Chabad Rov Urges Caution After Being Infected with Covid

After testing positive for coronavirus this past week, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gluckowsky, member of the Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad in Eretz Yisroel urged community members to exercise caution and follow guidelines set by the Health Ministry.

By Anash.org reporter

After testing positive for coronavirus this past week, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gluckowsky, Rov of the Chabad community in Rechovot and member of the Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad in Eretz Yisroel, urged community members to exercise caution and follow guidelines set by the Health Ministry. “I am a little weak,” he said in a video message to members of his community in Rechovot, “but Baruch Hashem I am feeling fine.”

For the past year and a half, since the outbreak of the coronavirus, Rabbi Gluckowsky has been a leading voice in Chabad in Eretz Yisroel, issuing calls to follow health regulations and guidance from doctors and the Israeli Health Ministry. He also called for Lubavitchers to take the covid-19 vaccine as soon as it became available.

In a video taken a few hours after he tested positive for coronavirus, Rabbi Gluckowsky said that the message he is taking is that one must continue to be careful even after receiving the vaccine.

“I received the vaccinations half a year ago and despite that I was infected now,” he said in a video message. “It shows how careful one must continue to be, and those who need to get tested or enter quarantine must certainly do so.”

“Those who still need to get vaccinated – should go get vaccinated as the doctors advised. But, it still depends on us to take all the guidelines seriously. I am appealing to everyone – do not belittle the instructions of the Health Ministry, and please continue taking all precautions.”

Israel was one of the first countries in the world to vaccinate their citizens, and half a year later, the country is offering booster shots to any citizen over 50 years old. The shots are being offered in response to a growing number of daily covid cases, mainly due to the Delta variant.

Rabbi Gluckowsky also urged community members to take spiritual precautions as well, including checking tefillin and mezuzos, and increasing in tzedaka.

“We are now in the month of Elul, a time when ‘the King is in the field.’ It is the time that Hashem listens to the tefillos of Yidden, and provides healing to anyone who needs it, all those infected with corona and all others in need of a refuah shleima,” he said.

VIDEO: Rabbi Gluckowsky’s message.