Halachic Highlights

Question: Is there a mitzvah to perform bikur cholim on a patient stricken with coronavirus?

Short Answer: According to the simple understanding of a t’shuvah by the Rama, one fulfills the mitzvah of bikur cholim when visiting a patient stricken with a contagious disease. However, many poskim disagree with the Rama, and other poskim rule that even the Rama agrees that one must not endanger himself in order to perform this mitzvah.

Question: Many outdoor minyanim are currently taking place throughout the neighborhood and, as a result, men and women in nearby houses often hear the davening from the privacy of their homes, even when not davening together with the minyan. Must such a person stop what he or she is doing and answer K’dushah together with the outdoor minyan?

Question: Should you rest your head on your arm for Tachanun in outdoor minyanim?

Short Answer: Unless you can see an aron kodesh (with a sefer Torah in it), you should not fall on your arm during Tachanun in outdoor minyanim.

Question: How should the aliyos for k’rias haTorah be divided up in minyanim that adhere to social distancing?

Short Answer: There are two major options in the poskim: either (i) the participants receive the aliyos from afar and do not approach the Torah, or (ii) the baal k’riah receives all the aliyos and makes a brachah before and after each aliyah.

Question: Should minyanim during coronavirus only wait for six people to finish Sh’moneh Esrei before starting Chazaras HaShatz?

Question: When minyanim are allowed, should we make up the parshiyos that we missed; and if yes, how?

Short Answer: Many contemporary poskim have ruled that there is no need to make up any of the missed parshiyos, but it is virtuous to do so.