[Avodah] coronavirus

[Micha Berger]

Due to quarantine, a number of people were forced to rely on shitos
that say one is yotzei listening to the megillah via electronic
transmission, such as http://www.yutorah.org/live

R Ari Kahn (of Bar Ilan) came out in favor of such readings, the
mar'eh meqomos for his shiur are available at
https://arikahn.blogspot.com/2020/03/hearing-megillah-over-telephone-or.html
AIUI, RAK's primary concern was to reassure people who have no
choice, and to make sure questionable cases don't risk spreading
disease by showing up. So he really presents the case for only
one side.

RGS pointed people to R Daniel Z Feldman's (RIETS) older piece (not
reflecting this year's she'as hadechaq) in Tradition at
https://traditiononline.org/the-virtual-minyain
which gives both sides of the story.

I tried to lend my megillah to someone so that they could listen to the
above-linked reading at YU and read along from a kosher megillah. But,
my livingroom is being painted, the bookcase where I keep my megillah
was among those boxed up, and someone else beat me to the mitzvah.

In Westchester County, NY, Chabad managed to organize leining for 100
quarantined people by having the baal qeriah read on a deck or porch,
outside an open door or window. But such arrangements are not available
to everyone.

I saw on Facebook the following social concern that I thought was
interesting and valid enough to share here.
https://www.facebook.com/matthew.kritz.9/posts/2899197760173502
R Matthew Nitzanim writes (in part):

    This is why I fear the live-feed Megillah readings. There is no doubt
    that it is the most practical solution to ensure more people hear the
    Megillah, without risking more people catching the virus, and there is
    arguably halachic grounds to allow the practice (even as the debate
    continues), especially under these extenuating circumstances. But
    once virtual readings are normalized, what will Purim look like next
    year? I'm not too worried about no one showing up for Megillah next
    year - we all know it's more fun to boo for Haman and show off our
    costumes with friends around. But what about all those people who are
    alone, boxed out of society? Will the hospital and the rehab center
    call the local yeshiva for volunteers to come visit, or will they
    suffice with arranging a dial-in reading (which will inevitably come
    to be replaced with a recording for those who can't distinguish)? Will
    the readers and merry-makers of years past feel less push to pay
    visits when the mitzvah can be fulfilled electronically? Certainly
    this change wouldn't happen in just one year, but perhaps we are
    setting a precedent that will be taken seriously in years to come.

    Because what's at stake is not merely the obligation to hear
    the Megillah. What is at stake is the future of community and
    interpersonal connection in the age of digital media. Performing
    one of our most communal mitzvot through a screen means radically
    reimagining the very meaning of community, a process that is already
    well underway. Among the Orthodox, the study of Torah, traditionally
    intended to bring people into the same room, is increasingly done
    via recorded shiurim. Elsewhere in the Jewish world, services are
    taped and can be watched from home, and you can even find a dial-in
    Kaddish minyan. And shout out to the various Skype Seudot and Zoom
    Tishes spreading Purim cheer to the quarantined. Each of these is an
    exciting way digital communication can be used to better include those
    would otherwise be left out. But if we aren't careful with the pace
    of development, we will end up creating tools that, although intended
    to increase connection and participation, will further distance and
    disenfranchise those who were already only hoping for a visitor or
    two, and will be left with nothing but a computer screen. What we
    are watching is reminiscent of the Conservative Movement's ruling
    permitting driving on Shabbat -- intended to increase access to
    communal life, but perhaps in the process weakening the physical
    proximity that keeps community alive, with only time to tell whether
    the benefits outweigh the costs. So too with screen talk: appealing
    as it may be in this moment, down the road, we risk harming the very
    deep sense of community that held us together in ancient Persia and
    through the ages to this very day. Maybe this is a moment where we
    would benefit from Halacha being less accommodating of the present,
    and more oppositional and countercultural....

So he recommends making a heqer:

    So be cautious this Purim, not only hygienically, but spiritually
    too. If I had a say, I would encourage those who are doing the holy
    work of reading Megillah by livestream for people in quarantine not
    to say the Brachot, even if they are also reading for themselves, to
    make clear that this is a sub par, temporary fix, and not necessarily
    an ideal, long term change.
    
And finally, this nice thought is off topic for the thread, but worth
sharing:

    More importantly, for everyone stuck at home this Purim, please take
    it upon yourself, once your quarantine is LONG SINCE OVER, to pay a
    visit to someone who feels alone for more than two weeks at a time. It
    can be next Purim, or maybe even sooner. Take your experience of being
    homebound, and allow it to be a springboard for being more aware
    of the many, many people who would give anything not to be alone,
    to be greeted by a friendly face with a warm smile, by someone who
    remembered that it's Purim for them too. More than an ecard, or a
    phone call, or a Zoom chat, what they really want to see is you.

qiyum is suboptimal.

-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger                 "'When Adar enters, we increase our joy'
http://www.aishdas.org/asp    'Joy is nothing but Torah.'
Author: Widen Your Tent       'And whoever does more, he is praiseworthy.'"
- https://amzn.to/2JRxnDF                   - Rav Dovid Lifshitz zt"l