Medical Halachah Annual, Volume 1: The Pandemic and Its Implications
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Discover the intersection of medical halachah, ethics, and contemporary issues.
This groundbreaking journal, released by Touro University and New York Medical College, under the editorial guidance of Dr. Edward Lebovics and project management of Rabbi Aviyam Levinson, delves into the intricate intersection of halachah, medical ethics, and contemporary medical issues. Through the examination of complex medical scenarios and the application of halachic principles, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the ongoing pandemic and its far-reaching implications.
Contents:
Risk Assessment in Halachah
Rabbi Mayer Twersky
Management of Profound Multi-Organ Failure
Rabbi Prof. Avraham Steinberg, MD
Allocation of Scarce Resources
Rabbi Dr. Akiva Tatz
Adult ECMO and Mechanical Circulatory Support
Jonah (Yonah) Rubin, MD; Rabbi Dr. Jason Wiener, BCC
Halachah’s View of the Requirement
to Follow the Established Standard of Care
Rabbi Moshe Rotberg
Medical Uncertainty in Halachah
Rabbi Boruch Fogel
Clinical Trials for COVID-19 Vaccines
Rabbi Dr. Zvi Loewy
Bikkur Cholim and the Contagious Patient
Rabbi Ephraim Glatt, Esq.; Rabbi Aaron E. Glatt, MD
The Role of Medical Expertise and Rabbanim in the Pandemic
Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky
Confronting the Pandemic in the Community
Rabbi Mordechai Willig
Dishonest Acquisition of Potentially Life-Saving Care
Rabbi Yossi Sprung; Judah Eisenman, MD
Vaccinating Adults and Children against COVID-19
in Israel and the US
Zvi Ryzman
Vaccine Hesitancy in the Orthodox Jewish Community
Sarah H.D. Becker, MD
Othering the Jews during the Calamitous Black Death of the
14th Century and the COVID-19 Pandemic of the 21st Century
Margot Lurie; Edward C. Halperin, MD, MA
Ben Rothke –
The COVID-19 pandemic is approaching the three-and-a-half-year mark. It changed our lives significantly, and its long-term effects are still being worked out. It upended Jewish religious life to a degree not seen in many generations. The medical field was also considerably affected to a degree not seen in many years. And for many healthcare workers, it was their finest hour.
From a halachic perspective, the pandemic created countless questions. These questions often involved life and death matters. Adding to the turmoil, these halachic questions had to be answered in real-time and quickly.
In the inaugural volume of the Touro University New York Medical College journal Medical Halachah Annual, Volume 1: The Pandemic and Its Implications (Mosaica Press), editor Dr. Edward Lebovics, MD, has 14 essays from a variety of medical and rabbinic figures on topics related to the pandemic.
The book opens with a somewhat sobering observation by Lebovics, where he had to intervene when a world-renowned Posek made a halachic decision that contradicted current clinical data. This reiterates the importance for poskim to ensure effective communication with physicians who are experts in their field.
Medical decisions, in general, are a matter of dealing with risk. If something has zero risk, it likely has no benefit either. With that, the volume opens with a fascinating essay on Risk Assessment in Halachah by Rabbi Meyer Twersky. A critical point Twersky makes is that proper halachic assessments require nuanced statistical analysis.
Part of the challenge in making such an assessment, Rabbi Dr. Avraham Steinberg, MD, makes in his essay, is that some of the Talmudic halachic terms are difficult to relate to in specific situations in current times. This is partly due to the conceptual difficulty in understanding the differences between the various halachic terms used and the difficulty in relating the definitions described in the Talmud and medieval authorities to modern times.
Surprisingly, one of the most important references on halacha and risk that Twersky (and everyone in this volume) didn’t reference is the Ph.D. dissertation Probability and Statistical Inference in Ancient and Medieval Jewish Literature of HaRav Nahum Rabinovitch. Rabinovitch showed that the rabbis of the Talmud had a highly sophisticated approach to probability and statistics. As Steinberg noted, the challenge is using Babylonian terminology and making sense of it in current times.
Rabinovitch’s genius was that he was able to take these terms and concepts and show how they could be applied to current times. While modern game theory originated with Jewish Hungarian mathematician John von Neumann in the 20th century, Rabinovitch showed how the rabbis of the Talmud used various aspects of game theory.
During the pandemic, there was no shortage of sweeping halachic statements, often made by those with dubious qualifications. In his brilliant and insightful essay, Rabbi Ahron Lopiansky, the greatest overall Talmudic scholar in the United States today, writes that the Chazon Ish was wary of sweeping pikuach nefesh leniencies for potential cases, as these could totally destroy Shabbos.
Similarly, he writes that the Chofetz Chaim ruled that when three hundred Jewish workers lost their jobs, they could work on Shabbos. But he did not publicize this ruling lest Shabbos be destroyed.
If there is any silver lining to the pandemic, it is that it highlighted the valiant effort of many in the Jewish world. One of those at the forefront was Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt, MD, who has a chapter on Bikkur Cholim and the Contagious Patient.
This is a fascinating journal that details the halachic and medical issues that we face and are facing. Some of the brightest minds today have put their brilliance into the written world here. There are no simple answers to the myriad quandaries the pandemic wrought upon us. The authors here detail those complexities, and their insights give the reader a meaningful understanding of how to deal with these issues.