Thazria-Metzora: Quarantine

This year, as we are quarantined against a potentially fatal infection, we can identify, more than usual, with the main subject if this week's double parsha, tzaraath.   Tzaraath is  the impetigenous  disease that that the King James committee dubbed leprosy. I think they called it leprosy, in part  because  of the white patches; but mostly, they wanted to impart the idea of a terrible disease that is unlikely to remit - a malady that merits a colony,. They wanted to evoke a condition that the ancients recognized as contagious,  so communicable that contact with the afflicted require extraordinary [saintly] courage. Leprosy was a disease from which few recovered.  It is not clear to me how apt this rendering of tzaraath as leprosy was, but some of the ideas do seem to apply. 

Most years, these chapters that deal with the diagnosis ( testing), isolation, and recovery ritual of the victim seem quite remote.    But this year we have a small taste of some aspects of the misfortune, and begin to understand how it impacted the victim and her contacts. 

The patient becomes an outcast. His touch, her clothing, his fluids are terrifying, and potentially lethal. 

כָּל־יְמֵ֞י אֲשֶׁ֨ר הַנֶּ֥גַע בּ֛וֹ יִטְמָ֖א טָמֵ֣א ה֑וּא בָּדָ֣ד יֵשֵׁ֔ב מִח֥וּץ לַֽמַּחֲנֶ֖ה מוֹשָׁבֽוֹ׃ (ס)

He shall be unclean as long as the disease is on him. Being unclean, he shall dwell apart; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

She is the outcast.  In our times, those who attend the infected are separated by gowns,  gloves, masks, face shields - whatever protection is currently available .  Those who succumb, die alone

The Covid pandemic puts every person in a modicum of isolation. I have heard people say that this time of staying home is an opportunity to explore the inner self, perhaps to self-actualize  dreams that were suppressed by mundane tasks and concerns. That kind of optimization is extraordinarily hard.  The suggestion that this time might be put to use for life changing  projects quickly becomes depressing as the barrage of news - the death of friends, infected coworkers, idiotic pronouncements - invades my consciousness.  And the dreams are so hard to actualize! It is not just the hard work, it is the improbability of success. 

 We begin to understand what it means not to be able to work.  We, like the leper, have time on our hands.  Time to worry about all of our futures.  The immediate future of bills with no income. The intermediate  future  of an indefinite period of the same.  The (perhaps) longer future of decline and death. 

We have time to consider the transgressions that brought us, the leper and the covider, to this place.  (Aruchin 16a)

א"ר שמואל בר נחמני א"ר יוחנן על שבעה דברים נגעים באין על לשון הרע ועל שפיכות דמים ועל שבועת שוא ועל גילוי עריות ועל גסות הרוח ועל הגזל ועל צרות העין

§ Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥmani says that Rabbi Yoḥanan says: Leprous marks come and afflict a person for seven sinful matters: For malicious speech, for bloodshed, for an oath taken in vain, for forbidden sexual relations, for arrogance, for theft, and for stinginess.

These Divine punishments, that come without formal charges and without a trial that we can recall, make the justice a speculation. What did we do? We can easily identify any number of transgressions, but we had been doing them for years - what changed? 

We wanted time. Now we have nothing but. We wanted an opportunity to think. Go ahead! We deserved retribution for our sins. Here is a taste. We wanted privacy to cover our transgressions.  We got isolation. 

This plague will get better. We will come to a viable situation.  The world will be different.  A few lepers will remain. Corornovirus ( and other infections) will remain a manageable threat. Don't blame the victim. Deal with the Divine

Shmini: The midpoint of the Torah

The midpoint of the Torah ( measured as letters) occurs in this weeks parsha.  It is in verse 11:42, the word is ־גָּח֜וֹן, gichhon, belly. The verse prohibits anything that crawls on its belly.  Rashi identifies it as the serpent.  But we recall the word from its original context, the curse of the serpent that  tempted Chava into tasting the forbidden fruit. 

עַל־גְּחֹנְךָ֣ תֵלֵ֔ךְ On your belly shall you crawl

Here, in Shmini, in the context of the animals that are suitable for eating  and those that are forbidden, we are reminded of the violation of the prohibition of eating from the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden.

The section  that immediately precedes the list of kosher and non kosher animals also deals with eating. It describes the exchange between Aaron and Moshe surrounding Moshe's  observation that the remaining priests: Elazar and Ithamar and Aaron, failed to properly complete the sacrificial rite of the New Moon because they had refrained from the prescribed eating of the designated portions.   Aaron's answer:

וַתִּקְרֶ֥אנָה אֹתִ֖י כָּאֵ֑לֶּה וְאָכַ֤לְתִּי חַטָּאת֙ הַיּ֔וֹם הַיִּיטַ֖ב בְּעֵינֵ֥י
 and such things have befallen me! Had I eaten sin offering today, would the LORD have approved?

is emotionally moving.   The "thing" that had "befallen" was the death of two of his sons, Nadav and Avihu.

