Rabbi Zalman Melamed, dean of the Beit El Yeshiva and a senior rabbinic figure in the Religious Zionist sector, called on the public to adhere to health guidelines.
Speaking with Arutz Sheva, Rabbi Melamed urged Israelis to wear masks when in public, to avoid mass gatherings, and to maintain social distance to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
Rabbi Melamed said Jews are obliged religiously to adhere to the health guidelines.
“The Torah says to ‘Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves’ – anyone who wears a mask and maintain social distance is fulfilling a biblical commandment. And anyone who flouts the rules is violating a biblical commandment, one of the most important commandments of the Torah, and is nullifying the commandments of the Torah through his own ignoring of the rules and by causing others to ignore the rules as well.”
Rabbi Melamed blamed the ongoing lockdown and accompanying economic damage on those who fail to obey health guidelines.
“Those who ignore the rules are the ones who cause the schools and all educational institutions to be closed, causing the yeshivas to be closed, causing the factories to be closed – all because of those who don’t heed the rules.”
“If all of us adhered to the rules, life would be totally different. People got sick and died because of those who ignored the rules and didn’t follow the laws of the Torah and the health guidelines, causing people to become seriously ill and, in some cases, to die. That’s why we all must adhere to the health guidelines, observing the commandment of ‘Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves’ – benefiting everyone in Israel.”