As if the country did not have enough to deal with, it seems as if Swine Flu is making Israel INSANE!
Yesterday we reported that Israeli rabbis had effectively banned people from kissing mezzuzot for fear of spreading the dreaded disease.
Last week dozens of Israeli kabbalists and rabbis (including the one above) flew over the country blowing traditional shofars and chanting sacred texts in order to ward off Swine Flu — which has killed seven Israelis so far and infected 2,000 more.
Rabbis have also banned sharing communal wine cups during prayer services, and Yeshiva boys are being asked to not shake the hands of visiting students for fear of further contamination (the diseases has hit yeshivas hard because of their crowded living conditions).
Not it appears as if Israeli rabbis are taking their anti-swine flu campaign even further by calling for a nation-wide “day of fasting” next week in order to ward off the evil which has overtaken their country.
Two leading rabbis — Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Israel’s chief rabbi of the country’s Sephardic Jewish community, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the ultra-Orthodox, coalition Shas party — say the national fast is needed because Israelis brought the swine flu upon themselves due to their sinful, naughty ways.
The disease has traveled from Mexico around the world and now to Israel because of “Israelis’ many sins”, the rabbis say.
Nice move — invoking good old-fashioned Jewish guilt!
So this week — from sunset Tuesday to sunset Wednesday — the rabbis are calling on all Israelis to not eat and pray and meditate deeply. If Israelis can’t do that, then they should at least commit to a day of silence. And this should all be augmented by the clean-freak initiatives already mandated.
As anyone who’s ever been to Israel, knows Israelis or is even kinda/sorta down with the Jews, the rabbis’ plans are nothing if not impossible.
No Jew — and certainly no Israeli — could survive a day (expect maybe Yom Kippur) nosh or talk free!
Talk and eat — that’s what Jews do.
We pray the Rabbis come up with a better plan.
We’re also keen to see if this silence/fasting extends to New York — where the Israeli Rabbis have lots and lots of followers.
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