it comes to saving others, is considered by poskim to be very dependent on the specific statistics and realities. For example, as medical advances made kidney donations progressively less risky for the donors and more likely beneficial to the recipients, poskim adjusted their assessments accordingly, seeing donation as somewhere between highly encouraged and obligatory, depending on the circumstances. Again, per the above, medical consensus would certainly see receiving the vaccine as less dangerous than donating a kidney.
Rav Schachter's father in law, R. Aharon Yeshaya Shapiro, was instrumental in preparing the publication of R. Shimon Shkop's classic work, Sha'arei Yosher. In the often-quoted introduction to that volume, R. Shkop considers the meaning of the statement of Hillel in the mishnah in Pirkei Avos: "Im ein ani li, mi li; u'kesh'ani l'atzmi, mah ani?" This is often translated as reflecting a conflict in values: "I must take care of myself" pitted against "but if I am only for myself, that's not good either."
R. Shkop understood the two phrases as one continuous message. Human beings must take care of themselves first; no one else will. Nonetheless, the word "ani" in the mishnah does not have to be translated minimally, as "I" the individual. It is the prerogative of each person to define, through his attitude, the word ani more expansively: I and my family; and my extended family; and my community; and the Jewish people; and the entire world. One's greatness is displayed by how broadly they define their personal "ani"; conversely, 'kesh'ani l'atzmi, mah ani: if I define "ani" as "atzmi," the lone individual, then what am I, really?
Covid -19 has wrought horrific devastation on the entire world. Through the suffering, some lessons have emerged. One is the inescapable reminder that none of us are lone individuals, disconnected from others, free to make decisions that consider only our own circumstances. What we choose to do impacts those around us, whether we want that or not. Realizing that, and living and acting with that knowledge, is what leads us to greatness.
Rabbi Recites Jewish Prayer as He is Sworn in to Western Australia's Supreme Court
The first Orthodox Jewish rabbi to be appointed to an Australian supreme court recited a Jewish prayer at the end of his swearing-in ceremony this week.
Rabbi Marcus Solomon, an experienced commercial litigator and arbitrator, was sworn in on Wednesday to the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The Perth resident, who also serves as leader of the Dianella synagogue, said at the end of the swearing-in that he wanted to conclude the ceremony "with an old Jewish custom" — saying the Shehechyanu Jewish prayer, which is typically recited to celebrate new experiences.
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In a video taken at the ceremony, Solomon is heard saying, "At moments of importance in one's life and the life of the community, whatever one's belief, or indeed – non-belief, we humbly acknowledge and never take for granted life itself, the values and freedoms we enjoy, and the good fortune we share in having been sustained to come together on such an occasion."
Before saying the Hebrew prayer, he added that "if the chief justice can use Hebrew," referring to an earlier speech, "then I am not going to be outdone."
Solomon received rabbinic ordination from Central Tomchei Tmimim Yeshivah Academy in Brooklyn, N.Y., and is also a graduate of the Rabbinical College of Australia and New Zealand, in Melbourne, Victoria. He received a law degree from the University of Western Australia.
He has served as vice president of the Carmel High School in Perth since 1997, and was previously a teacher of Jewish studies at the school and director of Carmel's Jewish studies department.
According to Yasser Arafat, the meaning of the Israeli flag is: "It is white with two blue lines. The two lines represent two rivers, and in between is Israel. The rivers are the Nile and the Euphrates." However, as we shall see from objective and verifiable history, this is just one more instance where the "Palestinian" leader dispensed with inconvenient facts and fabricated his own historical narrative.
The use of blue and white as the colors of the Jewish flag arguably had its origins in The Colors of the Land of Judah, an 1860 poem by Austrian Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894), in which he explained that the national colors of the Jewish people should be sky blue and white:
When sublime feelings his heart fill, he [a Jew] is mantled in the colors of his country. He stands in prayer, wrapped in a sparkling robe of white. The hems of the white robe are crowned with broad stripes of blue; like the robe of the High Priest, adorned with bands of blue threads. These are the colors of the beloved country, blue and white are the colors of Judah; white is the radiance of the priesthood.
Frankl's poem was translated into Hebrew and was published in Hahavatzelet(1898), and although there is no known evidence that the early founders of modern Zionism ever read the poem or even knew of it, it is indisputable that the flags of virtually all the early Zionist settlements were based upon the tallit.
The Torah provides that one strand in the tzitzit affixed to taleyot (prayer shawls) must be light blue, and the special dye that was used for that strand was the techelet (according to the majority halachic opinion, a color closest to Tyrian purple, a shade of sky blue) which was also used for sacred items, including the Kohen Gadol's ephod and the hem of his robe, and the draperies in the Mishkan.
