Going Viral:Vaccinations in Halakha

Tifferet Yisrael - Boaz on Avot 3.1

We see some righteous [among the non-Jews] who know the creator of the world, and believe in his holy Torah, and do good deeds also for Jews. Some have done great things for the world, like the hasid [Edward] Jenner who developed the smallpox vaccine, that has saved myriads of people from sickness, death, and disfigurement.

Teshuvot on Vaccines

Rav Shlomo Aviner

Q: Is one obligated to vaccinate?

A: Yes. 'For your own sake be careful' (Devarim 4:15). Many things were forbidden by the sages since they caused mortal danger. Anyone who violates this and says 'I am putting myself in danger, what do other care?' or 'I will be careful' We give him lashes [for violating a rabbinic commandment] (Rambam).

Q: In modern countries, we have some freedom to do as we wish with vaccinations.

A: 1) Real freedom is to guard the Torah and mitzvot. 2) You have no freedom to endanger children because you did not vaccinate them. 3) You also endanger others that are close to you, and there is in this the din of rodef (the pursuer).

Asher Weiss

Many poskim and communal leaders have asked me whether parents are obligated to inoculate their children by means of generally accepted vaccines in order to prevent terrible diseases, because some important rabbanim recently expressed the following opinion: Since there is concern that vaccination damages health, not only is it permissible not to vaccinate children, but it is even recommended not to vaccinate them.

In my humble opinion, this is an error. Rather, parents obviously have an obligation to vaccinate their children, and I have ruled that it is even permissible for parents to organize themselves in order to force educational institutions not to accept unvaccinated pupils. I will explain my thinking and my reasoning.

There have already been measles outbreaks in several centers of Yahadus Charedis. It is known that one baby has died, and others have gotten very sick from this disease. I have written at length in several places (Sheilos u-Teshuvos Minchas Asher, simanim 122-123) about the disagreement between poskim as to whether a person may place himself in limited, remote danger in order to save someone else from major, proximate danger. I concluded that if the risk in question is exceedingly remote and very uncommon, there is an obligation [to save the other person]. Moreover, all would agree that doing so is, at the very least, an act of pious virtue (midas chasidus).

Certainly one is obligated to undergo a procedure that entails some risk in order to treat a disease that is liable to place him in great danger; the disagreement was only about the parameters of the principle that one places his own life ahead of another’s life (“chayecha kodmin le-chayei chavercha”), but it is obvious that all would agree that when it comes to his own life, he is obligated to place himself in remote danger in order to save himself from proximate danger.

Likewise, in the present case, a person is obligated to vaccinate his children because vaccination is not dangerous at all, except in extraordinarily rare cases, whereas lack of vaccination endangers those very children. This is all the more certain given that lack of vaccination constitutes public endangerment....

In 5745, one of the rabbanim of London, Rav Avraham Hamburg, also known as [Rav Avraham] Nanzig, published a book called Alei Terufah, in which he discusses the question, which was controversial at the time, of whether it is proper to vaccinate, even though in his day there were children who died as a result of the vaccination, or whether it is preferable to do nothing (“shev ve-al ta’aseh adif”).

The Tiferes Yisrael also addresses this question in his commentary on Yoma (8:6). He discusses whether it is permissible to administer this vaccine even though it poses danger, and he concludes that since the danger of not vaccinating is much greater than the danger posed by vaccinating, it is certainly permissible and proper to vaccinate.

In his introduction to Sefer Alei Terufah, the author describes how his little son and daughter were cut down while still flowering—they died of this disease; and how when he lived in the holy community of the Hague in Holland, there was a major outbreak, and many children died; and how when he was in London, once again, many contracted the disease. In the main part of the text he wrote that even if one in a thousand dies from the vaccination, this is not a reason to refrain from vaccinating, just as bloodletting and laxatives are routine. And even though “we have seen several people who faint during bloodletting, and there are reports that in very rare cases someone has died from bloodletting,” one should nevertheless not refrain from these things, which improve wellness and health. The same applies in the present case.

[Rav Hamburg] quotes several contemporary rabbanim who permitted this treatment, even though, in their time, it seems that there were indeed those who became sick and even died from this treatment.

In any event, it is clear and obvious that nowadays it is not only permissible to vaccinate, but there is even an obligation, on order to prevent danger to the individual and the public. Even if in their time, hundreds of years ago, they vacillated, it was only because there were indeed children who died from the vaccine, as is evident from their words. This is not true of today’s vaccines, so there is a bona fide obligation to vaccinate.

It seems that this halakhah can be derived from the obligation of all residents of a city to take part in guarding the city and repairing its walls, as explained in Bava Basra (8a) and in Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 163). Just as all residents of the city must either share in
the actual guarding or the expenses of guarding the city, and even though it is clear that if one person shirks his duty to guard or pay the walls will not crumble and the enemy will not prevail, the obligation to guard the city nevertheless applies to each person equally, and no individual may dodge it, so too in the present case. For everyone is a partner when it comes
to anything that is for the betterment of society or a public necessity. Each person must contribute his equal share, and there is no difference between a financial obligation and the obligation to vaccinate. The same law applies to both.

Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch

Published letter responding to the above

In conclusion, since it is proven that vaccines are effective to prevent the spread of disease, it is an obligation upon every father to vaccinate his children to prevent spread of the disease – as is the law of the Torah to follow the majority view of experts. Certainly here, where the view of the overwhelming majority of doctors and the boards of health that one should vaccinate, certainly then the administration of the schools may demand that those children that were not vaccinates not enter into the Talmud Torah.

The Obligation to Vaccinate

Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, Revivim

Parents who do not want to vaccinate their children, however, can argue they are not required to follow the majority, for if they alone do not vaccinate their children, nothing will happen (and they too benefit from the vaccination of others…). However, this position is based on an immoral point of view, because if everyone behaves in this manner, the population will not be vaccinated, and serious and contagious diseases will turn into epidemics.

This position is the same as that of a person claiming that if he alone avoids military service, the security of the state will not be harmed, because one less soldier will not change the state of national security (and he too benefits from the protection provided by those who do enlist …). However, if everyone prefers his own personal safety and comfort, our situation will be dreadful.