In response to Rabbi Gadi’s column in the January issue of The Shofar, I offer a different perspective, quoted from Rabbi Joel Levinson in Newsday’s “On Faith” column:

“According to Jewish law, Jews have an obligation, with medical guidance, to be vaccinated against COVID-19. We have this obligation because it is a mitzvah to protect our own health and the health of others. This pandemic has taken more than 850,000 lives in the United States and more than 5,500,000 lives worldwide. After receiving my vaccine, and when my kids got theirs, I recited the Shehecheyanu blessing, thanking God for “keeping us in life.”

—Madelyn Rothman