By COLlive reporter
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage in Europe, Jewish individuals have been asking whether hearing the Megillah on Purim over the Zoom video conferencing platform adequately fulfills the Halachic requirements.
European Rabbis referred the question to the Rabbinical Centre of Europe in Belgium who passed it on to the Chief Rabbi of Israel Yitzchak Yosef.
Rabbi Yosef replied with an extensive halachic answer, with the bottom line: “G-d forbid to permit such a possibility, as the ruled law is that the Halachic obligation for Megillah is only if you hear it directly from the reader himself and not through the frequency of the radio or the internet and the like.”
“Especially concerning reading the Megillah,” the reply continues, “certainly every effort should be made to actually participate in the synagogue with a multitude of people (…) Even in the present situation, it is possible to gather in an open space, and if this is not relevant then each person should read from a Kosher Megillah, and if one doesn’t know the proper pronunciation, one can say the words with the reader on the radio. But, G-d forbid, to allow the reading with Zoom and the like.”
Similar rulings were issued by Rabbi Simcha Benzion Aizik Rabinovitch, author of Piskei Teshuvot on the Shulchan Aruch and Mishna Brurah, stating: “There isn’t any way to permit fulfillment of the obligation of Megillah reading, by Zoom.”
Rabbi Avraham Yaffe Schlesinger, Av Beit Din “Bitzel Hachochma” community in Jerusalem and Geneva and author of ‘Bier Sharim’ on Shulchan Aruch, wrote: “Even during the Covid virus, one does not fulfill their obligation of reading the Megillah this way, and that is the ruling.”
Dayan Rabbi Moshe Brandsdorfer, Av Beit Din of “Heichal Hora’ah” in Jerusalem, wrote: “It is quite clear that one does not fulfill his obligation by hearing this way”. A similar response on the topic, stated by Rabbi Chaim Rotter from Elad, was publicized at length.
The subject has caused much interest in Europe and by many Rabbis, expressing their gratitude to the Rabbinical Centre of Europe’s Director General Rabbi Arie Goldberg and the Secretary Rabbi Avraham Torezki, who presented the topic to a roster of rabbis and dayanim in Israel, as part of the tireless multitasking energy the RCE invested to help hundreds of European Rabbis with many halachic questions that arise as a result of the pandemic.
What do you do , as there is curfew at 6pm but not yet nacht ? Thursday evening
So how can you hear megilla, if you are vulnerable and cannot be inside in an indoor gathering?