HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein, a member of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah and the Rav of the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood of Bnei Brak, paskened that windows in shuls and other buildings must remain open even in the winter to minimize the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
Several avreichim asked HaRav Zilberstein recently about the issue of keeping windows open during the cold weather when normally if even one person is cold, the halacha is that the windows must be closed. The avreichim asked the Rav to pasken on the correct behavior this winter in light of the Health Ministry’s instructions to leave the windows open. [It should be noted that the winter cold in Israel, especially in Bnei Brak, is very mild in comparison to other countries.]
“The danger of the coronavirus involves pikuach nefesh and therefore we are obligated to leave the windows open during the winter,” wrote HaRav Zilberstein in the psak halacha that was posted in many shuls this week in Bnei Brak and other cities.
“For someone to claim that the cold bothers him and the window must be closed in the winter if it bothers someone cannot be said during this time of the danger of the coronavirus. Whoever is cold should buy a heater. He does not have the right to demand that the windows be closed.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
While I totally agree with the Rav’s psak as a matter of logic and public health, I was a bit skeptical of the visuals of hundreds or thousands of ehrliche yidden in BB schlepping portable heaters to shul and trying to find an outlet near their shtender to plug in. (w/o tripping all the circuit breakers). Also, could these hearers be hooked up to a time clock for shabbos w/o worrying about burning down the shul?
Hopefully, the Rav was trying to make an important but symbolic point and perhaps just wearing a sweater under their jackets might be a bit more practical.
The headline is terrible… my first reaction was, what is the Rav talking about? Please amend to indicate the issue is one of Halacha in these difficult times. The way it reads now gives rise to a lack of Kovod HaRav, for which I ask mechila.
winter is the time of dry air which aids in the spread of colds, flue and now the covid. From a view of a veteran heating engineer, windows should remain open to enable a smooth air flow of outside pure air to replace the inhaled/exhaled stale inside air.
How novel. In the Mir, back in the days when it was packed on Shabbos…There would always be someone sitting next to the window insisting that it was cold outside, while the B’M was sweltering hot .
Please transmit this Pesak to some of the old fellows in my Shul, who berate me with having so much Chutzpo to open window on cold day, despite my telling them, that I don’t wish to catch Corona, and they insinuate me as paranoid & crazy & rude and total lack of respect for them.
Where is this alleged halacha to be found, anyway? People keep repeating it, but I am skeptical that it exists, and if it is written somewhere I would suggest that it is based on discredited medical theories and should be ignored just like most “medical halachos” that are not supported by modern medical knowledge.
Since previous commentators have already taken issue with the practicality of this psak, I shall ignore that point and ask – first the editor: where is the source for ‘normally if even one person is cold, the halacha is that the windows must be closed’. I have searched high and low, over many years, and asked numerous rabbonim, yet no one has given me even an unsatisfactory reply. It apparently does not exist. It’s an urban myth.
Secondly, an extremely important sefer called ‘Pis’che Choishen’by Rav Yaakov Yeshya Blau z”l (senior choishen mishpot authority of the Eidah Chareidis), in vol 4, chapter 15, ftnt 3, cites a sefer ‘Hizoharu b’Mamon Chavreichem’ (p 156ff) – which has so far defied all my efforts to identify – that under usual circumstances, the majority decide whether to open or shut windows. The author suggests that if an individual is afraid of catching cold, he should probably rather stay home (Note the ‘suggests’ and ‘probably’).
So, the basic psak has a definite precedent (and certainly a more sensible resolution to the problem), and thus the sole novella is the fact that here we do not have to follow majority opinion, but rather medical opinion – also quite a reasonable judgement.
However, I would really like to know why the Rav is pictured, sitting all alone, wearing a mask. Is he not aware that overuse of masks can cause serious respiratory problems?