A little Torah about illness and quarantine.

1/x thread.

In the book of Numbers (ch 12), there’s this episode where Miriam is stricken with tzaraat, an illness that is often mistakenly translated as “leprosy,” but that doesn’t resemble Hansen’s disease as we know it.

There’s debate about whether it was contagious, but given that a 7-day quarantine is one of the things that has to happen, I’m led to believe that it is. (There are also interpretations of it as a primarily spiritual illness, but I’m not working with them now.)

In any case, Miriam was struck with tzaraat. I don't want to get into the weeds of the cause right now--there are a lot of readings, maybe I'll unpack them later, but now she's here, before us, and she's been "struck with snow-white scales."

This leads Moses to pray a short, powerful prayer to God on her behalf--one that we use now, still.

אל נא רפא נא לה

El na, refa na la--

"Please, God, please heal her."

But she isn't healed in that moment. She has to go out of the camp for seven days. To quarantine.

. @ohaliciajo has a beautiful song about Miriam, sick, quarantined, away from everyone, bitter and lonely but also taking in the stillness and the quiet in a profound way. The time away, and the hurt and the pain. https://www.girlsintroublemusic.com/songs/snow-scorpions-spiders/

"If anybody had asked me
I might not have chosen to go
But everyone knows
Sometimes you don’t have a choice."

It also seems like a moment to note that Moses also got tzaraat, in Exodus 4:6. There, it's one of the party tricks God gives Moses at the Burning Bush, as Moses is psyching up to go confront Pharaoh.

There, tzaraat is proof of his prophecy. Proof of his connection to God.

When they cross the Red Sea, in the Song of the Sea, it says explicitly that Miriam is also a prophet. (Ex 15:20). Is there a connection? I will leave that open.

In any case, here's the verse that I think is the most important here.

Numbers 12:15:

"So Miriam was shut out of camp seven days; and the people did not march on until Miriam was readmitted."

We. Don't. Leave. People. Behind.

We don't.

We do not march on without everyone we can take with us.

We do not kick people off ventilators because we've deemed their lives less worthy.

We do not give up on fighting for PPE for everyone who needs it.

We do not shrug and say it's OK if more people get infected.

We don't give up on social distancing because it's not convenient.

We don't refuse care to people who don't have the money.

We don't give up on fighting for just economic solutions for everyone.

We don't stop pushing for safety and justice for those who are incarcerated or in detention.

We don't leave anyone behind.

The Or HaChayim (Ḥayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar) teaches that "the people were willing to inconvenience themselves on account of Miriam."

We go out of our way to take care of one another. To make sure that everyone is on the journey forward with us, as many people as we can.

We must refuse to leave anyone behind.

We are in this together.