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Union for Traditional Judaism
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UTJ’s Statement on a Halakhic Perspective on Social Distancing

Rabbi Noah Gradofsky’s article written on behalf of the UTJ and published online by The Jewish Week  provides a halakhic perspective toward social distancing.

Although the desire to engage in “appropriately socially distanced” ritual is understandable, we believe that halacha calls for a different approach. Halacha is famous for applying a great deal of stricture “lest one thing lead to another.” The very first mishnah of Pirkei Avot teaches עשו סייג לתורה – make a fence around the Torah — and rabbinic literature is replete with praise for those who act לפנים משורת הדין – beyond the letter of the law. …

[W]e believe that the right approach to social distancing is to do our best to avoid all nonessential public interactions lest those interactions lead to dangerous failures of social distancing. We should all be erring on the side of caution in this regard.

Read more at https://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/to-protect-life-during-a-plague-build-yourself-a-fence/

A version of this article, co-written by Mitch Morrison, also appeared in the Jewish Link at https://jewishlink.news/features/38065-jewish-law-and-social-distancing.