This is a post that was initially going to be a protest post but has now turned into an interesting psak.

The article linked intially said that rabbonim have paskened that this year, because of the virus situation, it is ok to buy chametz after Pesach that had been sold to a gentile, and it called such chametz "chametz she'avar alav et hapesach" - chametz that went through pesach in the ownership of a Jew. Normally such chametz is prohibited from being eaten, but this year it would be ok to buy such chametz and consume it. The catch is that they were using this status, and this "leniency", for chametz that was not owned by a Jew but had been sold to a gentile. They turned the hakpada, or possible chumra, of not buying chametz that had been sold into a halacha that keeps the status of such chametz as being Jewish owned and therefore prohibited and not just a stringency or hakpada. In the article they still use the term "chametz she'avar alav et hapesach", but not as definitively as before.

My protest was going to be that such chametz does not get that status. No matter who wants to be makpid or machmir and not eat such chametz, it remains a chumra or hakpada, but the chametz is not considered as having been owned by a Jew and prohibited.

I guess enough people protested before I could get to it (I see one in the comments on the article) and they changed it.

So now it is just an interesting psak. Here goes.

Kikar is reporting that a group of leading dayanim in Bnei Braq have paskened that people can be lenient this year and buy chametz that had been sold to a gentile for Pesach. The reason is due to the current situation being an urgent and pressing situation that allows for [some] leniencies.

Some people, and I guess it is popular in Bnei Braq, but it is also a custom, or behavior, followed by some in all Haredi communities, are careful to not buy chametz that had been sold for Pesach to a gentile, but to only buy fresh chametz that had been made from flour that had been ground after Pesach.

This year, because of Corona people can be lenient about this.

The reason for the allowed leniency even by those who are normally strict about this is to prevent people from being out too long, more than necessary, looking for food items that meet their requirements. People will end up spending too much time int he stores looking for acceptable food items, and this will cause a danger to the public.

Rav Silman explained that because it is a chumra, a stringency, to not rely on the sale of chametz, in light of the Corona plague, he is canceling his information line about such produced foods so that he will not be seen as encouraging people to go out extra and numerous times to acquire such foods. The current situation is categorized as an urgent and pressing time of need and therefore people can be lenient.

I always enjoy seeing a straight halacha being considered as a leniency, and a chumra or hakpada taken on by some described as the baseline.

We’re all in this together! Over 5,000 People singing 🔸 66 countries 🔸 3 part harmony 🔸 One humanity In collaboration with Facebook IL. For the past three years, Koolulam has been encouraging people to leave their homes, leave their comfort zones, and come create with us. This pandemic has dictated a new reality, but we've taken this opportunity to overcome the obstacles and create together. Where there is creation - there is hope. This video was made with love by: Koolulam Team: Lee Lavie, Lee Goldberg, Yahav Erez, Einav Morgenstern, Noa Shaham, Yaron Eigenstein, Yael Bechor, Lilach Krakauer, Milly Nave, Shahar Reznik, Roman Poretski, Sela Waisblum, Michal Shahaf, Or Taicher, Ben Yaffet. Post Production Team: Yuli Urbakh, Tom Uziel, Gosha Demin, Tom Madar, Peleg Levi, Jenny Danilenko, Jesse Eigen, David Beit Halachmi, Nitzan Tsifroni, Michal Tamari, Dov Entin, Yonatan Danino, Shani Louzon, Gal Taicher, Tali Taicher, Galya Azulai - Equipment Rental, Israel Raz, Camelia Freites, Benjamin Newman, Orel Cherno, Ella Vidislavski, Lihi Matatov, Shahar Ackerfeld, Tal Nathan, Tami Gur, Hamutal Peles - We Do, Hagar Amsterdam, Muki - Rafsoda Studios, Mikey Talpalar, Suzanne Eigenstein, Gidi Eigenstein, Kaspit Artist Management. Koolulam is a social-musical initiative, meant to bring together people from any and all walks of life. Our Idea is to simply stop everything for a few hours and just sing - together.

beautiful

pic.twitter.com/NtrhOR9nDz

— liat arzi (@05w2mJWqytTqdCV) April 19, 2020

Considering the many heterim to allow one to listen to music even during sefira during these days of social distancing, I will be posting music videos, though, obviously, nobody is required to watch and/or listen to them...

Personally I do not consider rap to be music, perhaps a form of poetry but not music and song, but here goes one I have been waiting to post..

