NEW YORK (VINnews) — Dr. Stuart Ditchek of New York has emerged as one of the most vocal community members in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Dr. Ditchek has been consistent with his view since the beginning of the outbreak, that in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus, all public and private institutions need to be shut down. And fast.
In his latest video, Dr. Ditchek turns his attention to the Mir Yeshiva of Brooklyn, under the leadership of Rabbi Asher Berenbaum and Rabbi Asher Kalmanowitz.
In his video, Dr. Ditchek expresses grave concern that the Mir Yeshiva remains open at this advanced stage of the spreading Coronavirus, and calls upon all fellow community members to respectfully demand the institution do the right thing and close.
Urgent please- large Yeshiva still open today!!
Posted by Stuart Ditchek on Sunday, March 22, 2020
Now that you finished you NY mitzvahs by Landaus and the Mir it time for you to continue
Your good deeds in Lakewood where some Yeshivah are also still opened.
BTW: NYS Governor gave a news conference this morning for live reporters with Q&A.
We haven’t heard anything about that YET from you!!!
Mir and Pakistani Muslims…bed fellows who rely on “G-d” only, and who ignore the urgent call of their own leaders and medical professionals
But Hey…it was pointed out to me that a footnote on page 414 of the Artscroll Hebrew English siddur darshons Kapitel 91’s opening line, “Whoever sits in the refuge of the Most High…” to say “The person who scorns conventional forms of protection and seeks ONLY the refuge provided by the Most High will find his faith rewarded.”
I checked it…it’s true. Scorn medical advice? Seek ONLY prayer?
Taliban
Fake news they have been closed since last week. The Good Dr said he heard that the Mirrer Yeshiva is open he didn’t investigate for himself before he put out this clip
…Nusach Sefard Artscroll Hebrew English siddur
Did the Mir approve his message first? Why should anyone listen to him? Just because he has been absolutely right so far about all of this does not mean he is still right.
Where are the parents ?
I dont know who is right here but ….
Why is everyone so vocal and loud when it comes to closing our Shuls and Yeshivos ?
Last week, it was legal to have at least 50% of employees in the office and i saw tens of frum yidden on the LIRR and the trains people were all over the streets and the Doctor’s offices, but still the war against having (even legal) minyonim was on !
Dont we realize (and they be right that we must close our Bais Hamedrash) that we should be CRYING to tell anyone to leave the Bais Hamedrash, and its the first time in this long Galus that all the Yeshivas and Botei Medrash are closed in all the sectors of Klal Yisroel ?
Why all this enthusiasm that all the Yeshivas and Minyanim to close down ?
Dr ditchek pls put factual stats to back up the claims of events
If lakewood has similar vent percentages to the rest of the country it would b about 3
Not just Mir. Yeshivah Gedolah in Detroit is still open, too, despite one of the rabbeim testing positive!
We all know that many or most of our community already have this horrible Virus …
And we all know for the vast percentage of Klal Yisroel this virus is not much more than the Flu …
So anyone that is medically impaired (Asthma, heart ailments etc) or the elderly, should be quarantined in a real quarantine (no access to anyone – period) and the rest of us should try to be aware of other people around and keep the distance from others (6 or 8 feet) …
It has not worked trying to quaratine the vast majority of the population … Go to Goldbergs or any Grocery Store in Far Rockaway or the 5 Towns where people are socializing ! And China is no proof that quarantining the vast majority of the population works, because their data is not honest …
This theory of quarantining the full population is only a THEORY … it hasnt worked until now and it wont work either !
Keeping a Shul open with 15 pple is that really going to kill people ?
Hishtadlus aside … and that only a Poisek can decide …
The last time we lost so much Kedusha was at the time of the Churban …
A velt without the Kedusha of our Shuls and Botei Medrashim and Tefilla – and Learning is a different velt to last week when we still had our Yeshivas, our Tefilla and Kedushas Bais Hamedrash which is like the Bais Hamikfash ….
