Lockdown gatherings ‘disgraceful’, says Mirvis
CHIEF RABBI Ephraim Mirvis has condemned the holding of wedding celebrations or minyanim during the coronavirus shutdown as “indefensible and disgraceful”.
His comments during his address on the weekly Torah portion follows recent incidents including a wedding held in a home in Golders Green and the issuing of a prohibition notice on a synagogue in Stamford Hill.
“When a group of people gather together in a quorum in order to perform a mitzvah such as the celebration of a marriage or the staging of a tefillah [prayer] service in a minyan and it is a breach of law,” he said, “they are endangering their lives, they are endangering the lives of others and they are causing a terrible Chillul Hashem — a desecration of God’s name. It is indefensible and it is disgraceful.”
The Chief Rabbi’s comments followed news this week that police had shut down a steibl in Hackney after complaints of consistent breaches of social distancing rules.
On Monday an officer issued a prohibition notice against the Stroznitz Beis Hamedrash in Chardmore Road for failing to comply with the government’s restrictions.
In his address, Rabbi Mirvis said: “Our shuls are closed, we’re not gathering in numbers to perform the mitzvot that we should within a minyan because we value life, we don’t want the carrying out of mitzvot to present a danger to life.”
The word is ‘‘shameful’’. On Tuesday, thousands of people gathered in the Charedi area of Williamsburg, New York, for the funeral of the Tolas Yaakov Rebbe, Chaim Mertz, who died from coronavirus. This behaviour shamed all of those who took part. The week before, here in Britain, a wedding took place in Golders Green with some 30 guests, dancing, eating and singing entirely oblivious to the rest of the world. This, too, was behaviour that shamed all of those who took part. And then, on Monday, police in Hill were forced to issue a prohibition notice against the Stroznitz Beis Hamedrash steibl after repeated complaints that it had been operating as normal and despite repeated requests from the police for them to stop. This was also behaviour that shamed the participants. There are other similar examples.
Day after day, health and social care workers are risking their lives to care for people with coronavirus. Day after day, we are learning of the deaths of hundreds from Covid-19. Those in our community who flout the lockdown and who ignore the need for social distancing should have those deaths on their consciences because, while they might not be directly responsible, it is this behaviour that kills people. It is this behaviour that allows the virus to spread and it is this behaviour that must stop. In Judaism — Pikuach nefesh — the saving of a life is placed above almost all else. Those who behave like this do not merely treat a central tenet of Judaism with contempt, they treat the rest of the country likewise. They are shameful — and the vast majority of Jews are ashamed of them.