Mother Cries Out From Corona Hotel: "My Children Have Nothing To Eat!"

  -- Kikar


Yeah, my kids have been complaining all day and night for weeks already about having nothing to eat as well...

Just joking. The article claims mistreatment and lack of food, spoiled food and whatnot. Seriously, if the State is going to sequester people away in isolation, they really need to take care of them decently as well.. There is no excuse for this. It cannot possibly cost too much to be possible. And if they don't have the money for it, find a different solution.

I appreciate that people want to get back to their normal routines. So do I. People want, and need, to get back to work. Companies and manufacturing and tourism and everything else all need to get back on track or the economy will be destroyed. People want/need to get back to shuls, yeshivas, kollels and their places of Torah and prayer. Kids need to get back to the school and their education.

I am worried though that the decisions being made are more out of social frustration and political pressure. Fewer and fewer people anyway are keeping to the rules. Minyanim are rampant, and many are not keeping to some or all of the rules (even without taking into account the rule of no minyan), people are walking outside and playing or relaxing in the parks, and in what might be possibly the worst of all hey are talking negatively about the government imposed lockdown. Political pressure is coming at Netanyahu from all sides - the Haredi Ministers are pushing him for minyanim and larger minyanim, some are pushing him for mikvas, some for yeshivas, others ministers are pushing for more businesses to be allowed to open, others for special ed, others for daycare, and the pressure is clearly just too much.

From the tight lockdown to all the new eased regulations seems like a pretty big jump to me and I suspect a lot of the decisions were made for other than medical reasons.

I think a lot of this was also a result of the protest in Tel Aviv a few days ago. That was bad imagery and a lot of people were saying if such large protests are ok, why is minyan not ok?, why cant I go to work?, etc..

Follow the rules, and if you must go out, do so safely and please adhere to the rules. We are not even two weeks from Pesach yet and while we will hopefully not see a holiday spike in infections, we really have no way to know as of now. Personally, we are preferring to stay in as much as possible, pretty similar to what we have been doing the past 4 or 5 weeks, but if you feel otherwise, please keep to the strictest regulations as carefully as possible. the virus does not care about sector or political pressures. If you come into contact, you can spread it or catch it, whether you know it or not.

Ordering the schools to suddenly restart with distance learning was irresponsible and a bad decision.
The Ministry of Education, under orders from the Ministry of Health and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), and whoever else is in charge of the Corona mess, should have instructed the schools under its authority weeks ago to prepare for distance learning, if they were not going to do it themselves knowing that this would be necessary.

All beginnings are difficult. It would be expected to encounter some difficulties with a new system. That is fine. But starting from scratch on the day that it is all supposed to happen is irresponsible. Starting from scratch all on the day it is supposed to happen means the schools have to create multiple accounts for the various classes and sessions, the teachers have to learn a new system that they are not familiar with, get it installed and working, get the links out to the students and begin. Add to that issues like in the more Haredi or Haredi Leumi schools many teachers dont know how to use computers, don't have computers, don't have smartphones, and definitely don't know how to use Zoom, and it compounds the problem.

And that is just from the school side. Then there is the parents side.

Parents, who might also be trying to work, have to get often multiple kids set up with devices that can use Zoom or whatever medium is being used, and make sure everything works. Families that have multiple school-age children with online sessions, but maybe only have one extra computer for the kids, or one extra phone - how are all the kids supposed to join the sessions, that suddenly were ordered upon them? Even if they had the money to go out and buy computers and tablets and phones, which most probably do not, just for this, that also takes time, and so many stores are nto even open or are running low on stock.

That is all besides for the issues of then getting everything to work right and the Internet being able to handle the load.

They said attendance is mandatory, and I have no idea what that means. I am happy they are trying, and I am happy it will give the kids something educational to do with part of their day, but this needed better planning. I hope it all gets figured out within a few days and we'll look back at this and laugh.

Kudos to the schools that worked in advance to get it at least partially, if not completely, prepared and ready, and kudos to all the wonderful educators for trying, but the Ministry of Education needs to do a better job.

Photo Credit: Ofer Vaknin

Dr Abed Zahalkha who works at the corona ward in the Maaney Yeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak brings in the Sefer Torah for the few people who are still allowed to pray with a minyan in Israel


hmmmm... he doesn't look like an Arab... :-)