Setting the Record Straight: Accusing Rabbi Kanievsky of Denying Guidelines Is Narishkeit

May 10, 2020 by Alex Grobman

By Alex Grobman, PhD

In Ha’aretz shortly before Passover, Anshel Pfeffer penned a piece entitled “Inside Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Coronavirus Hot Spots—Where even the Mayor Is Sick” in which he pondered why the hareidi community, especially in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, did not adhere to social distancing and took so long to close their shuls and other religious institutions.

In his article, he singled out Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, considered by many to be the leading authority in hareidi Lithuanian-Jewish society, for having waited too long to order the closing of religious schools and study halls. Without any attributions, Pfeffer maintained that “some say” the reluctance to close these institutions came “at the behest of his powerful grandson, Yanky Kanievsky.”

In point of fact, Pfeffer is wrong. From the outset of the pandemic’s appearance in the Jewish state, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky stressed that everyone should heed the guidelines of Israel’s doctors and the Ministry of Health. When the hareidi Bais Yaakov girls’ educational system was shut down along with Israel’s entire secular educational system, Rabbi Kanievsky did not protest at all.

However, when the subject turned to closing yeshivot and hareidi elementary schools, Rabbi Kanievsky initially argued that halting Torah study would have a more deleterious effect of the country’s collective health than keeping these institutions open would.

Staying within the Guidelines

Rabbi Kanievsky’s first step was to confer with various Israeli officials who told him that classes could be held with no more than ten individuals—children and teachers—present. He then ruled that the now-empty Bais Yaakov schools could be used by the yeshivot so that all classes could be kept to the permitted size.

Most hareidi institutions followed Rabbi Kanievsky’s directives precisely as had been agreed with the Ministry of Health. A few, however, did not. In direct disregard for Rabbi Kanievsky’s constant insistence on following the guidelines put out by the Ministry of Health, a few yeshivoth continued to hold classes as if there had been no measures instituted to safeguard the health of both children and teachers.

In some circumstances, Rabbi Kanievsky went beyond the rulings issued by the Ministry of Health. For example, outdoor prayer groups (minyanim) consisting of ten men and boys over the age of 13 were permitted in Israel. Rabbi Kanievsky, however, after learning about the frightening number of Bnei Brak residents who had tested positive for the virus after blatantly not following the guidelines, ruled that all minyanim were banned in the suburb. Clearly. Rabbi Kanievsky understood not only the need for social-distancing, but he recognized as well the requirement to be more stringent with a group of people who were refusing to abide by the parameters that had been defined by the Ministry of Health.

The Funeral

In March, many Israelis expressed grave concern when they learned that 400 hareidi men had attended the funeral in Bnei Brak of one of the community’s great Torah sages. As it turned out, these hareidim represented a faction that, for the past six years, have openly and aggressively rejected the rulings of Rabbi Kanievsky. In other words, contrary to the opinion promulgated by reporters such as Ha’aretz’s Pfeffer, the rejection of the Ministry of Health’s guidelines did not come from followers of Rabbi Kanievsky.

Throughout the shutdown in Israel, Rabbi Kanievsky issued a number of specific halachic rulings which made clear the severity with which he viewed any flaunting of the Ministry of Health’s guidelines.

For example, under normal circumstances, the act of betraying a member of the community to the police would be strictly forbidden. But in the COVID-19 shutdown, the rabbi ruled that members of the community must inform the authorities about people who were flouting the guidelines and, thus, endangering others. This included people who insisted on attending clandestine minyanim and other group gatherings.

It was pointed out that Rabbi Kanievsky considered a flouter of the guidelines to be a rodef, a halachic term indicating a “pursuer,” one whom other members of the community are obligated to stop before he can hurt innocent people.

Narishkeit

Most members of the hareidi community rejected Pfeffer’s attempt to paint Rabbi Kanievsky’s grandson as “powerful.”

“He is not,” said a source in the community who knows the rabbi and his grandson, Yanky, personally. “He is just very close to his grandfather. He does not call the shots or tell his grandfather what to do.”

The source dismissed Pfeffer’s characterization as “narishkeit, just plain foolishness.”

Alex Grobman, a Hebrew University-trained historian with an MA and PhD in contemporary Jewish history, is senior resident scholar at the John C. Danforth Society and a member of the Council of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East.