So is the Mir open if yes close them up. If they are closed he owes them an apology.
Let me say this ten times over lest you guys yell at me . No one should go to shul . No one should go to shul even on your block outside.
Now unless you understand why those that are still going are going you are disingenuous and won’t win the battle .
It’s not about being frum about minyan. It’s about people mental well being. People are going crazy being locked up in jail at home . They need that kind of social connection . I am not lessoning the danger but it’s time to address how we can deal with this instead of drs just yelling and screaming .
This Shabbos was a nightmare . What’s your game plan for a 3 day Pesach ? It’s not possible mentally to stay locked in a house despite the dangers . Please address the social issue . If you want to win over people understand why they are doing it .
When it came to emptying the yeshivas shuls and battei medrashim to attend Met Life stadium, why was it so obviously the right thing to do?
Are these new temporary shul closings a metaphysical result of those shul closings ?
Educated Archy March 13, 2020 8:14 am at 8:14 am
It will pass. There are enough kits and everything you need if you won’t panic
just went to Mir it is open ,but very few people inside learning
I don’t understand. Most of our Gedolim Are telling us to follow the instructions of the medical establishment and of the government. So why aren’t we listening to them without complaining and trying to do just the opposite?
This is not a gentle disease, it develops into pneumonia–death by drowning.
The name of the game is that hospitals are limited creations. there are not enough beds and certainly not enough ventilators to save the tsunami of people that are expected to be in desperate need. So you don’t believe there will be a tsunami. Ok wait until next week, or erev pesach. Then it will be so late. Yes, there is possibly a medicine. It also is in short supply and it has know side effects. The idea is for each of us to keep a good distance from each other so that if one is infected (and one does not know if they are until after several days), we will not spread the disease to someone is not infected by coughing their way or even by there talking where some droplets come from their mouth.
Learn from Italy. They waited, the government downplayed. Planned to quarantine the north, tons of people traveled to the south before it was implemented, the whole country needed to be locked down. In Italy there have been so many dead that they have to store the bodies in the churches.
What’s the problem. Learn from home. Do chavrusa electronically. This situation is not going to be forever.
1933- its nothing. Its fake news. My Rav told me we’ll be OK.
2020-Its nothing. Its fake news. My shul is open. My Rav and Dr. Donald told Archie it will be OK. No worries…
Amazing what a little perspective can do…..it was 76 years ago this week that my parents were ordered into the ghetto in Munkatch. No grocery deliveries, Amazon, Glatt mart, Pomegranate, Shopsmart………nothing, just what they could carry. Crammed into crowded rooms, there was no thought of social distancing. The future was bleak and perilous and for most a death sentence awaited. Yet they comforted each other as best they could and shared with those less fortunate. How lucky are we that we can freely communicate with loved ones via electronic media, shop for our needs the same way and use all the various apps and phone services to hear and learn Torah. Bring Yom Tov in early without the last minute crash and burn. Albeit separate from family members, if we are protecting them or ourselves by doing so , it will be sad but glorious when we can iyh sit and look forward to Shavuos together. Just relax, and look to neighbors to see if they need financial help, and we will make this Yom Tov truly different than any other. Indeed, let’s make it so our children will miss the intimacy of this yom tov and say “mah nishtana ” with a few new questions that iyh Moshiach will answer for them. Stay safe.
1) I personally witnessed the yeshiva open this past week as did many thousands.The first floor Bais Medrash is easily viewable from the street level.
2) If what they claim is true that these were a few French dorm dwellers who simply had nowhere to go, don’t you think it is the repsonsibility of the Hanhalla to ensure that the school building is LOCKED so people cannot enter freely during a public health emergency? It seems that the Mir is thus the only yeshiva locally that could not lock their building.
