The changing face of religious life

Amid all the mayhem and chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic in Israel, one phenomenon that has been especially noticeable is the effect it is having on the religious community.

To a great extent, Jewish rituals and traditions revolve around community and communal practices, but the highly infectious nature of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease and the way it is spread from person to person has meant that many normative aspects of Jewish life have gradually ground to a halt.

Much of communal Jewish life takes place in synagogues, prayer services are communal, Shabbat and holiday meals frequently include large numbers of people, and religious study is performed in yeshivot with large numbers of students, in groups or with study partners.

Life-cycle events have great religious significance such as brit milah ceremonies, bar and bat mitzvahs, weddings and funerals, and all involve large gatherings.

Indeed, a large percentage of coronavirus infections that occurred in Israel happened in synagogues, while

festive meals over the recent Purim holiday are known to have caused a significant number of infections as well.

And serious questions have even been raised regarding immersion in a mikveh (ritual bath), a critical aspect of Jewish life for religious couples owing to its role in permitting marital relations.

As of Wednesday, prayer in synagogues is no longer allowed, gatherings of more than 20 people for celebrations have been prohibited for some time, and the general public is now barely allowed out of their homes, and when they do go out, they cannot stray more than a few dozen meters away.

The dangers to the religious public have become clear to all in two small, religious towns, Telz Stone, which is ultra-Orthodox, and Efrat, which is religious-Zionist, where around a quarter of each town is under quarantine.