Always_Ask_Questions

Syag,
I understand what you are trying to say. And I said what I wanted to say. They are _literally_ in the way when I walk in the street. They are also in the way of my non-Jewish neighbors. And their own relatives and Rabbis. On this note, my contribution to shalom bais isroel is to l’hathila walk on the pavement, where possible, and watch for cars instead of walking around people (not my idea, I saw a friend doing that). Everyone understand the walk-around and most do the same, but why not make it nicer.

I am also not trying to berate anyone here. I am also not counter-demonstrating BLM or shouting “Shabbos” at a Reform temple parking.

I am just trying to discuss with people who share same understanding as I do – and there seems to be at least some, a majority in some places, a minority in others – what is for us to do and understand. In this post, I am skipping questions of daily halakhot – whom to count for minyan, whose shhita to trust, and going to what seems more important – whose Torah to learn?

@Syag, you have a point. I am, thankfully, not in a place where I can access a large random sample of non-maskers. You see online responses as well as I do. I heard several offline ones that are hard to summarize: one saying that those who care, can walk around him; another apparently believe in some conspiracy theories; one saying that there are more people dying in car accidents from the virus. My kids were able to convince this last teenager by quoting the statistics.

Maybe an only coherent argument is a claim that their community has herd immunity. It is also not fully thought-through. If you claim that your community achieved herd immunity, you are saying that your community has already killed and maimed the maximal number of people for this pandemic, with no apparent soul searching.

N0mesorah suggests that most of these people are simply followers. Then, we need to look at the leaders. What are they saying? Are they not able to lead, or are they afraid to lose control of the herd?

re: telescope. More likely something like a protractor or an astrolab to accurately measure angles and convert into distances .. if R Gamliel were to have a telescope, Jews would be not Jews if they would not use it for commercial, if not military, applications. Early use of telescopes in Italy involved watching for long-haul ships to arrive and buying stock.