Although the precise details of the manufacture of techelet, which was produced from a dye extracted from marine snails native to the Mediterranean, were lost after the destruction of the second Beit HaMikdash (67 A.D), the use of blue for the stripes and the Magen David on the flag is designed to evoke memories of the techelet. Today, most Jewish men wear tzitzit that are entirely white, rather than use a blue dye that would only pale in comparison with the unique richness of techelet. However, as early as 1864, they wore taleyot with blue stripes and, as we shall see, it was from these talayot that Wolffsohn and Harris later drew their concept for their flags.
Many other beautiful chromatic symbolic meanings were attributed to the use of the color blue. For example, R. Meir explains in the Talmud that it makes one reflect on the color of the sky above him, and thus the G-d who created it, and Rabbi Judah ben Illai says that it engenders holy thoughts because the original Tablets of the Law and Aaron the High Priest's staff were both blue. In any event, the stripes of the tallit provide religious and ritual symbolism of Jewish life, and the Magen David, with its two intersecting triangles, reflects the unity of the Jewish people.
Toward the late 1800s, various Jewish organizations adopted flags featuring the blue and white colors together with six-sided stars, pairs of stripes, and other features with words such as Zion and Maccabee. Historian Mordecai Eliav listed five different locations where a Zionist flag is claimed to have been flown for the first time: Russia, Rishon L'Tzion, Ness Ziona, Boston and London.
Flag flown at Rishon L'Tzion (1891): The first flying of the Zionist flag?
According to the Encyclopedia Judaica, "The Zionist flag in its present form – two blue stripes on white background with a shield of David in the center – was first displayed in Rishon L'Tzion in 1885." The flag – which, interestingly, included a double stripe above and below the Magen David, was designed by Israel Belkind, the founder of the early aliyah BILU organization – a movement whose goal was the agricultural settlement of Eretz Yisrael – to mark the third anniversary of the founding of the colony.
Some authorities cite a Ness Tziona flag (1891) as the first, though others maintain that this latter flag is "an urban legend," and a blue and white flag with a blue star is said to have been flown in Nachalat Reuven in 1891. Interestingly, in its "flag" series issued on June 24, 2003, (see below), the Israel Postal authority featured the Ness Tziona flag and not the Rishon L'Tzion flag.
Israel stamps: Left stamp: Ness Ziona Right stamp: Herzl's Ju
Another person who could arguably be credited with creating the first Zionist flag is Rabbi Jacob Baruch Askowith, an American Jew who designed his flag in 1891 for the local B'nai Zion group in Boston. This "Flag of Judah" bore an extraordinary similarity to today's flag, except that the Hebrew word "Maccabee" appeared at the center. B'nai Zion first displayed their banner publicly in October 1892, during festivities to mark the fourth centenary of the discovery of America, but the word "Zion" had replaced "Maccabee."
Flag postcard featuring "Zion" inside the Magen David (circa early 20th century).
Some analysts credit the original design of the flag that we recognize today to upholsterer Morris Harris, a Lithuanian immigrant and a member of the New York branch of Chovevei Zion. They claim that Harris brought to the First Zionist Congress (Basel, August 1897) a flag that he had spontaneously designed and which his mother, Lena, had produced using materials from his shop. According to distinguished historian Jonathan D. Sarna, however, this account is, at best, problematic because Harris never made it to Basel at all. Sarna writes that "while, as a flag-maker, he undoubtedly produced many Zionist flags in America, it seems most likely that he modeled his flags after the one flown in Basel in 1898, not the other way around."
Herzl's June 14, 1895 diary entry, which included a sketch of his proposed flag.
Herzl himself famously designed a flag, which he sketched in his diary in 1895 and proposed a year later in his seminal Der Judenstaat ("The Jewish State," 1896), in which he proposed the rebirth of a Jewish state and launched contemporary Zionism. Entirely devoid of traditional Jewish symbolism, it featured a single stripe at the top and bottom with a prominent Magen David in the middle formed by seven small stars with an Aryeh Yehuda ("Lion of Judah") inside it and one star above it. The seven stars were designed to represent the seven-hour workday, a radical idea at the time, about which Herzl wrote in Der Judenstaat. Herzl described his vision for his flag as follows:
When the new land first comes in sight, our new flag will be raised on the staff. At present we do not have any. I am thinking of a white flag with seven gold stars. The white field signifies our new, clean life, and the seven stars, our desire to start this new life under the banner of labor.
