By Kobi Nahshoni, Ynetnews.com
Wednesday morning, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center announced it would limit visits to maternity wards for fear of having patients and newborn babies infected with swine flu, and now, one of the hospital’s doctors has also recommended people refrain from kissing mezuzot in public places.
Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar also addressed the issue, saying, “If a specific order is given in the matter, the mezuzah must be kissed from the air, to ensure that the custom is not forgotten.”
The H1N1 epidemic is a cause of major concern worldwide, and ultra-Orthodox media has not overlooked it. Haredi reporter Ozel Vatik interviewed seven doctors – including Emergency Room directors and specialists on infectious diseases – on the risks of contracting the virus from kissing a mezuzah – a custom that is highly common among religious and traditional Jews.
The doctors unanimously agreed that bacteria leave high levels of residue on such objects, but six of them refused to comment on mezuzot in particular, “so as not to get in trouble with the rabbis”.
Dr. Ilan Youngster, a pediatrician at Assaf Harofeh Medical Center, was the only doctor to link risks of infection with kissing the mezuzah, and he even took it one step further and recommended people refrain from doing so.
He based his recommendation on a study he presented about a year-and-a-half ago, in which 70 mezuzot from Assaf Harofeh were sampled and sent in for lab tests. The results were published on Ynet, and showed that all the mezuzot contained dangerous bacteria.
Youngster said then that the results of mezuzot in private homes were expected to be similar and explained, “Most of the bacterial colonies that were found were of bacteria that are found on the skin. Perhaps because of the fact that the mezuzah is a religious object, people are afraid to sterilize it.”
Most of the mezuzot tested in the study included colonies of Staphylococcus Coagulase Negative, that can cause serious infectious diseases. The study also revealed E. coli bacteria that cause infections in the reproductive system and urinary tract, Klebsiella, which can cause various infections including pneumonia, and more.
Amar was asked for his opinion on Dr. Youngster’s recommendation and said he was not thrilled with the idea, at least as long as it is not adopted by the Health Ministry.
The rabbi said, “If an official order is issued – I recommend anyone that wants to follow it put his hand near the mezuzah and kiss it, so as not to miss out on this good and important custom.”
Hey Racheli
nice pic
i miss you:)
Then we won’t have to worry about germs on the mezuzah because there won’t be any on people’s hands!!!
it is minhag yisroel to kiss the mezuza and sefer torah, stick to minhag yisroel and ther will be no harm
your meant to learn kitzur shulchan aruch and all, but thats not the issue being discussed here! due to the above article it is very clear that you may just touch the mezuza as the rebbe did or just look at the mezuzah as the rebbe did at times. the same would apply to my understanding to kissing the sefer torah, if my memory doesnt fail me the rebbe would touch the sefer torah with his talis and at times kiss his own talis thereafter. the same goes for the poroches on the aron kodesh, the rebbe always touched the… Read more »
Well, just for the record, since everyone is quoting the Rebbe, although neither this nor the Rebbe’s personal conduct has any bearing on the flu or on the filthy evil expounded by the Torah-hating ynet ilk:
There is at least one printed letter in which the Rebbe encourages the “common” practice of parents having their child kiss the mezuzah of their room before going to sleep at night.
Hinei yo yanum shomer yisrael, kein tiyeh lanu.
I think that you should learn Kitzur Shulchan Aruch so you won’t be so pompous. Every Rav in Lubavitch that I know was instructed by the Rebbe to learn the entire Kitzur every year. The rebbe even asked many of them every year when they went in for Yechidus if they finished the Kitzur in the past year and would remind them to start again. And as #14 writes there are countless times in the Igros that the Rebbe writes to numerous people to learn Kitzur with Misgeres. And in Farbrengens the Rebbe spoke about learning Kitzur and he spoke… Read more »
please teel me Y its a mitzva to kiss the mezuza its a halach i now but not a mitzva (venesh matam MEOD as nafshsichm )
the Rebbe said countless times – printed in igros kodesh – that one should first learn Kitzur Shulchan Aruch before he tries to go deeply into the Alter Rebbes etc… Yes a simple (most of us) Jew should follow the Kitzur unless he knows CLEARLY that the Alter Rebbe or Tzemach Tzedek disagree on a spesific detail….
The real problem is that most people don’t “even” know the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch…
we do not paskin from kitzur shulchan aruch
i hope you don’t
kitzur shulchan aruch siman11, seif 24
no harm can be made while doing a mitzva!!
Such a story did actually happen in Russia in the city of Samarkand with the unforgetible Tzadik Chacham Rephael Chudaidatov Z”L, the father of R’ Moshiach Chudaitov of Crown Heights.
Chacham Rephael was the one who taught the song Atem Shalom by the Rebbe’s Farbrengen in 5733-1972. A video of it appeared sometime on one of the JEM video’s
where does it bechlal say that you have to kiss a mezuza???????
I love how someone writes a wonderful story and the next person is too clueless to differentiate between fact and fiction. Pretty sad.
Yanky Tauber never wrote that story, rather it was reprinted from Dr. Boyarskys novel, ‘Schreiber the Jew’.
Dr. Avraham Boyarsky would laugh hard if someone thought his novel is true. Says so in the preface to his book. May he live long and happy years, you can ask him yourself.
some people feel more holy if they kiss the mezuza directly or even if they just kiss there hand after
There is a story printed in Once Upon a Chassid by Yanky Touber about Germany, that the government wanted to close the Mikva due to the severe uncleanliness of the watter stating that it was a public hazard and dangerous to immerse in these waters. this went to trial and the government brought it EXPERT scientists to testify on this matter. The day came and the chief witness/expert was called to the stand. This man was a very secular Jewish doctor/scientist. he did his tests which obviously showed all the ‘gliken’ found in the sample of watter from the local… Read more »
to say its the mezuza.
how bout the bars in the subway or the like 1000 other things that people inter touch?
In the Kitzur it says that the Minhag is to kiss the Mezuza. however it is true that the Rebbe only touched the Mezuza without kissing his hand afterwards
what about minhag chasidim to go to the mikva every day before Shacharis?
is there a problem?
Two points:
1)
The most contaminated object in any hospital is the elevator buttons. Almost every single person in the hospital, sickness and all, will touch the buttons. When will the “health righteous” address that? Rather, when Hashem is involved the forces of kelipah speak out first.
2)
I for one, don’t mind copying the practice of the Rebbe, touching the mezuza every time (not just when it is convenient and when I remember, or when someone is looking) but not kissing the hand that touched it.
the Rebbe always touched the mezuzah with his right hand (unless his hands were full), but he never kissed his hand after that!!!
Kissing the mezuzah is like Flu Vaccine. Therefore your body became resistant to flu. Again, people with very week immune system could avoid.