An Israeli police officer helps a Health Ministry inspector put on protective gear before they go up to the apartment of a person in self-quarantine as a precaution against coronavirus spread in Hadera, Israel, March 16, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Ronen Zvulun.

As Israel’s coronavirus crisis deepened on Tuesday, with the country in almost-total lockdown, two prominent rabbis called for the effective closure of synagogues.

The Ashkenazi and Sephardi chief rabbis have both urged worshipers to obey the instructions of the Ministry of Health and have discouraged mass prayer, such as at the Western Wall, but synagogues and some yeshivas have remained open.

Yediot Aharonot reported that now, Rabbi David Stav, the chief rabbi of the town of Shoham and head of the liberal Orthodox Tzohar organization, and Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, head of the main yeshiva in the Har Bracha community, are calling for more severe measures.

“After consulting with public health experts and talmidei hachamim [revered scholars], I realized there was no other way out,” Stav said in a Facebook post. “If we are desirers of life, we have to shut down any gathering place, and that includes synagogues.”

“For the first time in my life, I’m asking my congregation to close the synagogues,” he stated. “It’s not easy, I see in front of me the people I meet every morning at the shacharit prayer, the daf yomi students who come in with devotion and devekut in the morning and evening, and I know that this evening we will not be together.”

Stav said the decision to close synagogues must be taken “out of great love and responsibility for each and every member of the community” and “anticipation and longing for the days when the synagogue lights will be kindled again.”

He added that study and prayer should now be conducted in the home, and through “the digital means we have acquired in this generation.”

Melamed told the residents of his community to avoid synagogue, saying that it is preferable “to pray individually.”

“This is what I am doing,” he added.

While not outright forbidding synagogue prayer, he stated that children should not be allowed to enter and that if Ministry of Health guidelines could not be observed then worshipers should refrain from attending.

Current Ministry of Health guidelines include maintaining a distance of at least two meters from other people, making synagogue attendance in substantial numbers all but impossible.

The Ministry of Religious Services also issued strict guidelines regarding religious rituals. The ministry said prayer gatherings should take place in open areas, weddings and funerals should be limited to 20 attendees only, and immersion rituals should be limited as well.

Kosher food services will continue to operate as normal.