ISRAEL (VINnews) — On Wednesday, a leading Sefardi Posek blasted those who campaign against the Covid vaccine. According to Kikar Shabbos, Rabbi Bentzion Mutzafi was asked by a student what will happen in Shamayim to those who urge and incite others against the vaccine.
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The Rabbi had a scathing reply, saying, “He will sit with criminal murderers, since the propaganda that he spread prevented innocent people from getting vaccinated, and a result they become sick and hurt for the rest of their lives with problems and complications.”
The Rabbi continued, “We know hundreds of people who refused the vaccine and died at half their life expectancy; their blood is on the heads of the [anti-vaxx] campaigners. Hashem should bless his nation with Shalom.”
According to the report, the Rabbi paskened that as per the Health Ministry’s guidance, his talmidim should receive a fourth booster shot without hesitation.
Last August, an unusual incident took place at a shiur given by Rabbi Mutzafi, in which he argued with a student who claimed (in reference to vaccines) that “the Jewish people are not a laboratory.”
An outraged Rabbi Mutzafi threw the student out. “More than 6,500 people have died,” he said. “Stop with your nonsense.”
In the theoretical event that he’s wrong and if 20 years from now it is unanimously accepted that the Covid vaccines were only harmful, what is the Torah perspective on both this Rabbi and on protestors of Covid vaccine (who typically vaccinated all other vaccines such as measles and cannot be fairly characterized as anti-vaxxer)?
How sad. An uninformed Rabbi on all things Covid, an unfortunately not uncommon phenomenon in Israel. Only in Israel, where information on all things not Pfizer is suppressed when it comes to the virus, can we expect otherwise sane people to promote a fourth (Pfizer) vaccine shot, while the rest of the world (even the WHO) advise against it.
I read elsewhere that Rav Edelstein is receiving Pfizer’s anti-COVID drug, which is basically a very expensive alternative to Ivermectin or monoclonal treatments. Again, only in Israel, where non-Pfizer solutions are treif…
Unfortunately, even a respectable rabbi like this has proved himself naive for the time being. He is basing his simplistic views about the purported safety of the c19 shot on falsified, manipulated and pharmaceutical industry sponsored statistics. This regards both the safety and efficacy of this experimental, and already known to be harmful injection.
How terribly sad about Rabbi Mutzafi – surely an ohev Yisroel and well-versed in HIS areas of expertise, but a totally brainwashed and misinformed zombie -no different than his co-patriots, in regard to anything related to covid vaccine.
Kol HaKavod. May Hashem give his success in all his endeavors. Now let him teach the public to stop smoking. Thousands die from smoking, and hundreds more, innocent victims, die from second hand smoke. Not to mention the suffering , the cost, the losses etc.
rabbi mutzafi does not use the internet. he does not know that the person who invented MRNA does not hold of it.
Let a Rabbi be a Rabbi and not a Doctor.
I agree with e. g.: Kol haKavod to the Rabbi’s rhetoric against anti-vaxxers; but are cigarette smokers thrown-out of Yeshivas, and not allowed to hang-around outside, if they smoke? Sometimes, the best policy is to promote those who abide by safety policies, as a former Science Advisor once put it: “If those who excel are not given preference, the people will cease to strive for promotion” and Chaos ensues. “Lo tohu barah”: The world was not created in order to be Chaos, Heaven forbid!
Take heed Anti Vaxxers, a clear psak!!
It’s not a psak halacha if you didn’t learn the subject matter, and you are not a rabbi nor a talmid chochom if you express opinions without learning the subject matter. Unfortunately, we don’t have the real semicha and a real status of a rabbi for the past 1500 years, and anyone who is called a rabbi in our days is called so purely as a sign of respect for a talmid chochom. Therefore, if you don’t behave as it states in Avos 5:7 “veal ma shelo shoma omeir lo shomati”, then you are not a chochom and consequently not a rabbi.
In Jewish tradition, a name ‘causes’ behavior. Mutzafi means someone who adds. Many of the Gedolim who encourage vaccination did not make the statement that this Rabbi added. Did this Rabbi take it further because of the innate nature specific to his name biogenetic or due to unrelated cause? If the latter, why aren’t the other Rabbis saying this too?