Public Health, Plagues, Coronavirus, and COVID-19

Rabbi Shimon ben Menasya said: It is stated: “And the children of Israel shall keep Shabbat, to observe Shabbat” (Exodus 31:16).The Torah said: Desecrate one Shabbat on his behalf so he will observe many Shabbatot.

Rav Yehuda said that Shmuel said: If I would have been there among those Sages who debated this question, I would have said that my proof is preferable to theirs, as it states: “You shall keep My statutes and My ordinances, which a person shall do and live by them” (Leviticus 18:5), and not that he should die by them. In all circumstances, one must take care not to die as a result of fulfilling the mitzvot.

Question: What might this text mean for someone considering going to synagogue on Shabbat in spite of the threat of the spreading virus?

(1) 1. All cases of saving a life supersede Shabbat, and he who hurries in these matters is praised. Even if there is a fire in a different yard and there is concern that it will move to this yard and cause danger, we put it out to ensure that it does not spread.

Question: How might germs be compared to fire?

(4) And so too a city which has a plague or [its buildings] collapse that city fasts and they sound a blast, but those [in the places] around it fast but do not sound the alarm. Rabbi Akiva says: they sound the alarm but do not fast. What constitutes a plague? If in a city that can supply five hundred foot-soldiers and three deaths occurred on three consecutive days, behold this constitutes a plague, less than this is not a plague.

(18) The following things require washing the hands in water [after them]: One who rises from bed, goes out of the bathroom, or of the bath house, one who cuts his nails, takes off his shoes, touches his feet, or washes his head, some say: also one who goes among the dead, or touched the dead, one who cleanses his clothes of lice, has sexual intercourse, touches a louse, or touches his body with his hand. Anyone doing any of these and not washing his hands, if he is a scholar, his studies are forgotten, and if he is not a scholar, he goes out of his mind.

(5) One must refrain from putting coins in one's mouth, lest it's covered with dried saliva of those afflicted with boils. He should not put the palm of his hand in his arm pit, lest his hand touched a metzorah or a harmful poison. He should not put a loaf of bread under his armpit, because of the sweat. He should not put a cooked item or drinks under the bed, since an evil spirit rests on them. He should not stick a knife in an esrog or a radish, lest one fall on its edge and die. Hagah: Similarly, he should be careful of all things that cause danger, because danger is stricter than transgressions, and one should be more careful with an uncertain danger than with an uncertain issur. They also prohibited to go in a dangerous place, such as under a leaning wall, or alone at night. They also prohibited to drink water from rivers at night or to put one's mouth on a stream of water and drink, because these matters have a concern of danger. It is the widespread custom not to drink water during the equinox, and the early ones wrote this and it is not to be changed. They also wrote to flee from the city when a plague is in the city, and one should leave at the beginning of the plague and not at the end. And all of these things are because of the danger, and a person who guards his soul will distance himself from them and it is prohibited to rely on a miracle in all of these matters.

(5) If you will point to the fact that the Sages in all places have ordered that a man be especially attentive to his well-being and not put himself in danger even if he is righteous and a doer of good deeds, that they have said (Ketubot 30a), "All is in the hands of Heaven except chills and fever," and that the Torah states (Deuteronomy 4:15), "Be very watchful of your selves" - all of which indicates that a person is not to extend trust in God to this area, even (as our Sages state further) when a mitzvah is to be performed.

Question: Based on the above source, what does the halacha have to say to the person who decides to flaunt health regulations as an act of special piety, choosing to "Trust in God, not in Doctors."

(5) If a pregnant woman smelled [food on Yom Kippur], they feed her until she feels restored. A sick person is fed at the word of experts. And if no experts are there, they feed him upon his own request until he says: enough.

Question: What does this source teach about the authority of doctors? What implications does it have for observing CDC guidelines? Who has more authority in these matters, doctor or rabbi?

Abaye responded and said: One should not say this, as it was taught in the school of Rabbi Yishmael that from the verse, “And shall cause him to be thoroughly healed” (Exodus 21:19), from here we derive that permission is granted to a doctor to heal. The practice of medicine is in accordance with the will of God.

Question: What does this source teach about the connection between science and faith?

IV. Spiritual Meaning of Communal Sickness

(28) ...For there is no doubt that when the world is visited with distress and adversity it is easier for a man to return to His Creator. How much more so should we return, in our time and in our epoch when the Lord has smitten such a multitude, to examine our deeds and repent both of those sins between man and his Creator and those between man and his fellow man.

(29) And there are three considerations which cause me special concern in respect to two sins that men are constantly guilty of — the first, vows and oaths; and the second, causeless hatred...[which] is a transgression that one constantly persists in and that affords no benefit or enjoyment to a man which would cause his nature to incline towards it. It is for this reason that our sages placed causeless hatred over and against three transgressions: idol worship, illicit relations, and murder — for man's nature inclines more to these three than it does to causeless hatred (to explain the how and why of this would take too long) and because it is only once in a long while that one succumbs to them, whereas one constantly succumbs to causeless hatred.