An Inconvenient Ruling - of Daas Torah

R' Chaim Kanievsky (Haaretz)

I have to wonder what justification antivaxxer Charedim have for their opposition to what their own Daas Torah has mandated. It would seem to go against the very essence Daas Torah - which they define through their rabbinic leaders.  And yet R’ Chaim Kanievsky, a man who is perhaps the undisputed rabbinic leader of the non Chasidic Charedi Jewish world is not only ignored by them, he has been threatened with death by some of them for his ruling.  VIN reported the following today: 

Rabbi Chaim Kanievski issued a dramatic new ruling on Monday, calling on the heads of Talmud Torahs and schools to vaccinate children against coronavirus in their school systems. In a letter written in response to a query by educators, Rabbi Kanievski responded that “they should arrange for vaccinations to take place in the Talmud Torahs and children should be vaccinated.”

I don’t know how anyone can call themselves Charedi – or even religious at any level when threatening R' Chaim for Paskening that way. But this is exactly what is happening. And yet it appears that he is doubling down on his message. As I recently noted, R’ Kanievsky was shown the science and he ruled accordingly.

Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zweibel (Agudah)

Bearing this Psak in mind I also have to wonder why Rabbi Chaim Dovid  Zweibel complained so bitterly when the city of New York mandated that all teachers - whether in public, private or religious schools - must be vaccinated or be barred from teaching. 

(I happen to like Rabbi Zweibel. He is a true Shtadlan  - an activist who works tirelessly on behalf of American Jewry in his capacity as the head of Agudath Israel. He has accomplished a lot. And I thank him for that as we all should. But I do not agree with him here at all.)

It’s true that he did not make those comments in his role as executive Vice President of Agudah. He made them in his role as Chairman of the Committee of New York City Religious and Independent School Officials. But I have to believe that he would not have made them if he did not have the approval of Agudah’s rabbinic leaders.

Now one can always say that Rabbinic leaders do not always agree on matters of public policy. This is true. But at the same time, R’ Kanievsky is considered to be a cut above Agudah’s rabbinic leaders by those leaders themselves. I would have thought that disagreeing with him was not possible. Who, after all, is better equipped to express Daas Torah than R’ Cham Kanievsky? 

When a Gadol of such stature speaks. End of discussion. How do I know? One does not have to go too far back in time to see that.

Rabbi Natan Slifkin had written several books on the subject of Torah and science. For Which he received approbation from a variety of Charedi rabbinic leaders. His approach had long been accepted as legitimate. Making it possible to reconcile the Torah with what science teaches us. 

The Gadol at that time was R’ Elyashiv. Long story short, he ended up banning those books for containing Apikursus. That shocked a lot of the American  rabbinic leaders - some on the Agudah Moetzes - who publicly endorsed those books. One of whom was R’ Aharon Feldman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Israel. He was so incredulous about it – that he immediately flew to Israel to hear it directly from R’Elyashiv. 

After he did, he removed his endorsement of those books. As did almost every other American rabbinic leader that had endorsed them. What they thought was legitimate was now deemed heresy by the man they considered the Gadol Hador.  

But it appears that they will ignore R’ Kanievsky’s rulings.

I realize that the two issues are not identical. R’ Kanievsky has mandated children to be vaccinated. Rabbi Zweibel is protesting the mandate for teachers to be vaccinated. But the reality is that there is no difference between them. They are two sides of the same coin. We are talking about the means necessary to protect us all from getting sick. 

So I have to ask, why the outrage at a measure that essentially has been endorsed by someone they would clearly say is the most qualified today to express Daas Torah? Is this Daas Torah not as important as the Daas Torah than banned Rabbi Slifkin’s books?