3) I was in a meetinng with two individuals when I received the call that again today the Mir was open. The person that was with me immediately called the main phone number and asked if there will be school tomorrow(the person who anwered the phone assumed he was a parent). His response, “I don’t think so”. As was witnessed by many, just after that a number of talmidim were seen evacuating the yeshiva carrying boxes with personal items. If the yeshiva was closed last week, why were these talmidim only now taking out their personal items? Everybody knows the truth and it is a terrible lesson for the Mir talmidim when their own Hanhalla tells falsehoods after being called out publicly for such a serious violation.
Where was the good doctor when gays got the rights to infect society with AIDS.
Why did he not protest as a doctor.
Where was the good doctor who is a religious Jew when gay marriage was declared legal.
Now suddenly a yeshiva is open or a Shul is open its world war three.
Dear Dear ctor,thank you for being brave and selfless and TRULY caring about your fellow Jew. Please,enough with all the hand wringing about shuls being closed.Hashem wants us to be home now so we must do it bsimcha.
Heshy,
You really seem overly concerned with gays. I have seen many of your posts.
The Dr. is focused on preventing a tragedy in his/our community. The gay issue is not something he can change, I have no idea what you want him to do. What did you do?
What chesed did you do?
Are you helping some older people make Pesach?
Have you done any chesed lately? This year? This lifetime?
As a Mir graduate from the early 1980s, I can tell you that back then Mir had nothing but contempt for civil authority. I see not much has changed.
All the talking that goes on during all parts of davening and krias hatorah and haftorah and kaddish and chazaras hashatz and pesukei d’zimrah and after borchu during birchas krias shema is what has caused us to now lose our ability to daven in shul , MIDAH KNEGED MIDAH . … What we have to do now is daven at home without any interruptions ( including sounds like : ahuh or mmha etc. etc. )
during our davening and our children will learn from our example how to do the same proper davening and Ha-shem will give back our normal shul life . He’ll bring Moshiach in fact . chazak chazak VNISCHAZEK
The Mir closed and sent everyone home last week. Those who were left in the dorm and stay within the yeshiva the entire day were permitted to stay(/self quarantine) within the yeshiva with the approval of the city. No outsiders are permitted in the building.
The yeshiva has doctors they consulted with, along with daas Torah, who approved this.
For those of you who don’t know Dr. Ditchek, his professional and personal life has been dedicated to the welfare of his patients and countless children who suffer from the ravages of genetic familial diseases and cancer. Through his dedication to his practice and Kids of Courage, he has given comfort to so many and inspired others to give of themselves to help alleviate the emotional and physical pain of terminal illnesses. NO ONE should question his integrity or purpose.
Aizehu chochom hu roieh es hanoilad- who is a wise man, he who foresees the future. All Dr. Ditchek is doing is examining the data from China and Italy and extrapolating the potential for disaster and trying to avert it. Understand, he is protesting so loudly because he cares so much. We would be wise to listen.
As to those would attack the “Dr. and his ilk”, is the attack now on all the gedolim, admorim and senior roshei hayeshiva who now advocate for davening and learning beyechidus? Using “jealousy “ as a midah to generate true avoida is a dangerous instrument, for it can be a two edged sword. With a slip, what was meant to be positive could become dangerously negative. Fargin yenem, allow others their deserved reward and choose to emulate, not denigrate.
Real message from rav Chaim
Increase Torah. Only that can end this plaque.
ENOUGH MACHLOKES!!!!!!!! It definitely won’t help anyone….
WHILE I DONT KNOW THIS DOCTOR PERSONALLY
i did hear amazing things about him throughout the years, many of my talmidim have been awed and inspired by him all the years as his involvement with the cholim by us are legendary!
THIS IS FOR ALL THOSE VOICENOTES AND “rabbis” “Doctors”
If you notice it is all the same pundits that are rallying against shuls and yeshivos!! They are never ever recorded anywhere praising these institutions! If you would line up
All the “rabbis” and all the doctors two weeks ago We would be able to tell you exactly which one would maaser or threaten or put out a video.
