Parshas Tazriah: Priests, Plagues, & Paranoia
“From a psychological point of view, ‘sins’ are indispensable in any society organized by priests; they are the actual levers of power, the priests live on sins, and need the ‘commission’ of sins.” (F. Neitzsche, from The Anti-Christ, 1888)
ב אדם, כי-יהיה בעור-בשרו שאת או-ספחת או בהרת, והיה בעור-בשרו, לנגע צרעת--והובא אל-אהרן הכהן, או אל-אחד מבניו הכהנים. ג וראה הכהן את-הנגע בעור-הבשר ושער בנגע הפך לבן, ומראה הנגע עמק מעור בשרו--נגע צרעת, הוא; וראהו הכהן, וטמא אתו. ד ואם-בהרת לבנה הוא בעור בשרו, ועמק אין-מראה מן-העור, ושערה, לא-הפך לבן--והסגיר הכהן את-הנגע, שבעת ימים. ה וראהו הכהן, ביום השביעי, והנה הנגע עמד בעיניו, לא-פשה הנגע בעור--והסגירו הכהן שבעת ימים, שנית. ו וראה הכהן אתו ביום השביעי, שנית, והנה כהה הנגע, ולא-פשה הנגע בעור--וטהרו הכהן מספחת הוא, וכבס בגדיו וטהר. ז ואם-פשה תפשה המספחת בעור, אחרי הראתו אל-הכהן לטהרתו; ונראה שנית, אל-הכהן. ח וראה, הכהן, והנה פשתה המספחת, בעור--וטמאו הכהן, צרעת הוא
“When a person has a rising, scab, or bright spot on his skin that appear like a plague-infection and it is reported to Aharon or one of the other priests. And the priest shall examine the infection. If the hair inside the infection has turned white or if the infection appears deeper than the skin, it is a plague-infection, and the priest designates it as unclean. If it appears as a bright spot on his skin, but doesn’t seem to be deeper than the skin, nor has the hair turned white; the priest should quarantine the person for seven days. On the seventh day, the priest should examine the person again and if there has been no change, the person remains quarantined for an additional week. On the seventh day of the second week of quarantine, the priest will re-examine, and if the infection stagnates and does not spread, the priest pronounces the person clean because it is just a scab; and the person washes his clothing and is clean. Yet, if the scabbing spreads after the priest declares it clean, it is shown to the priest again, and if it has spread, the priest declares the person unclean. It is the plague!”
I’m not going to translate the entire sedrah here. You can read the rest for yourself, if you are so inclined or bored enough. The issue is not what cancerous, contagious, or dermatological disorders the Torah might be describing here. No one really seems to know what the Torah is talking about, but we do know that it isn’t leprosy, which is a neurological disorder affecting the extremities, and has never been known to display the symptoms of white patches or white hair within the patches that the Torah describes. The others terms are really ambiguous and tell us nothing of what the modern equivalent of such symptoms might be describing. Some believe that the Torah is describing Hansen's Disease, a leprosy with hypo-pigmentation and discoloration of the dermis. If that is the case, I find it very hard to believe that anyone could have survived its effects, seeing as there were no antibiotics available at the time.
One might want to say that the priests were doing the best they could to diagnose and treat skin problems, and that, among the other religious and political roles, was to be the responsibility of the priestly class. That leaves some questions to be answered. Weren’t there any doctors or healers among the Bnei Yisroel that the Cohanim had to make house calls? Can you imagine modern Judaism without doctors? Is there a doctor in the house? No? Every culture had its healers, some of them applying time-tested naturalistic forms of medicine, and others, in the tradition of the snake-oil dealers, killed more people than they ever helped. It is reasonable to assume that the Israelites also had people well-versed in the healing techniques of the day and battlefield or emergency medicine. We know they had skilled midwives, so why not other medical personnel?
Parshas Metzorah does not mention internal diseases, broken legs, or other common maladies, but the message of Metzorah is crystal-clear. The ancient Jews were a very superstitious people. These infections are not medical problems, and therefore were not diagnosed by healers, but by the religious cult leaders. There was already a long tradition of God’s wrath coming by way of plagues and funny looking diseases, so the idea that disease and sin are linked were already an ingrained, traditional perspective of illness and recovery. This sort of attitude that sees death, disease, and sin and mutually inclusive events begins from the story of Odom and Chava. In Genesis 4:22 it says, “ And YHVH Elohim said: now that man has become similar to us, cognizant of good and evil, he might stretch out his hand and eat from the Tree of Life and live forever!” So we see, that from the beginning of Torah, life, death, health, and the knowledge or ability to disobey God are mutually inclusive elements of Jewish thinking, exacerbated by the belief in a Specific Providence that scrutinizes the thoughts, words, and deeds of every individual.
Physical deformities of all kinds were considered a form of God’s displeasure. Many cultures still treat the handicapped and leprous as outcasts tainted by sin and God’s wrath, even when no contagion exists. Such treatment is the realm of the stupid, cruel, and ignorant. Even in many religious Jewish homes, children with physical and mental challenges remained hidden away from public view, or shipped off to hospitals, so that others might not think the family has either spiritual or genetic malfeasance running through its veins. Fortunately, in last couple of decades, this backward thinking has changed, and religious communities are offering top-notch care and education for those born with birth defects and other challenges. In ancient times, however, your plight was unforgivable. Families were ashamed to have handicapped children.
