the Old City of Jerusalem is mostly being sealed off, with residents allowed entry and some access to the Kotel. This is Jaffa Gate being sealed shut.

Besides for the medical issues, which are obviously the most important right now, this is really going to be a disaster for a lot of people very quickly in a financial sense. People are losing their jobs, companies are freezing operations and sending employees on unpaid vacation, companies are shutting down, clients of freelancers are curtailing operations leaving freelances with fewer clients if at all - so many people are suffering immediately and it is getting worse in the short term. I don't know how we are going to deal with this crisis in the near future.

Calls for increased tzedaka because of all the people suffering are important. But personally I am worried and hesitant to increase my tzedaka. Just the opposite. My clients are suffering, some are already not functioning at all. I cant go out and make calls to my clients, though some work I can still do remotely. I am not sure how I can be galvanized to give more to this one or that one who is in trouble when I see my own income suddenly dropping drastically, and not sure how the future will look. AN dit is not just me. We are putting out calls to help this one or that one who lost a job, who was sent on unpaid vacation or whoever, but so many of the people we are appealing to are also struggling or are worried they soon might be. I am not saying do not give tzedaka, and I am not saying we shouldn't appeal for tzedaka. Everybody should do what they feel is the right thing to do, but it is concerning to me, and I feel bad about it.

I am not the most pedantic about minyanim and not the biggest fan of davening. I go to shul, but sometimes I daven at home if it doesnt work out. I am not one of the guys who will do everything possible and even impossible to make sure I find a minyan wherever I am. I also generally look for fast minyanim when possible. Now that I can't go to shul, because I consider it unsafe, I am suddenly missing it a bit. I feel bad that so much tefilla btzibur is being cancelled and is unavailable, even if there are still a few minyanim taking place with some people who are insisting on it. I wonder if I will come out of this with more of an appreciation for shul.

With fewer and fewer activities being available to us and being required to stay at home except for the most urgent of needs, more and more people will find their way to get out in going to the supermarket - even if just to see people and to get out and do something. The supermarket is now one of the last places we are still allowed to be going to. I don't know if people will be buying more (though they probably will be), but the stores might be busier, more crowded, and more dangerous for spreading the CoronaVirus.

Not having a good schedule while not having much to do is getting difficult. So far most of my activities have been curtailed over the past few days, and that leaves me spending too much time wandering around the house in tshirt and shorts, eating nosh, not exercising, and looking for excuses to go out to take care of "essential needs". Yes, I am learning with my son a bit, and helping kids with their school work, but that is a small portion of a mostly very dull day. For somebody who was always very much set in some sort of routine, even if not particularly rigid, the current situation is unsettling. Yes, I know I can get myself into a routine even when cooped up, and I will try to, that will include exercise, children, fresh air, learning, reading, and wasting time on the Internet and social media - I have to be conscientious about it.

Having kids home all day instead of in school - besides for the noise and fighting and fun of us all hanging out together, they are eating us out of house and home! They are always hungry! This is insane! And they are not even all teenagers!

This is interesting. Kikar is reporting that the Eida Hachareidis is protesting the plan of Defense Minister Naftali Bennett to take over some hotels and convert them into holding centers for people with light cases of CoronaVirus and cases of quarantine due to exposure. the people sent to stay in these hotels will, presumably, have to stay a few weeks while they recuperate and then be released.

Some of the people placed in these hotels are Haredi, and according to the complaint, the hotels have not been prepared in an appropriate way for frum people, especially with Pesach coming.

The Eida is requesting, form anybody who is in a position to help, that separate hotels should be prepared for frum people requiring it. These hotels will be prepared in a way appropriate for them, with mehadrin standards of kashrut, especially for Pesach during which people adhere to extremely strict standards. Additionally, the atmosphere is a problem and it should be ensured that the atmosphere be appropriate, especially since the Eida has no oversight over these places.

They conclude their letter saying that they will only tell, instruct, people to go to these hotels if the demands are met and these arrangements made.

I actually think that last part is the kicker. They want the business or supervising these Mehadrin Hotel Coronas, and that is what they are angling to get.

Whether or not that is correct, the request itself is interesting, though not unusual. The Eida, and most of the Haredi community, has made their lives all about self-isolation from the broader community. They don't want that to change. The request they are making fits right in with that.

That being said, instructing people to not go to such hospitals if the demands/requests are not met, is problematic. The country is dealing with a serious situation. You can make a request, but you are going to prevent people form getting treatment if the request is not agreed to? You are demanding the State put out more resources for this and are going to gamble with pikuach nefesh to force their hand? Regarding kashrut I am sure the State will agree to provide mehadrin kashrut - they do everywhere else this becomes an issue. Arranging separate centers is a much bigger deal.

Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef paskened today that everyone should leave their cellphones turned on over Shabbos - even those who have not been checked and tested for CoronaVirus and are not waiting for results.

The reason every person should leave the phone on is to be available in case it is discovered someone he or she was in close contact with tested positive for COVID-19 and he has to be contacted to go into quarantine because of that exposure. The Health Ministry representatives would need be able to reach such people to inform them of the need for quarantine.

As well, cars should be sent around the religious and Haredi neighborhoods with bullhorns announcing quarantine requirements, should it be necessary.

In addition, the shuls must all be shut and locked and people should daven at home, both on Shabbos and during the week. The shul has become a dangerous place of exposure and there are people more susceptible and more in danger and at risk.

Rav Dovid Yosef, rav of Har Nof and member of the Council of Sages of Shas, has also called for the shuls to be shut down and for people to daven at home. Many other rabbis have said the same, while some say if a shul can work out a minyan with complete adherence to Ministry of Health guidelines, such as only 10 people with each person no closer than 2 meters form the other, it is ok to have such a minyan.
source: Haredim10, Kikar

Regarding the cellphone, I am not sure why such a psak is needed. I was not aware of an obligation to shut off one's phone for Shabbos. I leave mine on but set it on silent mode. The psak should be more specifically about answering the phone should it ring, as Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein paskened yesterday

The Israeli Foreign Ministry earlier put out a call to Israelis to come home now or be stuck and Israel will be unable to save them should there be a need. The issue is the CoronaVirus and the cancellation of most flights, combined with Israel shutting down its borders and points of entry.

This is the first time, as far as I know, in history since the foundation of the State of Israel in which it will not let Jews come to Israel. Return of Law or not, until this crisis will have passed, Israel will not eb open to Jews from around the world, in distressed situations or not.

This crisis is causing a lot of firsts...

The critical situation around the world and in Israel has generated a number of interesting piskei halacha, some of which have already been posted here. Here is another one.

Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau has paskened that anybody who has had to postpone a scheduled wedding, due to the COVID-19 crisis, will be able to have the wedding during sefiras haomer, when it is normally customary to not have weddings. Rav Lau explained that he is allowing this as a one time allowance, not for future years. Also, it will only be allowed during parts of the Omer in which some communities allow weddings (as far as I know, that would allow the entire Omer, as each part of the Omer has some people allowing weddings).

Rav Lau explains that pushing off weddings is a very difficult and damaging thing. Rav Lau says he told people not to push off the chuppa but to hold a very small event with a small number of attendees and get married, and if necessary have a party later with the friends when the crisis blows over. He is still encouraging engaged couples to get married before the holiday. However, some cannot or will not, and the crunch time because of the Omer will cause too long a delay and therefore he has paskened to allow weddings during the Omer for affected couples.
sources: Kikar, Actualic

Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, rav of Ramat Elchonon neighborhood of Bnei Braq, issued a psak today in which he discussed the issue of Corona and Shabbos observance.

The issue under discussion is someone who was suspect for possibly bearing the CoronaVirus and had to be tested to confirm one way or the other. Shabbos is coming and the results of the test are on the way. Come late Friday night - the Health Ministry representatives receive the results of the test and need to immediately inform the person if he has COVID-19 or not. It cannot wait - if he has it, he has to immediately go to the hospital, into quarantine, stay away from everyone else.

So they call the guy who is waiting for results. But that fellow is a frum Jew who will not answer the phone on Shabbos. So he goes the entire Shabbos along with his regular schedule - davening in shul, daf yomi shiur, other shiurim, the Shabbos meals, a walk with his family, whatever. Only after Shabbos does he discover that he has Corona, and in the meantime he has exposed and possibly infected dozens of other people.

Rav Zilbershtein paskened that a person who had to be tested for COVID-19 MUST answer the phone on Shabbos to get is results immediately. He should answer with a shinui, by using the backs of his two hands if it is a landline phone, or on his cellphone hit the "answer" button with the back of his left pinky (or right, if a lefty).

If the results are positive, if he has CoronaVirus, he must go immediately to the hospital, ON SHABBOS, for treatment and quarantine. Without any delay.

If there is a need to announce to a neighborhood that they need to go into isolation due to someone local being discovered to have Corona, a PA system can be used and driven around the neighborhood, or any other method deemed necessary, and it should be done by a non-Jew.

May we all have a quiet and healthy Shabbos.

these shiurim were given by Rav Zeev Cohen of Adas Yeshurun in Chicago


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stop this spread, and also stop the spread of COVID-19 by social distancing according to the regulations set forth by the official health organizations wherever you are...