A source told Yeshivah World News that the Chief Rabbi of Tehran, Rav Yehudah Grami, publicized a kol koreh to the Jewish communities in Iran not to fast on Taanis Esther due to pikuach nefesh. The outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran is the deadliest outside China and since fasting causes weakness and can lower the immune system, Rav Grami made a decision to forbid fasting on the upcoming Taanis. According to a recent report in the Mishpacha following the assassination of Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, Rabbi Grami, in his forties, left Iran as a bochur to learn in yeshivos, among them Ner Israel in Baltimore and has semichah from Rav Moshe Heinemann, the Rav of the Agudas Yisrael shul in Baltimore. Iran’s supreme leader put the Islamic Republic’s armed forces on alert Tuesday to assist health officials in combating the outbreak of the new coronavirus — that authorities say has killed 77 people. However, there have been unofficial reports that the number of dead is much higher, with some saying that there are at least 1,400 people dead. Anonymous sources on social media report that there are people, including children and the elderly, dying on the streets and the dead are being buried in mass graves. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s decision was announced after state media broadcast images of the 80-year-old leader planting a tree wearing disposable gloves ahead of Iran’s upcoming arbor day, showing how concern about the virus now reaches up to the top of the country’s Shiite theocracy. Iranian media reported that 23 members of parliament now had the virus, as did the head of the country’s emergency services. “Whatever helps public health and prevents the spread of the disease is good and what helps to spread it is sin,” Khamenei said, who has not worn gloves at past arbor day plantings. After downplaying the coronavirus as recently as last week, Iranian authorities said Tuesday they had plans to potentially mobilize 300,000 soldiers and volunteers to confront the virus. It wasn’t clear if Khamenei’s order would set them in motion helping sanitize streets, direct traffic and track possible contacts those ill with the virus had with others, as initially suggested. There are now over 2,530 cases of the new coronavirus across the Mideast. Of those outside Iran in the region, most link back to the Islamic Republic. Yet experts worry Iran’s percentage of deaths to infections, now around 3.3%, is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be far greater than current figures show. Iran stands alone in how the virus has affected its government, even compared to hard-hit China, the epicenter of the outbreak. The death of Expediency Council member Mohammad Mirmohammadi on Monday makes him the highest-ranking official within Iran’s leadership to be killed by the virus. State media referred to him as a confidant of Khamenei. The virus earlier killed Hadi Khosroshahi, Iran’s former ambassador to the Vatican, as well as a recently elected member of parliament. Those sick include Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as “Sister Mary,” the English-speaking spokeswoman for the students who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the 444-day hostage crisis, state media reported. Also sick is Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the […]
The post Chief Rabbi Of Tehran, Rav Yehuda Grami, Forbids Fasting On Taanis Esther Due To Coronavirus appeared first on The Yeshiva World.