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Passover Torah Study Passover and Vaccines and Miracle Primary Jewish Sources on Vaccination Compiled by Rabbi Lynn Liberman and Rabbi Jill Crimmings Taken from HM 427:8.2021a, Vaccination and Ethical Questions Posed By Covid-19 Vaccines, RaBBi Micah Peltz The Torah commands us to “Be careful and watch yourselves,” (Deuteronomy 4:9) which is understood by the Talmud to mean that we should avoid danger whenever possible. (B’rakhot 32b) Elsewhere in Deuteronomy, we find the mitzvah of placing a parapet, or guardrail, around one's roof. (Deuteronomy 22:8) This is understood to mean that we should actively take steps to protect ourselves and others. (Maimonides Hilkhot Rotzea 11:5-6) As Rabbi Moses Isserles clearly articulates in the Shulhan Arukh, “one should avoid all things that endanger oneself, as we treat physical dangers more stringently than ritual prohibitions.” (Shulchan Aruch YD 116:5) The Torah emphasizes that we need to take responsibility for the well-being of those around us when it says, “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” (Leviticus 19:16) This is understood to mean that we do everything we can to safeguard the health of others. Taken from HM 427:8.2021B, Does Halakhah Require Vaccination Against Dangerous Diseases such as Measles, RuBella, Polio, and Covid-19, David Golinkin As is well known, pikuah nefesh supersedes Shabbat (Yoma 85a-b and parallels), kashrut (Mishnah Yoma 8:4 = fol. 83a), Yom Kippur (ibid., 8: 5 = fol. 82a), and all the commandments in the Torah except idol worship, incest, and bloodshed (Ketubot 19a; Sanhedrin 74a). The Amora Shmuel learned the above from the verse “ ‘and you shall keep My statutes and laws, which man shall do, and live by them’ (Leviticus 18:5) -- and not die by them”. And if a person is commanded to transgress all the mitzvot in the Torah to save his friend’s life, how much the more so is it a mitzvah is to get vaccinated in order to save his own life! In other words, if pikuah nefesh supersedes Shabbat, kashrut, Yom Kippur, and almost all the mitzvot in the Torah, how much the more so does it supersede the infinitesimal risk (see below) of getting vaccinated. Taken from CCAR 5757.10, ComPulsory Immunization Jewish tradition regards the practice of medicine as a mitzvah, a religious obligation. It is an aspect of pikuach nefesh, the preservation of human life, a mitzvah that takes precedence over virtually every other requirement of the Torah. Even the rules of Shabbat and Yom Kippur are superseded in order to save life, and medicine falls under this instruction. Should an expert or competent physician (rofe uman or rofe baki) prescribe a remedy for a patient with a serious illness, the patient must accept the remedy even if its preparation and application would normally violate the prohibitions of those holy days. One who refuses this treatment on the grounds that he or she prefers to observe the laws of Shabbat is a pious fool (chasid shoteh). This is not an act of piety but of suicide. He is compelled to do what the physicians prescribe. Although our tradition speaks of a variety of acts that might be undertaken by and on behalf of the sick, such as teshuvah (repentance), tefilah (prayer), and tzedakah (giving to the poor), we are nonetheless required to follow the law of nature and to call the physician when we fall ill. Whoever refuses medical treatment in favor of the other, non-natural responses, is guilty of the sin of arrogance, of assuming that one deserves to be healed by way of a miracle. 1 Opinions on Compulsory Vaccination Compiled by Rabbi Lynn Liberman and Rabbi Jill Crimmings Taken from HM 427:8.2021a, Vaccination and Ethical Questions Posed By Covid-19 Vaccines, RaBBi Micah Peltz From an halakhic perspective, the question is whether each of the COVID-19 vaccines, even though they were approved under emergency processes, would be considered a refuah b’dukah, an established treatment. In The Observant Life, Rabbi Reisner writes that “the halakhic concept of an ‘established’ treatment is much narrower than the current concept of an approved medication...From the vantage point of halakhah, an established treatment must be known to be generally effective.”18 Rabbi Golinkin shows that the testing of the COVID-19 vaccines, though not as rigorous as usual, still meets the requirement of refuah b’dukah, and therefore we would be required to vaccinate.19 Additionally, the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America have also ruled that there is a requirement to be vaccinated for COVID-19.20 It is important to note that all of these obligations vaccinate also require the individual to do so in consultation with their personal health care provider. Given all of this, it is clear that all those whose doctor