Psychiatria Danubina, Vol. 34 No. 1, 2022.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.24869/psyd.2022.116
COVID-19 PANDEMIC: THREATS AND CHALLENGES FROM A JEWISH PERSPECTIVE
Kotel Dadon
orcid.org/0000-0002-3542-3754
; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Chair of Judaic studies, Zagreb, Croatia The Bet Israel Jewish Community of Croatia, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This paper explores and discusses some threats and challenges faced by the Jewish community as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic. The article begins with the perspective of Judaism on the tension between individuality and as part of the collective, as
one of the direct results of the pandemic outbreak was life in isolation due to closures and fear from infection, a measure that had
many implications on our daily life and health. The main part of the article deals with the challenges that the Jewish community
faced during the pandemic. The challenges faced by the Jewish Community divided into two categories, general challenges and
spiritual challenges. In the general part, the author explores the impact of the pandemic on the Jewish Community, on its structure
and the spread of antisemitism. In the other part, regarding spiritual challenges, the author first brings the perspective of Judaism on
mental illness and on the mentally ill, then he brings two guiding examples of spiritual challenges faced by the Jewish spiritual
leadership during the pandemic.
Keywords
Halakha; Coronavirus; spiritual; mentally il; Torah; Talmud; rabbi
Hrčak ID:
277525
URI
Publication date:
3.5.2022.
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