Parashat Tazria-Metzora meets Corona

Hebrew

The double portion Tazria-Metzora is unparalleled in its ability to dissuade us of any notion that the Torah is interested only in lofty matters. The Torah is emphatically concerned with the most physical components of human life, and in great detail. We aren’t always comfortable with that realization. When we study Torah or listen to the Torah reading in the synagogue, we often want an escape from our routine and disconnect from painful, dirty and abhorrent things. We are not alone in that. Similar discomfort may be the reason (or at least one of the reasons) that the Midrash, and many rabbis ever after, take the word “metzora” out of context, separate the syllables, and read it as “motzi shem ra – speaking slanderously” (Leviticus Rabba 15:6). The portion then becomes an opportunity to speak against slander and gossip, undoubtedly an important subject in all times and places, but an evasion nonetheless.

Therefore, I reread the portion in hopes that some point of interest would emerge. Leviticus 14:3, struck a chord, “Behold, it is healed.” As I write this during the intermediary days of Passover, we, and the entire world, are thirsty for “Behold, it is healed,” for the good news of a cure. I continued to read. The details of the Biblical purification process are so far removed from Alcogel and face masks that I was tempted to write about gossip.

No. There is indeed something important here for us here. The afflicted person was separated from the community and lived in isolation until the disease was healed. The priest, in his paramedical role, confirms the patient’s health, but the patient does not return to the community immediately, as if nothing had happened.[*] There needs to be a transition and transitions takes time. Restoration can’t be instant. Something has indeed happened.

We entered the regime of physical distancing, sheltering in place and quarantine gradually. On Purim we met as a community, almost as usual, but some members were already in quarantine, and so we broadcast the morning service and Megillah reading on Facebook Live. The next Shabbat, there was no kiddush (!!). The following Monday, we decided in advance who would leave if 11 people showed up for minyan. It has now been more than a month since we met as a community in one physical space. We keep in touch through amazing technological means, but there is distance and disconnection. Something is changing; I dare say, we are all changing, even if only slightly and subconsciously. When the day comes that we hear the words, “Behold, it is healed,” and social distancing ends, we ought to be aware that not everything will necessarily revert to its previous state, as if nothing happened. When we meet in person again, when we can shake hands and even hug, I hope that we will also be sensitive to whatever changes have occurred, no matter how subtle.

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[*] This idea was inspired by R. Avital Hochstein, “Community and Corona” [Hebrew].

Photo: Electron microscope image of 2019-nCoV, the virus that causes COVID-19 from National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) on Flickr