And Moshe approves:

וַיִּשְׁמַ֣ע מֹשֶׁ֔ה וַיִּיטַ֖ב בְּעֵינָֽיו׃ (פ)

And when Moses heard this, he approved.

The commentators do not leave this as an emotional argument. They do not ascribe this approved  deviation from the instructions  to a recognition that Gd understands that a family that has just lost sons and brothers might lose their appetite; they understand it as a clarification of the law concerning the actions of a priest who is bereaved  of a close relative.  Aaron corrects Moshe's assumption that the show must go on; he reminds Moshe that the law states that such a bereaved priest may not consume the sacred meat under these  circumstances.

Initially, I felt that the parshanim, the medieval commentators who cast the interaction into an argument in the Beith Hamedrash ( Yeshiva) were denigrating the emotional aspects.  They were discarding an appealing picture of the relationship between Gd and humans, in which Gd is considerate of feelings,   for a dry, legalistic approach.  But I have come to see that the legalism formalizes Gd's sensitivity to the human reaction to tragedy and globalizes it.  Our emotions do not serve us well in relating to powerful entities, including the most powerful. The law serves better.

This sacrificial eating had no relationship to apetitite.  It was a part of a service of expiation.  And the atonement that devolved from it was not limited to the priests. It was for the nation as a whole.  This eating was a public service.  It was a partial undoing of the primordial transgression by eating, the one that cast  the serpent  unto its belly.

The disaster of Nadav and Avihu had much in common with the Eden story.  A contemporary retelling of the story would have them die of an overdose.  They knew that the incense was powerful, and they wanted to try it. Like Eve and Adam before them, the priestly brothers were adventurous and they could not resist the temptation of trying something so good... it kills.

The text leaves some ambiguity about the nature of their transgression and at least 10 reasons are given ( by the Kli Yakar).  When the text reminds us of the event, two parshioth later ( Achrei Mot), it says that the priest may not enter the inner sanctum at will.  It is only for the purpose of national  atonement, at the designated time, that this  incense service may be performed. 

Eating from the Aitz Hadath endowed  humans with opinion and speculation.  Gd said that there is remedy, but it is protected by the cherub with the rotating sword, the approach is overwhelmingly dangerous and it is beyond human understanding. The laws of the Torah offer the only viable approach

Tzav: New Realities

Necessity is the mother of invention. Catastrophe  leads to the adoption. 

The parsha describes the initiation of the Kohanim (priests) into their role as ministers of the sacrificial rite.  They are dressed in their PPE [Priestly Protective Equipment] (it is very dangerous to approach the Most High). Special animal sacrifices are offered, Moshe acting as the temporary High Priest. Some aspects of this unique ritual are reminiscent of the purification of the leper, suggesting that the initiation elevated Aaron and his sons from the common level of ashen purity to a higher level needed to perform the service.  Blood and suet are forbidden to every Israelite, a tradition that continues into the present. 

The Temple service continued for a millennium.  I do not think it is possible for a modern person to understand or appreciate the meaning of that service.  It would probably be equally hard for a person from that time to comprehend  Curb Your Enthusiasm. Times have changed. 

Animal sacrifices continued as part of the Jewish tradition until the destruction of the Temple , 1950 years ago.  By the time the temple was destroyed, the Israelites  had been living in a more modern, Roman, world for a century.  I suspect that their feelings about the sacrificial rites had changed.  They may have been more protective of them, considering them a link to their ancient tradition.  The sacrifices had always been based on a system of reasoning and belief that was different from the ambient culture and were a bulwark against assimilation. 

They may also have cooled to  animal sacrifice. They were living in a Roman world, after emerging from Persian domination.  These subjugations raised questions about the uniqueness of this type of service and, perhaps, its validity.  But the service continued... until it could not.  

The (Rabbinic/Priestly/sovereign) decision that made the service dependent upon the Jerusalem Temple cast the service as a community endeavor.  The blood and burning flesh were symbols of nationhood and independence.  The expiation  and sweet savor aspects were secondary to the community implications. 

We have had the technological capability for tele-health, home schooling, working from home for at least a decade.  We have stuck, for the most part, to the ways of our ancestors and traveled to the doctor, gone to school and settled for whatever teacher showed up, polluted and commuted to work.  Now we cannot do those things because they invite death.  We will not go back completely. 

