There is a consensus regarding the obligation to be vaccinated against corona: "Whoever thinks that the vaccines are unnecessary is completely blind" • Is a man allowed to be vaccinated by a woman?
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The new vaccine
Photography:
Eitan Elhadz / TPS
The question of vaccines, whether for corona or for all vaccines, has become a controversial issue over the years, and there is a phenomenon of people avoiding immunization.
During the Corona plague the question became much more critical, as it is an unequivocal issue of life and death.
As far as the jurists in religious Zionism are concerned, there is no question at all on the subject, and there is an obligation to get vaccinated.
"This is a mitzvah and it is obligatory to get vaccinated," explains Rabbi David Satyu, rabbi of Shoham and chairman of the Tzohar Rabbinical Association. "Because most doctors in Israel and around the world believe that people should be vaccinated and that those responsible for public health call for vaccination."
"Just as a person is obligated to put a railing on his roof, so a person has a duty not to harm himself and others. If we are not vaccinated, hundreds of thousands and possibly millions will die in the world, so there is a clear obligation to get vaccinated - to prevent a reality that harms others," adds Rabbi Satyu.
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the rabbi of Safed, also clarifies that this is a mitzvah.
"It is really a halakhic obligation to get vaccinated," he tells Israel Today.
According to him, it is a mitzvah to be healed, especially people who are in a risk group.
Asked whether to protest against a person who has not been vaccinated, the rabbi replies: "There are many people who are full of suspicions about the risks and the treatment. I think they are wrong, but they believe they are right and I do not think it is right to force. A community can force a person to get vaccinated. And you did not go to protest in person. "
Rabbi Eliyahu emphasizes that Halacha considers vaccines to be a great affirmation, noting "there is no denying the fact that life expectancy has risen from 40-50 to 80 since the invention of vaccines and small children survive much more, by tens of percent. Therefore, a complete blind person who thinks vaccines are unnecessary. "The funerals of young children who have died because their parents did not want to vaccinate them. I wish me and the public not to have the mitzvah of accompanying this dead. It is a terrible thing, an experience that I do not wish on anyone."
"Although I believe it is a mitzvah and a duty to get vaccinated, because the state does not require it, it is not possible to force a person to get vaccinated," says Rabbi Satyu.
"After all, in things that are really harmful, the state does not give the citizen the opportunity to choose," he says, citing as an example various safety rules, including the obligation to license a vehicle and driving.
"If that was the case, then the public should also have commented on a person not to get vaccinated, but that is not the state's position and therefore we can not aggravate. All this, of course, while those who do not get vaccinated keep all the rules and expulsions. In it and prevent him from reaching the synagogue. "
The large-scale vaccination campaign that Israel is expected to enter in the near future raises complex halakhic questions.
Is it allowed to get vaccinated on Saturday, for example.
For the rabbis in most cases the answer is no, but there are exceptions.
"Except for cases of mental supervision of a particularly ill person, which may save him, there is no Shabbat space on the vaccine because all in all, it is seen that it is possible to endure. There is no real danger to life here," Rabbi Eliyahu ruled.
Rabbi Satyu agrees with him: "Most of the public has no question, because the state itself has to this day been satisfied with masks, hand washing and removal, which means that it is not a matter of mental supervision because it is possible to manage without the vaccine."
At the same time, the rabbi says: "There are two exceptions to this that require a rabbinical question - people at very high risk or people in nursing homes, as well as doctors who treat corona patients. Here vaccination should indeed be considered on Shabbat, because of the special condition of these people."
Can a man be vaccinated by a woman?
Rabbi Eliyahu: "There is a modest possibility of vaccinating a man by a woman and a woman by a man. This is the rule in the entire medical system and so it is here.