Interior Minister Arye Deri, currently in home quarantine, released a social media message in which he explained he bought a letter in a Torah scroll meant to “protect the people of Israel from the coronavirus.”
The purchase of a letter, or more, is common practice among Jewish people as Torah scrolls are written by scribes so one may finance a portion of the scroll being written.
The minister called on others to buy letters as well, promising that when the virus is no longer a health risk the scroll will be placed in the Western Wall.
Some Jewish scholars argue that, ideally, each Jewish person should write his own Torah scroll to better understand the divine law. This was one of the ideal requirements of the kings of the nation.
Mass prayer in Mecca and Rome, two cities which are very important to Islam and the Catholic faith respectively, had been halted due to COVID-19.