recommends vaccination are obligated by halakhah to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Taken from “COVID-19 Immunization: Should it Be Mandatory? A Conversation.” RaBBi Mark Washofsky All of this suggests that Rabbi Yaakov Emden (18th-century Germany), and the entire tradition upon which his words are based, would regard the COVID-19 vaccines as mandatory medical treatment. This is because immunization, unknown in Emden’s time, is now accepted as proper medical therapy and because the COVID vaccines have been established as effective – “definitive” and “proven” therapies – by the consensus opinion among epidemiologists. On the strength of this scientific opinion, the halakhic opinion is clear: these vaccines should be mandatory for all, excepting those for whom the vaccines could pose serious and unacceptable health risks. Should the COVID-19 immunization be mandatory? Yes, it should; no other response is halakhicly correct or morally appropriate. But let the words of Rabbi Yaakov Emden remind us that in practice it is people – millions upon millions of individual people – who hold the power to decide whether to do the right thing. Our job is to persuade them to do so. We can do that, in part, by insisting that governments and institutions enforce vaccine requirements. We can do it as well through the personal example that we set through our own behavior. But we must also take the time to listen, with empathy and real concern, to those who resist that obligation. Unless we actually listen to them and try as hard as we can to engage them in productive conversation, we will never begin to rebuild their trust in science and in the expertise of physicians, the ones qualified to tell us just what counts as proven and tested medicine. 2 Additional Sources and Articles (beyond those linked above) on the Topic of Vaccination With gratitude to Rabbi Jason Levine Why Vaccinations are Kosher and Required (Roger Price, 2014) https://jewishjournal.com/news/131215/why-vaccinations-are-kosher-and-required/ Statement on Vaccinations from the OU and RaBBinical Council of America (2018) https://www.ou.org/news/statement-vaccinations-ou-rabbinical-council-america/ Resolution on Mandatory Immunization Laws (Union for Reform Judaism, 2015) https://urj.org/what-we-believe/resolutions/resolution-mandatory-immunization-laws ComPulsory Immunization in Jewish Day Schools (RaBBinical AssemBly, HM 427:8:2005) https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/sites/default/files/public/halakhah/teshuvot/20052010/p rouser_immunization.pdf The Miracles of Vaccinations and Passover Freedom Miracle : an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs. ~Miriam Webster רודיס כשא נ ז , ימי לוח , פת י תל חש ר י ת , מע י הד , ,Siddur Ashkenaz, Weekday, Shacharit םידומ א׳ Amidah, Thanksgiving 1 (א) מו ִדים ֲא ַנ ְחנוּ ָל ְך. ׁ ָש ַא ָּתה הוּא ה' ֱאל ֵקינוּ ֵואל ֵקי We gratefully thank You, for You, O Lord (1) ֲאבו ֵתינוּ ְלעו ָלם ָו ֶעד. צוּר ַח ּיֵינוּ. ָמ ֵגן ִי ׁ ְש ֵענוּ ַא ָּתה הוּא ,our God, are our fathers' God for all eternity ְלודר ָודור: נו ֶדה ְּל ָך וּ ְנ ַס ּ ֵפר ְּת ִה ָּל ֶת ָך ַעל ַח ּיֵינוּ our Rock, our Shield of salvation generation ַה ְּמסוּ ִרים ְּביָ ֶד ָך. ְו ַעל ִנ ׁ ְשמו ֵתינוּ ַה ְּפקוּדות ָל ְך. ְַועל to generation. We thank You and recount Your praise for our lives. We trust our lives ִנ ֶּסי ָך ׁ ֶש ְּב ָכל יום ִע ָּמנוּ. ְו ַעל ִנ ְפ ְלאו ֶתי ָך ְוטובו ֶתי ָך ׁ ֶש ְּב ָכל into Your loving hand. Our souls are in Your ֵעת . ֶבֶער ֶָרבקו ֳָרְהצו ִםָי : ַה ּטוב ִּכי לא ָכלוּ ַר ֲח ֶמי ָך. custody and Your miracles are with us every ְו ַה ְמ ַר ֵחם ִּכי לא ַת ּמוּ ֲח ָס ֶדי ָך. ֵמעו ָלם ִק ִוּינוּ ָל ְך: day and Your wonders and goodness are with us at all times: evening, morning and noon. You are good, for Your mercies never fail us, and the Compassionate One, for Your loving kindness never ceases; forever we have placed our hope in You. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” - (Attributed to) AlBert Einstein Ramban on Hidden Miracles From the great and public miracles a man recognizes the hidden miracles, which are the 3 foundation of the entire Torah, for a man has no part in the Torah of Moshe our teacher unless he believes that all our things and occurrences are all miracles and have no nature or the way of the world in them, whether communally or individually....... Yehudah Amichai From a distance everything looks like a miracle but up close even a miracle doesn’t look like that. Even someone who crossed the Red Sea when it split saw only the sweating back of the man in front of him and the swaying of his big thighs, or at best, in a hasty glance to one side, fish in a riot of colors inside the wall of water, as in a marine observatory behind panels of glass.
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