Buenos Aires, Adar 5780- March 2020
God entrusts us to take care of our health and not to be ashamed to take action which may cause certain social bewilderment, such as the Wise said in the Talmud-MIRA SACANTA MI-ISURA- you must be more rigorous in the care of health than in the care of the religious prohibitions.
Therefore ,we summon all the parishioners to go on with their normal lives and, without fear, establish the proper care to prevent contagion and spread of this new virus.
That is why we call to take into account the following guideline.
- GUIDELINE OF THE JEWISH TRADITION
To foment the study and the practice of the religious hygiene’s norms in the whole community.
As we can read clearly in the Torah and the Talmud, thousands of years ago our tradition entrusted us to keep a series of hygiene’s norms.
Briefly these norms are:
- The first thing we must do everyday when we get up in the morning is to wash our hands (netilat iadaim), without putting our hands on our face, especially on the mouth or eyes, which are mucous areas. It is compulsory to wash hands before praying, that is three times a day.
- To wash hands (netila) before and after fixed meals (Amosi) and also if we eat with our hands any food that is dipped in a liquid seasoning.
- To wash hands after getting out of the toilet, after touching covered parts of the body, after touching footwear, after rubbing our nose and ears or scratching our head, after having a shower, cutting our hair or nails, after having intimate relations and after touching sweaty areas or being in touch with animals.
- The Jewish Law forbids staying with a dirty body or in dirty clothes. That is why, if they get grubby, they must be washed immediately. It is also forbidden to stay at bad smelling places.
- According to the Jewish Law, the water for hand washing must reach the wrist.
- According to the Jewish religion, health care, healthy food intake and the norms of hygiene are Divine Commandments and a great part of the kosher rules aim to preserve hygiene and good health.
- The Shuljan Aruj establishes that to prevent contagion, we mustn’t impose the other to drink from the kiddush glass that was used by us.
2- GUIDELINE OF THE OMS
The World Health Organization advises to take as a habit the fulfillment of certain guidelines, which are updated on the website of the government of the city of Buenos Aires. The full version of the regulation can be seen in: https://www.buenosaires.gob.ar/coronavirus.
3- INTERNAL INSTITUTIONAL LAYOUT
In institutional matters, our headquarters are taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and , in this way, assure that every member, staff and participants of the activities are in a safe environment. We are in constant touch with the official sanitary authorities of the country.
In addition of our regular cleaning procedures, our cleaning staff has received instructions to reinforce the continuous cleaning of the Centers.
As regards participants, in order to preserve everyone’s health, we ask you to follow these instructions before getting into any headquarter or event:
- We recommend to refrain from participating if you or any person close to you has fever or flu-like symptoms.
- If anyone has been sick to the point of not going to work or school, we ask you to refrain from attending the activities until getting medical attention.
- Our toilets are provided with soap and we have several stations for hand desinfection, therefore we ask you to practice a good hand hygiene when you are at our activities or centers.
- Avoid hand greetings, kisses and hugs.
- Obey all the norms and suggestions given by the sanitary authorities of the country. Specially those related to the isolation required for the ones who are coming from abroad.
We also call the society in general to take advantage of these difficult moments and be aware of the true noble values of life, to direct our attitudes in the path of good and to foment harmony and solidarity.
May God send protection and health to all the human beings. Amen.