Of course we should all quarantine
However this public outcry is based on something way way more sinister than Ahavas Yisroel
And if they are legally allowed to stay open ,then stop all this hatred!!!
We know you are not doing this lishmo
Its the old שנאת עם הארץ לתמיד חכם!!!
STOP THE HATE!!!!
Dave
The only hate here is coming directly from YOU!
“However this public outcry is based on something way way more sinister than Ahavas Yisroel
And if they are legally allowed to stay open ,then stop all this hatred!!!”
What a sick crazy lying statement!
The Regs are that all schools even if they have ONE person inside, must be closed …
The “public outcry is based on something way more sinister than Ahavas Yisrarel”
You Baal Loshon Hara ….. trying to save our elderly and our young children from dying is “based on way more etc” ?
You bloody moron ….. you probably never worked a day in your life …you are probably a parasite ….
because only a guy who cares about no one but his big brimmed hat and fancy glasses talks like you ..
You farikteh meshiginer
YOU ARE ALL NUTS!
People really need to check their facts before publicly making announcements. My son has been home from Mir yeshiva since last week and the yeshiva is closed!!! The Rebbeim are giving Shuir on the phone. Please everyone stop arguing.
1) Frum Jews are commanded to violate all but the 3 cardinal sins if there is a potential danger to life.
2) If a medical professional says we should eat on Yom Kippur, frum Jews must eat.
3) If necessary to be mechalel Shabbos, eg to get a patient to the hospital, frum Jews do so.
4) If necessary to eat treif, frum Jews do so.
5) IF virtually every single medical expert in the world, virtually every government, and the overwhelming majority of poskim all agree that we must stay at home and not go to minyan, congregate, etc, for what will clearly be a limited amount of time, we should NOT obey???
We have centuries of experience with plague, and clearcut guidelines, starting wih Bava Kamma 60b, about hiding in one’s home during a plague!
We are smarter than these doctors, scientists, and more holy than our poskim?
Frumkeit is the enemy of Yiddishkeit, as the Alei Shor points out.
THOSE WHO DISEGARD THE INSTRUCTIONS OF OUR RABBONIM AND MEDICAL EXPERTS WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UNTOLD DEATHS HE/SHE CAUSES BY HIS / HER REBELLION, WHICH WILL RESULT IN THE DEATH OF FELLOW YIDDEN, WITHOUT A DOUB
The Mir as a Yeshiva is closed. The building is technically open, but theres about ten people in a room that holds a 1000. No danger whatsoever.
This macho doctor is causing hate among us
Rabbi Moshe Heinemann, in a letter to his congregation writes: I have heard in the name of the Sar H’Torah HaRav HaGaon Ha’godol HaRavChaim Kanievsky shlit”a that this phenomenon that every person is separated from his friend can be found in the Torah regarding the metzora, as it says “He shall dwell alone, outside the camp is his dwelling”. Rashi explains that since his loshon horah separated between a husband and wife and between a man and his friend, so too is he separated. It therefore seems that Hakodosh Boruch Hu is demanding that we improve ourselves both regarding loshon horah and regarding improper interpersonal relationships which result in hatred and division, and that everyone should be trustworthy and forgiving in money matters and other issues.
Now is the time to apply the motto: If you don’t have something nice to say don’t say anything at all.
Apparently there are or were until rosh chodesh a number of yeshivos in monsey that stayed open. What di these farfrumta r”y teach their boys? to go against rabbanim, against health professionals and against the law so what is their torah worth if they are making chillul hashem. How do these holy r”y take responsibility for the lives of their bochurim their own lives which might be more of an issue and the lives of their families??? they sent home boys that got sick but that’s a joke because a person is contagious at minimum of 2 days before they show symptoms. That translates that each boy that got sick exposed all the other boys. What is anyone thinking?? Which parents went along with this and left their boys there?? You understand these are the people that are super machmir on their daled minim and matzos.