Shavei Shomron Yeshiva head and community Rabbi Yehoshua Mordechai Schmidt today spoke to Arutz Sheva amidst the process of recovering from coronavirus.
Rabbi Schmidt contracted coronavirus and was hospitalized for an entire week while connected to oxygen. He is now staying at home, still connected to oxygen, but hopes within days to breathe on his own.
"On Shabbos Shuva eve they took me by ambulance because I couldn't breathe to Laniado Hospital," he said. "I was transferred to Beilinson. I was hospitalized for a total of a week in the coronavirus ward in Beilinson and on the Thursday before Sukkot I was released, with G-d's help, and I'm starting to recover.
"On Shabbat I didn't feel well, and I called an ambulance and thank G-d in the end I stayed home." He added: "I'm being cared for here at home. The last two days I've felt better. I'm still connected to oxygen and it will take a few more days, but I feel better. It's in the process, I'm getting less oxygen, and I feel much better. In a few more days I hope I'll come off the oxygen here."
He said, "I take good care of myself, I kept to myself very much. In the yeshiva I kept the rules in a thorough way and I didn't infect almost anyone. I walked around with a mask all the time and I didn't walk around much in the yeshiva. We made capsules for the staff and because we were careful, thank G-d there was almost no infection, but my family was infected.
"At the hospital it was just terrible and horrible," Rabbi Schmidt said of his week of hospitalization. "It's a terrible and horrible place. At home I am surrounded by family, people come to the entrance of the sukkah and the entrance to the house, keeping extreme distancing rules."
He wanted to convey a message. "I think one of the most important things in this era is for everyone to unite," he said. "I think we should just have a lot of love for each other. It's not just that we have the four species on Sukkot, the four types all go into the sukkah. We aren't different from each other. I'm not talking about all sectors. I'm talking about religious Zionism."