Bnei Brak, Israel – The swine flu scare has prompted one of the leading spiritual figures of the ultra-Orthodox world to change one of Judaism’s time-honored traditions – that of drinking wine together from the same glass.
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Rabbi Yaakov Aryeh Alter, seventh and current rabbi of the Hasidic dynasty of Ger, instructed his disciples in Jerusalem a few weeks ago to toast with individual and disposable plastic cups containing a few drops of wine from the rabbi’s own glass.
Hasidic Jews have toasted from the same cup at events and meals for at least 200 years.
The rabbi, who heads the largest Hasidic group in Israel, is known for his sensitivity to health issues. A few years ago, when Israel was gripped by the avian flu scare, he refrained from eating eggs until he received ones specially-imported from abroad.
Sources close to him say that his latest decision about toasting was in no way meant to protect his own health, but that of the thousands of people who follow him.
Yeshiva students who recently came from the United States and sought to meet the rabbi were asked by his aides not to shake the rabbi’s hand when they see him in his Bnei Brak home.
A popular story about the rabbi’s grandfather, Abraham Mordechai Alter – the dynasty’s second head and a prominent writer and ruler on religion – says that when he visited Israel in the early 1900s, he rebuked a man who hesitated about drinking from the communal glass of wine.
“A hundred Jews sipped from this glass, and yet you think the wine isn’t clean enough,” the popular legend quotes him as saying to the germophobe.
So far, Israel has had more than 750 confirmed cases of the virus, many of whom frequent of the crowded seminaries of the ultra-Orthodox public.
Alter is not the only ultra-Orthodox leader to take precautions. Other spiritual leaders and yeshiva heads are reportedly weary of the prospect of infection in their institutions.
This concern is also reflected in Haredi media, though they prefer the term “Mexican flu.” The Health Ministry, under Deputy Minister Yaakov Litzman from United Torah Judaism – who is known to be Alter’s right hand man – calls the virus by its scientific name, H1N1.
Great! Hishtadlis has to be done. And the rest we leave for fashem!
What’s next, no more mezizah be’peh?
typical left wing paper cant give any info over right.
Why do we have to wait for swine flu, any first grader knows that drinking from the same glass is unsanitary. Being a Rebbe doesn’t prevent you from transmitting germs and bacteria.
they should have stopped this nonsense a long time ago,and what about the idiotic shreyem?
with his reasoning we should stop metzitza bpeh too which is exactly what many rabbonim have been saying for ages. bout time someone is waking up
I stopped that shtick ages ago & everyone thought I was being “kalt” and modern.
i think Shurayim is a greater danger than a glass of wine.
I mean, wine has alcahol which would kill some germs.
But shuryaim whichis passed from hand to hand mouth to mouth, and its gefilte fish, its salmon, its challah and its kneidlech….
I am all for shurayim and sharing cups… but choose the greater danger!
I also think its commendable for the gerrer rebbe to be responsive to world events.
“one of Judaism’s time-honored traditions”
What???!!!!
Maybe they mean Hassidic tradition, not Jewish.
How about the Herring and Galah?
I somehow feel the world has become much too complicated. I have visions of the rebbitzen running around after kidush at the rebbe’s tisch with a can of lysol spraying disinfectant on the kiddush cup and platter of challah being passed around after ham’otzi.
minhag yisroel torah: these minhagim date back years, however the torah itself says Vnishmartem meoid lnafshoisachem, so its simply the same torah that we follow in the minhagim and when we stop them. but there is no need of making fun of minhag yisroel.
Why can’t he make kiddush and just pour some out before he drinks? I’ve seem ppl do that and since their being yotzeh it shouldn’t be an issue..
i guess that’s why they don’t go to demonstration in regards to chilul shabbos
What’s next…No kissing the mezuza? Each muzuza is handled by so many hands.. Now what????
Have all of those who condem this time honored tradition stopped shaking hands with people, stopped touching door handles, wash your hands constantly, avoid crowded places, etc.
Don’t get overly excited.
Shirrayim is a holy chassidishe minhag that is beyond us to abolish. Please read the Gerrer Rebbe’s words again. Taking wine from his becher and puting several drops into a plastic cup is fine. Obviously he can vouch for his health. The problem arises when all chassidim pass the cup one to another. You can’t possibly know if one of them is ch”v infected with a contagious disease.
Do you kiss the Kosel? Make certain not to ingest a different parson’s tears.
Above all, remember, “shomer mitzvah lo yeida davar ra”.
#23 if I recall correctly Rav henkin z”l claims that you shouldnt kiss the sefer torah with your mouth, only via your tallis. If I remember correctly the Lubavitcher Rebbe of blessed memory never kissed the mezuza only touched it (or at times just looked at it), and also only touched the sefer torah but did not kiss it directly with his mouth!
#40 we do kiss the mezuzah and sefer torah directly with mouth and that i see correctly