On Wednesday, Chief Rabbi David Lau held a meeting with Health Minister Yakov Litzman, Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman Tov, and other healthcare officials that focused on the disease's ramifications on public religious observance.

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As a result of the meeting, Lau issued instructions for the public to avoid kissing mezuzahs, which are placed on the doorways of nearly every building in Israel's Jewish communities, to avoid spreading infection.

"Currently, as we are witnessing the spread of a serious disease, there is no doubt that mezuzahs must not be kissed or even touched. A person need only think about what is written on [the scroll inside] the mezuzah when he enters or leaves," Lau said, referring to the Shema Yisrael prayer, which is enclosed inside the outer part of the mezuzah, which is what is kissed.

Rabbi Shlomo Hecht, spokesman for the Beit Hillel rabbinical organization, has ruled that women who are in quarantine must not visit the mikveh, and should contact Nishmat, an organization that provides religious advice for women, about how to conduct themselves until they are permitted to leave quarantine and use the mikveh.

"Men who are under quarantine must not visit the mikveh at all," Hecht said.

The Religious Services Ministry has issued similar instructions.

Hecht also said that anyone under quarantine must not violate it to attend public prayer or join a minyan, and that doing so would turn the fulfillment of a religious commandment into a violation.

"Memorial days can be postponed until it is possible to leave quarantine," Hecht said.

This coming Saturday will be marked by a reading of the Zachor Torah portion. Listening to the reading, which deals with Amalek's attempts to destroy the Jews during the Exodus, is a religious commandment. However, Hecht explains that anyone under quarantine must remain so.

"No one [under quarantine] must leave their homes to hear Parshat Zachor … One can and should read the parsha at home," Hecht said.

Hearing the reading of the Book of Esther on Purim is also considered a "must" according to the Torah, so rabbis were forced to come up with creative solutions for those under quarantine.

"A minyan is not required to read the Book of Esther, but a 'kosher' scroll is needed. However, instructions are that the virus could be spread through objects, and therefore a scroll must not be delivered to anyone under quarantine and then taken back. Apparently, the scroll can be read to someone under quarantine through a door or window, if appropriate cautions are taken," Hecht said.

Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon backed up Hecht's ruling that those under quarantine must not leave their homes to hear the Book of Esther, but offered a high-tech solution: setting up cameras and streaming the public readings of the scroll.

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A recent concert by Steinmetz in the city of Afula, which took place with the audience segregated by gender, sparked a national controversy about gender segregation at public events, even those held for the ultra-Orthodox community.

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On Sunday, the Haifa District Court discussed another petition submitted against another scheduled Steinmetz concert, scheduled to be held at the Haifa International Convention Center on Monday.

"It's infuriating. People who assume to understand how the haredi public's mind work come in and try to dictate how we should live in a Jewish state. I think that the minimum [they can do] is let people who adhere to a 3,000-year-old tradition, who keep the Jewish fires burning, live according to their beliefs," Steinmetz says.

"A musical event is holy, in my eyes. Every time I sing at a concert, I thank God in song … it's a kind of prayer. So as far as I'm concerned, the concert hall is a kind of synagogue, and above all, there needs to be separation [between men and women]," Steinmetz says.

Q: What kind of responses did you get after you announced that you would not appear in Afula unless there was gender segregation?

"Before the concert, [Interior Minister] Aryeh Deri and MK Moshe Gafni came to me and said, 'Good for you for standing up for your principles and for God."

Q: In the US, you recently appeared before male-only audiences. How was that received?

"It only shows the hypocrisy here in Israel. In non-Jewish countries, all over the world, we appear before audiences with full [gender] separation, and receive public funds. We even held a show at a park abroad, with full separation. People everywhere understand that there is an audience that wants this, and there is acceptance and understanding that people think differently. But not in Israel."

The post 'I don't exclude women,' says haredi singer at heart of gender segregation storm appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.