Wouldn’t you just know that as it turns out in my ongoing Talmud study, I am in the latter part of Masechet Chulin, learning about Tum’ot, impurities that are passed from thing to thing, person to person, animal to animal, animal to person, etc…. you get the point. I most recently am learning about the yad – the holder or stem of a piece of fruit, for example, and the shomer – the skin of that fruit, for example, and the degree to which they can carry such impurities and uncleanliness (and jeopardize our health and well-being). So, let’s think about an onion, one example in the text that is discussed in detail – it has three layers of skin or shomer/shomrim. For each layer there are distinct degrees of how it can convey uncleanliness or impurity and what is permitted for consumption and what is not. The discussion is very protracted, detailed and at times quite confusing… and guess what – here we are! How do we function in our lives these days given the limitations put on interactions and gatherings, etc. in the face of COVID – 19?
Consider how it began. Here is a concise answer found at https://abc11.com/5997396/ where you can check out the video.
Q: How did it start?
A: There's a family of viruses called coronavirus. So, this is one of a family of viruses. There are seven that can affect humans. Four of them circulate all the time. We see them year after year. Three are what we call novel or new and spread more quickly and cause more severe disease. So, these are things like SARS, MERS and then this one. Those three, what we think happened, is that they were in animals and then they had enough of a mutation that they were able to jump from infecting animals to being able to infect humans. So, what we think is that that live animal market in Wuhan... there was enough animals and enough of a shift that the virus was able to move from animals to humans. And then able to spread human to human.
In the text of Masechet Chulin, there are many details regarding defilement – both ritual and non-ritual (definition of Chulin) that can be carried and cause problems such as those we are witnessing today. Differentiations are made regarding ritual defilements (e.g. carrying of impurities) and daily problems of defilement and disease that can and will impact our lives.
For example, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz comments as follows: The Gemara [Chulin 124a – 130b] relates that there are also differences between ways that ritual defilement can be contracted. For example, aside from coming into physical contact with the dead animal, tumah can also be transferred by carrying the animal, even if one does not touch it (see Vayikra 11:40).
In the Jewish community, we will be celebrating Pesach with our elaborate Sedarim in a few weeks. One of the many pivotal moments of our Sedarim is the recitation of the Ten Plagues – The Eser Makot. While we recount these as miracles of G-d in saving the people of Israel from the taskmasters in Egypt, we know there are scientific phenomena that explain them as well, not to say that God had any lesser hand in their occurrence. As I often explain, a miracle or nes is defined in one of my favorite Hebrew dictionaries as “an action of G-d, an action of man, an action of nature, and their simultaneous timing.” So we can talk of blood waves when the floor of the ocean is disturbed, the lice carried by infected frogs as they come onto land and so on until we have a national disaster such as a pandemic that now confronts us. For an explanation of the plagues and some accompanying scientific information go to https://www.livescience.com/58638-science-of-the-10-plagues.html
These are certainly scary times. There have been comparisons to the Spanish Flu of 1918 and other worldwide spread of disease. While many drastic measures are now being implemented, or so it certainly seems, to keep us all safe, perhaps it would do us all well to consider what we have come to take for granted in terms of protecting our health and well-being through good common-sense practices.
In Masechet Chulin 103a – 109b, which I was learning about a week ago, there is an extensive discussion concerning washing hands, before one eats, after one eats and even during a meal. Again, through all of the details, clearly there are ramifications for both ritual purity and just common-sense healthy practice. As someone who lives with these practices, I notice that often they are too often handled quite perfunctorily. Yet, now with the 20-second-hand-wash ritual that is being implemented in our general lives where there are constant washings and warnings against touching our faces and watching our physical contact with others, we have to wonder why is it that historically Jews, with their frequent washings and laws against ongoing physical contact with others, often did not face the scourge of pandemics to the same extent as our other brothers and sisters in our world of humanity, though this is not necessarily so this time around? Not because of any qualitative difference but perhaps because of an understanding that we cannot take contact with all other creatures, including animals, for granted. We must all work to stay healthy, protecting ourselves and others.
Clearly, we all have great reason to be fearful and concerned. But instead of being paralyzed by that fear, let’s all consider how we can live in a more healthy and guarded way, keeping ourselves and others around us safe. Be safe all and stay healthy!
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