Coronavirus

Sharon Galper Grossman and Shamai Grossman examine Halakhic sources regarding whether physicians and other healthcare workers have a greater requirement to receive the COVID-19 vaccine than the rest of the population.

How did major segments of Orthodoxy come to devalue the importance of community-wide health? David Werdiger of Australia considers this and more in this insightful exploration of Orthodox responses to COVID.

Responding to Judah Kerbel's discussion of synagogue life after COVID, Yechiel Shaffer argues that the pandemic is a call not simply to enhance synagogue life, but to reimagine it in bold new ways.

COVID-19 will unquestionably have long-term impacts on synagogue life well beyond the duration of the pandemic. But what will change, and how can shul leadership best anticipate those shifts so as to position our synagogues for success in the future? Judah Kerbel, rabbi of the Queens Jewish Center and Ramaz peers through the looking glass.

Many synagogue goers found the abbreviated High Holiday services we recently concluded quite appealing. Need we eventually go back to the way it was before coronavirus? Not really, argues Moshe Kurtz, surveying the substantial halakhic support for shortening the services every year.

Alan Jotkowitz explores how frequently overlooked passages in the writings of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein, and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks can help pave a path forward for us on theological issues in a post-Covid world.

Akiva Shapiro depicts the experience of outdoor prayers during the pandemic.

This year, instead of thinking about the reasons for Jonah’s flight from Nineveh in particular, we can gain a new appreciation for his need to break free altogether. Ahead of Yom Kippur, Erica Brown considers the unique resonance of the book of Jonah in an era marked by isolation and quarantine.

After six months suspended between quarantine, isolation, and uncertainty, it’s natural to want to run away from home, especially as Yom Kippur looms and we realize it’s time for a change. But, as Matthew Nitzanim explains, this understandable reaction would miss the point of Teshuvah: everything we need to work on is right here, wherever it is we find ourselves.

Given the duration of the pandemic, should we suffice with waiting to return to normal, or are there hard-fought lesssons we can reintroduce even once the pandemic passes? Lehrhaus Consulting Editor and Director of Education at Sefaria, Sara Wolkenfeld, uses our recent experiences to gain new perspective on what tefilla, minyan and shul are really all about.