Rabbi Yitzchak Yehuda Yaroslavsky calls on Chabad adherents in Israel to get Covid vaccination. ‘A matter of saving lives.’

Rabbi Yitzchak Yehuda Yaroslavsky, a senior Chabad rabbi and head of the Israeli Chabad Rabbinical Court, called on Chabad adherents to take the vaccine against the coronavirus.

Rabbi Yaroslavsky himself was vaccinated two days ago at the Clalit vaccination center in Ashdod.

Immediately after receiving the vaccine, Rabbi Yaroslavsky said: “It is a matter of saving lives. Everyone must do it, quickly and as soon as possible. The Holy One, Blessed Be He will protect us.”

Rabbi Yaroslavsky added that getting vaccinated was fulfilling the mitzvah of “and you shall protect your souls exceedingly.”

In a conversation he gave this morning to Hamevaser newspaper, Rabbi Yaroslavsky said that in very similar cases to the current situation when new vaccines arrived in Israel, this is what the late Lubavitcher Rabbi said: “His firm opinion was that vaccines should be taken to prevent the spread of sickness and not to delay. In one letter he even wrote that he was hurrying to answer despite that he had more urgent letters, due to the importance of taking the vaccine,” he said.

“The reason I rushed to be vaccinated, even though they offered to delay, was to be an example to the public that with respect to saving life, especially in a matter of public interest concerning the entire Jewish people, one must fulfill the mitzvah promptly so as not to delay in taking the vaccines,” he added.

(Arutz 7).