The chief rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, called for Jews to come to the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday to “pray for the people China,” according to a report by The Jewish Press. Eliyahu explained that a fifth of the world’s population is experiencing “great anxiety” as millions of people are under quarantine or lock down due to the deadly coronavirus outbreak. “About each and everyone of them, it was said ‘Beloved is man for he was created in the image [of God]’ (Mishna Avot, 3:14),” he wrote. “We are called upon to pray for the people of China … [and] for all the sick in other countries as well. “May God hear our prayer and make true through us the verse ‘In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed’ (Genesis 28:14).” Last week, Rabbi Eliyahu wrote an opinion article for the Srugim news site in which he argued that just as Abraham prayed for the recovery of Abimelech (Genesis 20:17), so should the Jewish people today pray for the recovery of the thousands suffering from coronavirus. “There is now a plague in China,” he said. “It infected tens of thousands and laid waste to thousands. The Torah says ‘do not be hardhearted’ (Deuteronomy 15:7). “We must pray for them, either each worshiper on his own during the blessing He who hears our prayers or collectively when the ark in which the Torah scroll is kept is opened,” he said. He also provided an example of a prayer that might be used to pray for those with coronavirus or other life-threatening diseases. The mass prayer gathering at the Western Wall is slated to take place on Sunday, February 16 at 4:30 p.m.
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