However, Herzl's flag drew little support at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, and the delegates began to discuss alternatives. David Wolffsohn – Herzl's "right hand man," confidant and successor; founder of the Jewish Colonial Trust; and director of all the financial and economic institutions of the Zionist Movement – rose, unfurled a tallit, and announced: "Why do we have to search? Here is our national flag! " As he later explained:
At the behest of our leader Herzl, I came to Basel to make preparations for the Zionist Congress. Among many other problems that occupied me then was one that contained something of the essence of the Jewish problem. What flag would we hang in the Congress Hall? Then an idea struck me. We have a flag – and it is blue and white. The tallit with which we wrap ourselves when we pray: that is our symbol. Let us take this tallit from its bag and unroll it before the eyes of Israel and the eyes of all nations. So I ordered a blue and white flag with the Shield of David painted upon it. That is how the national flag, that flew over Congress Hall, came into being.
Flag of the Second Zionist Congress (Basel, 1898).
Although Wolffsohn's proposed flag did not constitute a substantive departure from the Rishon L'Tzion flag that had been flown more than a decade earlier, the Encyclopedia Judaica maintains that he was unaware of the earlier flags. Wolffsohn's flag, which became known as "the flag of Zion," became universally embraced as the definitive Zionist emblem by Jews in Eretz Yisrael and the Diaspora, and Wolffsohn is now broadly acknowledged as the designer of Israel's flag.
Rare original photo of the Seventh Zionist Congress (Basel, 1905) with Max Nordau at the podium. Note the prominent flag (Herzl's version) on the wall behind the dais and at the podium.
Wolffsohn's flag (with the word "Zion" in the middle), was accepted as the official flag of the Second Zionist Congress (Basel, 1898). However, the flag designed by Herzl featuring the Lion of Judah inside the Magen David continued to be flown at the Zionist Congresses until the 18th Congress (Prague, 1933), when the delegates formally declared that "by long tradition, the blue and white flag is the flag of the Zionist Organization and of the Jewish people."
The state of Israel was born on May 14, 1948, but the Israeli flag that we all recognize today was not formally adopted until October 28, 1948. The story of how it came to be is somewhat labyrinthine.
Small WWI flag for Flag Day for Zion. Front: With Lion of Judah.
When the UN passed its partition resolution on November 29, 1947, recommending the establishment of an independent Jewish state, Jews in Israel and the Diaspora flooded the streets in celebratory dancing with Wolffsohn's Zionist flag, which was also the flag flown in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948, at the ceremony for the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel in Tel Aviv.
However, a few days later, Israel's pre-election government, the Provisional Council of State, was inclined to replace the Zionist flag with a new one specifically designed for the new Jewish State. As Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok (later Prime Minister Sharett) explained, it was important for the world to be able to distinguish between the banner of international Zionism and the flag of the sovereign Jewish State, lest Jews in the Diaspora be accused of dual loyalty.
Ben Gurion announcing the birth of the New Jewish State behind a podium Adorned with a picture of Theodor Herzl with the Zionist flag on either side.
The Provisional Government determined that the colors of the new flag of Israel should be light blue and white with a Magen David or seven stars, in gold or some other color, in the middle. After listening to heated arguments about the design of a flag for Israel, Ben Gurion suggested that the question be put out to the public and, accordingly, on June 8, 1948, a contest inviting the public to submit proposals for the flag was announced.
The announcement generated some 170 diverse submissions to Richard Ariel, the graphic advisor to Israel's nascent government, but the Provisional Council committee, unable to decide on a design, decided to seek input from the Diaspora. Accordingly, Shertok contacted many Jewish leaders – including Chaim Weizmann (then in Switzerland) and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver in New York – and many Jewish communities, including the Zionist General Council in Johannesburg, and found that the near-universal consensus was to retain the historic Zionist flag with the Magen David at the center.
The Council voted unanimously to adopt the old Zionist flag unmodified, Ariel produced the final graphics for the flag, and the resolution took effect a few weeks later with the publication of the following notice in the Official Gazette:
The Provisional Council of State Proclamation of the Flag of the State of Israel
Israel and JNF stamp assortment featuring the flag.
The Provisional Council of State hereby proclaims that the flag of the State of Israel shall be . . . 220 cm. long and 160 cm. wide. The background is white and on it are two stripes of dark sky-blue, 25 cm. broad, over the whole length of the flag, at a distance of 15 cm. from the top and from the bottom of the flag. In the middle of the white background, between the two blue stripes and at equal distance from each stripe is a Star of David, composed of six dark sky-blue stripes, 5.5 cm. broad, which form two equilateral triangles, the bases of which are parallel to the two horizontal stripes.
25 Tishrei 5709 (28 October 1948) Provisional Council of State, Joseph Sprinzak, Speaker
At the final moment before its adoption as the official flag of Israel, the color of the stripes and the Magen David were darkened to facilitate its visibility at sea. This darker shade of blue is described in a February 18, 1950, Israel Office of Information notice.
