The concept of פיקוח נפש is a central one in Judaism and in fact is דוחה כל התורה כולה except for the 3 עבירות. Every shabbos Hatzalah goes on hundreds of calls being מחלל שבת to save lives. Given this, why do so many in the charedi world not follow the corona guidelines which are there to protect peoples lives?
I believe the answer is based on the dominant charedi hashkafa. The dominant charedi hashkafa holds the following:
- Hashgacha is absolute. A leaf doesn't fall without it being decreed in heaven
- השתדלות doesn't work, it's just a tax, something to be done, but it doesn;t actually acommplish anything
- Everything is decreed on Rosh Hashana, whether person will live or die, how much money they will make etc.
- Torah learning holds up the world. If torah learning stopped even for a second the world would be destroyed.
Based on the above, Charedi spokesman always say, it's not the doctor who heals it's hashem.
There is a concept in halacha called עת לעשות לה הפרו תורתיך, which means in certain dire circumstances we can disobey the torah in order to save it. The gemara uses this principle to explain how תורה שבעל פה is allowed to be written down. The Gemara (Gitin 60a) learns out from a pasuk that there is a prohibition to write down תורה שבעל פה. The Gemara then asks how did the Amoraim write down תורה שבעל פה the Gemara answers עת לעשות לה הפרו תורתיך. The same idea was applied to girls education (Beis Yaakov) in the early 1900s and to the kollel system after WWII.
IMHO, this along with the Charedi hashkafa is the reason charedim are not keeping the guidelines. Charedi society is a very communal one. Everything is done in groups. You learn with a chavrusa in a beis medrash. You daven in a shul. You go to a shiur in public. You go to a tish. There is constant peer pressure to conform. To close these institutions down for any lengthy period of time means destroying charedi society. As Rav Chaim Kanievsky said, closing the תלמודי תורה is dangerous, it is
מבטל the torah of the תינוקות של בית רבן which holds up the world. Therefore, it is an עת לעשות לה הפרו תורתיך, yes פיקוח נפש overrides everything in normal times but these are not normal times. A world without yeshivas, without public torah studies, without תפילה בציבור, is not worth living in and therefore overrides even פיקוח נפש.
Then you add in the hashgacha aspect, that hishtadlus doesn't work anyway and a person's fate was decided on Rosh hashana. Given this, it is very easy to rationalize that no one is really dying from not following the rules, they were decreed to die anyway. This is a really important point. Many charedim I have talked to expressed this. They said yes, we have to do our hishtadlus, but, bottom line it was decreed on Rosh Hashana whether I will live or die. Wearing a mask will not save me if I was decreed to die and not wearing a mask won't kill me if I was decreed to live. They view hishtadlus as a tax, and therefore just like no one wants to pay more taxes then necessary and people try to avoid taxes, so too, they don't want to do more hishtadlus then necessary. Hishtadlus for corona is annoying, wearing masks, social distancing etc., and therefore they minimize (or eliminate) the hishtadlus (tax).
There is an additional factor that leads to Charedim not following the rules. Rav Aryeh Kaplan wrote the following in an essay:
Another approach is that which many Chassidim have. They say, “What do scientists know? Do they know what’s happening? Do they know what’s going on? They’re a bunch of phonies, a bunch of bluffers, a bunch of stupidniks! Do they really have a way of finding out the truth? They find a bone and they think it’s from a monkey.” But, I think to somebody who knows what science is, this is a very unsatisfactory approach. We have some idea of what is involved in paleontology. We have some idea what is involved in geology and in radioactive dating. We have some idea of what is involved in astronomy. We can casually speak about a star being a million light years away, and we do not stop to think, “Well, that’s a bit too much!” So I would say that if someone feels that science is ignorant and false, all well and good. Many people refer not to accept science as a worthy challenge. But I think that for many of us here, such an approach would be totally unsatisfying.
Times have changed and most of the Charedi world has adapted the viewpoint that he ascribes to the Chasidim, that dismisses the opinions of scientists. Therefore, they are very skeptical of everything about corona including the rules. They say what to do the scientists know? A year ago they said not to wear masks, now they say to wear masks. Why should we listen to them?
