Tzora'at, Coronavirus and biblical quarantines

With infectious disease and the measures taken by governments to combat its spread dominating news cycles and indeed all aspects of our lives, this parashah’s laws of two-week quarantines and social distancing are likely to take on an unusually familiar feel. The similarities can draw support from traditional commentators, many of whom understood that tzara’at posed a contagious threat to those surrounding the invalid; the author of the Hertz Chumash went as far as to identify it with various forms of known skin diseases.

Such commentators were firmly within the sights of Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, who presents a series of powerful arguments against the proposition that tzara’at corresponds with any known or infectious disease. With his typical focus on the finer details of mitzvot, R’ Hirsch points out how exceptions to the rules, such as a person whose body is entirely covered by the discolouration being automatically declared pure, point firmly away from any interpretation of tzara’at based on infection. Most striking for me, writing from Jerusalem where we have just experienced a near-total lockdown to prevent festive Pesach mingling, are the rulings which prevent any declarations of impurity during the crowded pilgrimages to Jerusalem or wedding celebrations. It is also notable that the tzara’at marks, which can afflict clothes and homes as well as skin, could not render impure any buildings in Jerusalem – a likely travel-hub given that it was the location of the Beit HaMikdash.

Instead, R’ Hirsch demonstrates, tzara’at is viewed by Jewish tradition as a spiritual malady which can become visible on the skin of a person whose observance of the interpersonal dimension of the Torah has fallen short of the required standard. This appears to be borne out by biblical instances of tzara’at: afflicting Miriam in the aftermath of her slanderous speech, Gehazi following his underhand attempt to extract money from Na’aman, and King Uzziah for his haughty insistence that his royal privilege entitled him to offer ketoret in the Mikdash. The purpose of the skin marking and subsequent quarantine is that it is supposed to serve as a Divinely-instigated indicator that the person’s conduct has fallen short, following which they undergo a period of contemplative seclusion and introspection.

R' Hirsch’s strong insistence that tzara’at is divinely ordained rather than a response to known contagious disease appears to be borne out by Rambam who writes in Mishneh Torah that:

This change that affects clothes and houses which the Torah described with the general term of tzara'at is not a natural occurrence. Instead it is a sign and a wonder prevalent among the Jewish people to warn them against lashon hora, "undesirable speech".

Rambam proceeds to explain the didactic process of tzara’atas well as detailing the poisonous potential of leaving the habits of idle and evil speech untreated.

Judaism Reclaimed explores the broader notion of ritual impurity in a couple of its chapters, providing alternatives to the suggestion that laws of tumah and taharah represented ancient sanitary and hygiene guidance. While citing the mystical view of tumah as a form of impure spiritual presence, and Rambam’s approach which sees it as a set of laws which promote (among other things) reverence of the Mikdash and holy matters, Judaism Reclaimed focuses primarily on the moral-symbolic approach promoted by R’ Hirsch. Upcoming posts will explore the Hirschian understanding of ritual impurity, with particular interest paid to the ritual impurity of the yoledet (woman who has recently given birth) and tumat met (corpse).

First posted on Facebook 18 April 2020, here.