Now that this disease is abroad in the land – Heaven deliver us, here also – this is the teaching for man, and the way of common sense: not to fear it at all, for what is man’s life in all its aspects, for who knows if one’s path is proper? One must also heed the instructions of the physicians, in light of whose words we shall walk, even by law [the Torah], and to establish the life of this world for good and for betterment. For experience has taught us that in days past, when the disease spread greatly, that whoever took upon himself the burden of the doctor’s orders in his diet, etc… was free of the signs of the disease – may Heaven protect us. And… one is not to worry and to complain about the precious soul which has been relieved of its suffering in this life of vanity, in order to go on the straightforward path to its haven…(Ohr Yisrael, letter #22, Translation in Etkes, Israel Salanter, pg. 169)
Rabbi Israel Salanter Prohibits Fasting on Yom Kippur 1848
The other Yom Kippur tale taught a lesson about first principles, too. Cholera is a dread and terribly incapacitating disease, and it was rampant one particular year in that area of Europe where R’ Salanter and his congregants lived. Anyone who suffered from it could easily become seriously, mortally ill; and one had to replenish fluids and nutrients to replace those lost in the course of the illness in order to get well.
But on Yom Kippur? To eat and drink when, as everyone knows, the Torah forbids that? Wouldn’t it be in our best interests to fast then anyway, and to pray that G-d have mercy on us?
R’ Salanter took another tact. In order to prevent tragedy and forestall the rapid deterioration of those who’d be exposed to cholera, R’ Salanter forbad his congregants from fasting that year (to ensure their resistance to the disease), he ordered that the prayer service be shortened (so no one would tire himself out and be more susceptible to it), and he ordered that people hold services in the open air rather than in the synagogue (so that no one come into close contact with others and thus not to spread the disease). In fact, after the Morning Prayer R’ Salanter himself ascended the pulpit with a piece of cake in hand, said Kiddush over wine, and ate and drank in everyone’s sight.
Knowing full well that actively avoiding a danger to one’s life trumps nearly everything else according to the Torah, as most observant Jews know, still and all the stark application of that in the course of the Holy Day of Yom Kippur seemed to belittle the moment. So some people looked askance at what he did. But R’ Salanter knew that what needed to be done and what mattered most of all rather than what we’d ordinarily be expected to do had to be done, so he set out to do it despite appearances.
https://torah.org/learning/spiritual-excellence-classes-salanter2/
Rabbi Yaakov Feldman
Materials for this session were taken from Plagues in Jewish History by Rabbi Robert Gamer