Q&A: Things Written on the Blog About Rabbi Kanievsky
Things Written on the Blog About Rabbi Kanievsky
Question
For the readers’ information, these are things written by Michael Abraham about Rabbi Kanievsky during the outbreak of the coronavirus period (exact quotations):
“Again and again I am astonished by the phenomenon of how a rational society in the twenty-first century, many of whose members are excellent scholars with impressive analytical ability and both feet on the ground, obeys two detached figures like Rabbis Kanievsky and Edelstein, when it has been proven before all the world that they do not have the faintest clue about the world in which they live. This instead of sending them off to repentance in exile until the end of their days. These two rabbis are directly responsible, by their own words, for people’s deaths and illness (unintentionally, of course), and for a terrible, horrific desecration of God’s name the likes of which we have not seen. Are there more severe sins in the Torah than murder (unintentional but bordering on intentional) and mass desecration of God’s name?”
“In our case, Rabbi Kanievsky also bears guilt for the results and not only responsibility, because the instructions were given with the understanding that these consequences were expected, and he did not uphold them. Even if he foresaw otherwise due to his negligence, that is guilt and not only responsibility.”
“The ‘sane’ Lithuanian mainstream, like the sect led by Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky.”
“I think that in recent days it has become clear that the words of Rabbi Kanievsky and his colleagues carry no significance whatsoever, certainly on these matters. They are simply fed by rumors.”
Michi is being asked whether now there is any feeling of sorrow or regret.
Answer
Absolutely not. Every word stands. Now is not the time to get into the less heroic aspects of Rabbi Kanievsky.
Discussion on Answer
I’d appreciate a short transcription for those who are blocked.
In any case, regarding the harsh criticism voiced against him when he asked to keep the Talmud Torah schools open (and at the time it also seemed puzzling to me), two years later most of the decision-makers in the education and health systems admitted they had gone overboard, and some of them even agree with him.
As I explained, even if that were true, it’s not relevant.
By the way, for some reason after a while he also fell into line. Apparently he lost his “Torah insight” / prophecy.
Hold yourself back. Write this disgusting response after the seven-day mourning period.
Precisely on this point, in retrospect it’s clear that Rabbi Kanievsky and the rebbes were right. Today it’s obvious that all the bizarre Health Ministry guidelines that changed every moment weren’t based on anything. Nobody knew anything about the virus, and they tried every measure they thought might help. It neither improved anything nor worsened anything.
So little by little each sector started standing its ground and insisting on what was important to it, and credit to the rabbis who stood up for what was important to their sector. And all those who prattled on about “and you shall guard yourselves,” “murderer” were left speechless. And even if there are those who will never admit their mistake (like Rabbi Michi), they know they were wrong, and badly wrong.
Such is the way of Torah according to Michi:
With a mask you shall cover your mouth, and in a corner of the house you shall shut yourself in, and to the instructions of the Health Ministry you shall listen, and in Pfizer propaganda you shall labor, and faithful is your prime minister to pay you the reward for your actions.
About that it was said: “My father chastised you with whips…”
I’m curious whether Michi would now use those same angry expressions about people who today aren’t careful to wear a mask exactly up to the point where the ever-changing government instructions stopped.
When there are vaccines and the experts think things can be opened up, then you open up. When not, it’s murder.
And that was the reality then—they brought murder into the world, nothing less. They also got their public used to the idea that they have different rules from the rest of humanity. Part of the price was Meron and Karlin. We’re above the law, above the experts…
Either way, he acted without authority and without knowledge on the subject. And they literally brought death upon the people…
And He is compassionate…
With God’s help, 20 Adar II 5782
To the honorable recipient—greetings,
During the panic at the beginning of the coronavirus days, when the economy was still open with restrictions, the policymakers rushed to shut down the education system and send all the students home, out of a distorted conception that education is a second-tier need.
What Rabbi Kanievsky understood from the very start took the “experts” time to understand: that sending students away with no framework carries many dangers, psychological and physical, for students left idle without an educational setting—dangers no less serious than the damage of coronavirus.
Therefore Rabbi Kanievsky rightly demanded that the education system continue operating with necessary restrictions—small classes, mask-wearing, and social distancing—just as food industries and supermarkets operated even during the strictest lockdowns. Is spiritual nourishment worth less than physical nourishment?
After all, in a supervised educational setting it is possible to maintain coronavirus distancing much better than in crowded homes, which inevitably create a situation in which children roam the streets unsupervised, exposed to physical and emotional dangers.
“Medical experts” know “everything about everything” in the narrow field in which they work, and even they didn’t exactly know—and even today don’t really know—how to deal with the coronavirus virus that deceives them morning and evening. But they are not so aware that there are human beings, parents and children, with emotional and mental needs, and that upsetting the routines of their lives, whether the educational institution or even the workplace, may be devastating for them.
Rabbi Kanievsky was the “Nachshon” who dared to “bang on the table” and clarify that education is a first-rate essential need, one that must not be closed; rather, solutions must be found to operate it in the safest possible way, while encouraging vaccination, insisting on masks and avoiding crowding, and no less, preserving the “mental hygiene” of maintaining normal life routines.
With blessings, Yaron Fishel Ordner
He wasn’t the “Nachshon”; I think the Belzer Rebbe preceded him.
Without regard to what kind of fox they wear on their head,
and regardless of how many took part in the funeral…
We’ll wait patiently for the coming Yom Kippur
Maybe by then the rabbi will retract his grave mistake in understanding reality and admit the truth—they turned a kind of flu into the plague of the century, marketed a dubious vaccine (at best…) as a miracle cure, restricted and choked people’s breathing for no logical reason, abused citizens in a fascist style (bordering on Nazi) when their only sin was not cooperating with the deranged brainwashing.
We’re optimistic and patient…
Alex, are you still managing to talk from inside the gas chambers? Good for you.
See minute 3:30 here https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1004950446723781