Rabbi Gershon Edelstein
Rabbi Gershon EdelsteinPhoto by Yaakov Naumi/Flash90

Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, one of the heads of the Ponovezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak and President of the Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of the Degel HaTorah organization, is considered one of the leaders of the Lithuanian-haredi community.

In his latest Torah class, he discussed preparations for the Passover seder. He noted that this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, everyone must prepare a seder in his own home, with no guests invited, and that nobody is to be a guest in another person’s home.

“On Seder night this year, it is forbidden to invite even a single person. It is forbidden to go anywhere else, and forbidden to invite others [to one’s own home]. It’s dangerous. Everyone needs to be at home, in his own home, and not leave his home,” he pronounced.

On conducting the Seder, Rabbi Edelstein said, “In the Gemara (Talmud), we see [the option of] a person holding a seder by himself. He asks himself ‘Mah Nishtanah’ (the Four Questions). He poses the questions to himself, and then he answers them himself.”

Rabbi Edelstein added that it is forbidden to pray in a minyan (quorum of ten men): “There is no communal prayer [now], no Torah reading, because everything is dangerous.”