(C conclusion)
Rav Moshe Feinstein also has numerous responsa pertaining to medical issues, and while he values the opinions of doctors, he frequently notes that doctors are untrustworthy for a variety of reasons, and he rules on far more than mere risk factors.
Certainly a rabbi should become informed before issuing a ruling about anything, but poskim have every right and obligation to become as informed as those with fancy degrees and titles. They do not have to follow the same path to acquire this knowledge. Rabbi Tendler related that Rav Moshe often amazed the experts with his own expertise of complex medical matters. Rav Moshe didn't have to go to university; the university came to him.
Tatz then arrives at his coup de grâce. “Let me leave you with a very important principle. How do we assess risks, unknown risks like a covid vaccine?...The Gemara puts it like this. How we assess medical treatments is not on the basis of their statistical safety. Please listen carefully to this. It's on the basis of what's accepted as normal...I'm not talking about things that are risky, I'm talking about things that are exceptionally safe, where the evidence is that they're very safe, but we don't know exactly what's involved…
“...I'm talking about medical risk issues. What's permitted Jewishly is not what is safe enough, but what is normal enough. That's called dashu bei rabbim, when a community, a society, broad society does a certain thing as normal, you may do it. Not because it's safe enough, but because it's normal. God runs the world according to normal standards.” As Tatz explains, we are allowed to get into a car or a plane – not because it's statistically safe enough, but because it's normal.
This is a half-truth. We are not allowed to do just anything society considers “normal”, irrespective of the actual risk factor. If society considers it normal to smoke, or climb mountains, or play tackle football, or get in a boxing ring and let someone pound you in the head, we do not throw out the risk factors and expect God to protect us. We always balance the need and benefit of a particular action with the risks. Whether or not something is considered normal behavior factors into the equation, but by no means is this the most important factor, let alone the sole determining factor as Tatz portrays it.
You can already guess where Tatz is going with this little house of cards built on a foundation of hot air – he already mentioned covid shots – but first Tatz would take his Grand Canyon-sized leap of logic totally off the map.
“There are certain food additives and colorings that we eat in our food that have never been proved to be safe. Is it a problem halachically? No! They're normal! God runs the world according to what's normal. You're not supposed to start freaking out about mercury in your tooth fillings [waving derisively] and food colorings and so forth and so on. There's no need to do that!”
Yes, he really said this. We shouldn't “freak out” about eating foods with toxic chemicals that cause cancer and everything else under the sun – no problem! – because society decided this is normal. If you worry about this, you have a lack of faith in God.
Of course, if you're not hyperventilating about covid and measles and polio and whooping cough and every other excuse they have to inject chemicals in your healthy child, you're a reckless fool and a menace to those around you. How dare you rely on your immune system and God?
Tatz continues in earnest. “If you live in a city where people have two locks on their door, you need two locks on your door. If you have one, you are negligent, and if you have three you lack faith.”
This is utter nonsense. Between the extremes of recklessness and paranoia, there is a large range of acceptable behavior, the specifics of which vary from person to person. Indeed, we must behave in a reasonable manner, which is often determined by the society in which we live, but we do not make personal safety decisions by merely copying what others around us are doing, without a shred of variance. (For more on this topic, see “A Practical Guide to Human Effort and Trust in God” and “God Watches Over Fools Explained”)
Tatz stresses this principle with an energy reserved for his most absurd words. The weaker the point, the louder he preaches it.
Finally he gets to the penthouse in his house of cards: “Therefore in medicine you're obliged to undertake a treatment that is the best level of the consensus of expert opinion in your time and place.”
Tatz acknowledges that Hashem is the actual source of healing, but the specific treatment one must take depends entirely on what's considered “normal” for one's time and place. Tatz even acknowledges that “any doctor knows that what's normal medical treatment today in five years time will turn out to be abnormal and probably criminal. There's no medical treatment that stands the test of time, absolutely not.”
This is highly disputable, and one can make sarcastic comments about how this axiom doesn't seem to apply to vaccines, but there are even bigger fish to fry here. Skipping ahead just a bit Tatz says the following, jabbing his finger at you in his best Asher Weiss imitation:
“So here's the problem, your doctor says take this little white tablet. But you know that in ten years time it'll be wrong and criminal. God says never mind! I run [the world]. You take the tablet that's normal in your time and place…”
According to Tatz, we are commanded to make personal medical decisions essentially based on the principle of when in Rome, do like the Romans do. What happened to “going where the evidence leads you”? Tatz was never serious about that. It was always about mindlessly following the “consensus of experts”, even if you know they are probably wrong. He says this is a halachic obligation!
And now, of course, the kicker:
“This leads to an interesting question about covid vaccines. Are they normal? I'm not sure. I'm not sure. When it comes to a measles vaccine for your child, or tetanus vaccine, yes! That is normal and you're obliged to do it. It's been around for a long time [jabbing his finger]...we know they save lives, and if you don't do that you are negligent!”
Tatz then admits that the covid shots have not been around long enough to be determined “normal in society”, but, according to Rav Zilberstein, “they do meet the criterion of expert opinion feeling that they're safe enough.”
Such brilliant Torah analysis we have not seen since the Vilna Gaon.
Our lives and souls are in great hands indeed.
Tatz expresses vague reservations about the covid shots, and recommends against giving them to children – unless “there's a good reason. You live in a society like Israel where they're going for herd immunity, maybe. Your child wants to take part in a summer camp, or some travel, or some good reason, there's halachic permissibility to do things that are more than slightly risky when you've got good reason, like earning a living, getting married…”
The brilliant Torah analysis could only be topped with this brilliant medical analysis. The shots are not advised for children unless it's a Molech situation to theoretically protect others, or the government has blackmailed you. Thank you, Rabbi Dr. Tatz!
“Is there any evidence that the vaccine is harmful?
No! The evidence is [it's] extremely safe.”
Tatz then babbles about there being concerns, but you should follow your local doctor's advice, but you're free to make your own decision. Maybe he was simply tired after all this (it's tedious just to listen to it), or, more likely, he's covering his derriere.
He concluded with a final bit of deception, finger wagging. “God's not playing games with your life. He's not going to make you sick because you did something that was normal and halachically mandated.”
Nearly everything Akiva Tatz said was a deception, a distortion, or an outright fabrication. The results haven't been good, to put it mildly. Yet Tatz continues to run around lecturing people without a pang of remorse, and continues to smugly dismiss the Long Rangers, who by now are an ever-growing horde of awakening masses.
Those who followed Tatz without asking hard questions should be wondering “How could I have been so stupid?”
Many of these people paid a steep price. Some of them learned the hard way, while others remain in denial.
I hope this lengthy critique inspires more people to learn, think, ask serious questions, demand serious answers, and not be swayed by rhetoric – even from experts, especially from experts!
We need to weed out the charlatans, scum, and Erev Rav from among us. And we should never be so stupid again.
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