https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/312408Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, a leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi, has instructed his students to follow the government's coronavirus guidelines and do everything possible to avoid infections, Kikar Hashabbat reported.
In a Tuesday evening class for married yeshiva students, Rabbi Edelstein, who serves as one of the heads of the Ponovezh yeshiva in Bnei Brak, told his students to take the "fourth wave" of the coronavirus outbreak seriously.
"As is known, the coronavirus disease has once again spread in Israel, and this is a dangerous thing for health," Rabbi Edelstein said. "Therefore, we need to know that there is an absolute obligation to keep all of the the rules regarding precautions, to take every known means of being careful, and be sure not to become infected."
He added: "This is a disease that spread and spreads a lot, so I heard, and so it is known. This is an obligation to protect health, 'and you shall guard your lives carefully.' Protecting a person's health [since] a person needs to be healthy, because if he is not healthy, without health, none of G-d's service can be done properly. So we are obligated to be very careful about all of the known precautions that can help us be spared this sickness."
Earlier, it was reported that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, another leading Lithuanian-haredi rabbi, met with coronavirus czar Professor Salman Zarka, to discuss the rise in infections.
During that meeting, Prof. Zarka asked Rabbi Kanievsky for his opinion on the issue of teachers and educators who have not yet received the vaccine, especially those who teach children who are too young to be vaccinated.
Rabbi Kanievsky responded that all teachers and educators have an obligation to get vaccinated, and said that in his opinion, school principals must suspend all teachers and educators who have not received the vaccine.