The real issue is something much more dangerous than the possible misdiagnosis of a dermatological problem. Superstition and false religious beliefs can have devastating psychological effects. The attitude that disease and sin are mutually inclusive leads one into paranoia. Imagine that every time you get a cold or flu, that you have to worry that somehow, someway you have just pissed off the Almighty. In fact, much of our modern religious exhortation, called Mussar, says exactly that! The links established between Biblical leprosy and loshen hara have been around a long time, though no actual verse exists to support the thesis, unless you count the story of Miriam as proof. People with migraine headaches run out to have their tefillin checked. People with household molds and allergies check their mezuzahs. People with gastrointestinal problems re-kasher their kitchens. Everything is connected to sin, on the assumption that the truly righteous always have a perfect, rich, and healthy life.
(I remember many years ago, during the debates over the Shtachim, when the Lubavitcher Rebbe, M.M. Schneerson, during a shabbos farbrengen, said of HaRav Shach that he should have his ‘tefillin’ checked, which is a reference to a brain tumor that might be radically altering HaRav Shach’s cognitive processes.)
posted by Shlomo Leib Aronovitz @ 8:47 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
My husband has MS, so I found your post intriguing. I do happen to believe that often times the cause of an illness is a spiritual or emotional imbalance, but I don't think that this precludes getting medical care when it's needed.
When I'm sick (which thankfully is rare) I do take the time to reflect on what may have allowed the illness to manifest in my life, but I'm still going to take antibiotics, or homeopathic remedies, or whatever, to get better!
In the case of others' illnesses, I think the best response is compassion and keeping one's mouth shut. I have never made pronouncements on my husband's medical condition, nor would I ever be so presumptious as to question him about underlying emotional or spiritual issues -- not only would that be obnoxious, he'd laugh at me besides (his beliefs are more in line with yours; he has no use for religion).
I do agree with you that the belief that illness arises out of sin or iniquity of some kind (erroneous in my view) has caused as much grief as illness itself.
Tamara,
Best wishes to you and the hubby. I bet he is very stubborn and isn't letting the MS get the best of him. He has you on his side, and that must count for something.
I try to avoid equating the emotional with spiritual.We know that emotions are chemical reactions precipitated by thoughts or events that elicit those chemical changes. Emotions are very real, and the altering of emotional and physical states are one process. This is why a good attitude is so important in the healing process.
'Spiritual', on the other hand, is intangible and undefined, having no physical manifestation.
Kol Tuv
Shlomo,
Doctors 3000 years ago? Maybe, but that's not the issue. When someone has a disease, there are two possible issues: curing the patient, and preventing the illness from spreading to the rest of the population. We know that in ancient times plagues were common, and they were devestating to the society. You are projecting modern priorities -- healing the patient -- onto the past. But in ancient times, it's likely that the priority was preventing the disease from spreading. If one person dies, that's sad, but preventing a plague is paramount.
Remember, the Black Death in the Middle Ages was not stopped until the quarantine was instituted. And that was when, 600 years ago? This is 3000 years ago. And they have detailed rules of quarantine to safeguard society. I'd say it's very impressive.
Yes, the quarantine had to be performed by priests because they were the educated class. Everyone else had to work. The job of the priests was learning the Teaching and performing ritual. If they didn't do it, who would?
There is no mention of broken legs, because it is not talking about maladies in general, and how to cure them, but those when quarantine is required.
And how is the quote from Neitzsche related to anything?
Ami,
You’re forgetting the important part.
א וידבר יהוה, אל-משה ואל-אהרן לאמר
Had Moshe and Aharon come up with this plan on their own, I’d readily agree that they could not have known exactly what to do, not having the science available to them in their time. But they didn’t use what was best available to them, they did exactly what God told them to do! (13:1)
Now, I don’t know about how you see it, but I’d imagine that a god would not have to read the New England Journal of Medicine before he gave instructions to his priests how to handle plagues. AND even if we say the quarantine is a good idea, which it is, that does nothing for the infected person. The other issue is that Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) has a very long incubation period and its symptoms often mimic dermatological disorders. A simple seven day or two week quarantine would help no one. You say that the object was not to heal the patient, then why try? Why does the Kohen have to bother with washing and waiting? And the Torah says nothing about the stricken person dying. It is assumed that the leprosy disappeared after doing penance.
It is also interesting that the Tanach has so many instances of Tzora’as. I counted at least ten people that the Torah claims were cured from leprosy by repentance or miracles. Why does the Torah mention leprosy so much? Wasn’t there anything else that God punished with? I believe the answer is that there was no cure for leprosy and everyone knew it, and the only way, they believed to become healed, was by a miracle. This means that quarantine, washing body and clothes, etc., were essentially meaningless in any medicinal way.
The Torah does not threaten people with stroke, high cholesterol, or lung cancer because the signs of these conditions are not visible. Leprosy has visible symptoms, so the ancient control freak could run around threatening everyone with it, and since they also knew it to be fatal, would of course fall in lockstep with the priests and obey. Therefore the Torah uses leprosy, since it was the best threat it could come up with.
The quote from Neitzsche should be self-explanatory. By using sins as a control for every social ill or deviance, the priestly class ensures itself a position of power. In our case, they become the arbiters of good and evil, and reap the benefits of their position. They have to know they are full of shit, too.
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