Rabbi Silberstein ruled: "One should not pray for a sick person who walked without a mask""

October 12, 2020   

In a ruling issued by the rabbi of the Ramat Elchanan neighborhood in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein, and one of the greatest halachic arbiters of our generation, he states that there are cases in which one should not pray for a person who walked around without a mask on his face - and fell ill with the coronavirus. Thus, he was asked: In a certain synagogue, verses of Tehillim are recited for the sick by a righteous scholar, who also serves as a mohel, and many present him with names to pray for. And here is one of the worshippers who is not in good health, arrives at the synagogue without a mask on his face. Even when several of the worshippers and the T.A.H. in question approached him and asked him to wear a mask on his face, he flatly refused. The T.A.H. said to him: You are losing yourself in your hands, and if you fall ill, do not come to me so that I may pray for you! After a few days, that man did indeed fall ill with the coronavirus, and was even hospitalized in serious condition. His family members asked the Torah scholar to pray for him during the vows he was making. The Torah scholar said that he did not want to pray for him, "because we warned him that he was losing his mind and that he would not come to me to pray for him." The scholar asks: Is he right in refusing to pray for this patient? The gaon Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein replied: "The scholar is not right. After all, the patient was not in good health to begin with, and perhaps was not even completely clear-headed. In addition, since there is great confusion, some people believe that there is no need to wear a mask and there is great confusion in the world. The 'Minchat Elazar' discusses whether a person who put himself in danger in order to save his property and was miraculously saved should recite the benefactor's blessing, and it states that there is no need to recite the benefactor's blessing. An incident occurred with a Jew who traded in precious stones and was walking down the street with a bundle of stones in his hand. Suddenly, a robber armed with a weapon appeared and tried to steal the bundle from him. Although the Jew knew that the robber had a weapon, he did not hand over the bundle but began to run away at a dizzying pace. The robber shot and failed to hit him. The Jew came to us and asked whether the benefactor should recite the benefactor's blessing. We told him that he was a savage for putting himself in danger, because by law he was obliged to hand over his money and not endanger himself, and therefore the benefactor should not recite the benefactor's blessing. Also in 'Lev Chaim' The great Rabbi Chaim Pelaji wrote that a person who drank the elixir of death and took a risk, and the doctors managed to save him, does not recite the benediction of the redeemer because he brought the trouble upon himself and with his own hands. Nevertheless, Rabbi Chaim Pelaji ruled that the benediction of the redeemer benediction.