The temple has been destroyed.  The substitute of learning and home ritual has served us well. I hope that the ashes of the Covid destruction will be (mostly) positive.  

Things can never be the same.

The Pesach Quarantine

The Passover seder  celebrates the  exemption  - of the celebrants of the ritual  - from the plague of death for the firstborn.  The Israelites were told to shelter in place, not leave the house, on the night of the scheduled epidemic.

 לֹ֥א תֵצְא֛וּ אִ֥ישׁ מִפֶּֽתַח־בֵּית֖וֹ עַד־בֹּֽקֶר׃

 None of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning.

 There was an important element of isolation in that first Passover. The quarantine was intended to avoid a plague...like ours. The memory of its success is preserved in our tradition.

The  progression of the plagues of Egypt are also similar to the evolution of Covid 19.  The second set of three plagues (the Adash of  R. Yehudah ) tell us that there was an invasion of  exogenous animals (Oraiv).  Per Jared Diamond ( Guns, Germs and Steel)  it is easy to imagine that these unfamiliar animals brought with them new infectious microbes. Diamond argues that the introduction of bew germs by livestock was one of the methods by which herders decimated hunter gatherers and dominated parts of the world. 

 The very next plague , dever, was zoonosis,  an animal epidemic.  A new microbe, possibly a virus, established itself in the endogenous, domesticated animal population.  Next, Shichin, a human disease characterized by rash, an exanthem  like measles ( which came from a rinderpest, a disease of cattle)   or smallpox, spreads through the population, affecting even the royal court of the Pharaoh.  The plague of the firstborn could have been yet another mutation of one of these viruses that originated in the invasion of animals. 

עַד שֶׁדְּרָשָׁהּ בֶּן זוֹמָא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר, לְמַעַן תִּזְכֹּר אֶת יוֹם צֵאתְךָ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ. יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הַיָּמִים. כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הַלֵּילוֹת. וַחֲכָמִים אוֹמְרִים יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה. כֹּל יְמֵי חַיֶּיךָ לְהָבִיא לִימוֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ:

until Ben Zoma explicated it, as it is stated (Deuteronomy 16:3), 'In order that you remember the day of your going out from the land of Egypt all the days of your life;' 'the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked during] the days, 'all the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked also during] the nights." But the Sages say, "'the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked in] this world, 'all the days of your life' [indicates that the remembrance be invoked also] in the days of the Messiah."

This is a famous enigmatic argument . It does not sit well in the mind because the answers seem not to be parallel. Ben Zoma is talking about a period in the 24 hour day.  The sages are invoking a longed for era.

 Ben Zoma is talking about a daily occcurance: night. The time when our most vivid and defining sense, sight, does not operate.  A time when the rules cannot be enforced, when a person is threatened and  is rightly fearful; a time when we do not know the outcome will be favorable. Rashi on Exodus 12:22, the verse that prohibits going out on the night of the plague says:

וְלַיְלָה רְשׁוּת לַמְחַבְּלִים הוּא, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר "בּוֹ תִרְמֹשׂ כָּל חַיְתוֹ יָעַר" (תהלים ק"ד):

nighttime is the domain of the destroying agencies as it is said, (Psalms 104:20) “[Thou makest darkness and it is night], wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth”.

 The Sages  are evoking  the longed for salvation. The time that the persecuted, no matter how severely, no matter how lightly, hope will speedily arrive.  A time when things are at their peak.
 The Sages tell us that we must also remember the Exodus in the Messianic Era, even in the best of times.   The joy of the good times is seasoned by the memories of the less fortunate past. The memory of Egypt becomes the pungent component of the incense. 

 Ben Zoma says that we are to remember the Exodus in the day and the night. Ben Zoma has us remember the salvation from Egypt as a source of hope for our salvation from our tribulations. 

The "night" of Ben Zoma is the gloom of misfortune, maybe even Elie Weisel's Night. Ben Zoma may be saying that even in the moments when the Exodus is an almost  incredible memory because of the ambient misfortune,  it must be remembered. The ancient rescue from the overwhelming plague is an enduring source of hope under all circumstances. 

These two aspects of the Exodus: suffering and hope, are also reflected in the 4 questions.  The first two center on the suffering: matzoh ( the bread of affliction) and the bitter herbs ( which recall the suffering of slavery).  Asking why we eat them  is a question only in the good times.  In the bad times you don't ask why we are eating these dry and bitter foods, you are just thankful that you have food.

The second two questions assume opulence.  Why are there two hors d'oeuvres ( instead of the usual one?); why must  we  lounge  at dinner tonight?  These questions are more poignant at moments of difficulty. They are reminders of comfort in the  past and comfort that will come again.

Our salvation from this plague will come.  It will be an enduring memory.