First, this
I write these words having spent dozens of hours over the last five days watching Israel TV. The news just keeps getting worse.
For several months I had planned that this week I would launch a new project: Talmudology on the Parsha. But now I hesitate. Is now really the time to start this project, the very week when we have witnessed the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust? On the other hand, what else can I do, sitting here far from my Israeli family and friends? I’ve donated money, I’ve signed up to volunteer in Israel, but they really don’t need another ER doctor, even one who once held an Israeli physician license. Of course they don’t. I could continue to watch Israel’s Kan 11 channel, but I’ve done that non-stop. So I turn to something that brings me comfort: writing about Jewish ideas. Feel free to delete this if you feel the time is not right. I can’t blame you. Heck, I’m not even sure I want to write it. But for those who want to read a little about parshat Bereshit, this is for you. I had intended to write about the Torah as a Textbook. But I’ve changed my mind. This is about how illness is built into the fabric of creation.
Bereshit 1:14
וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יְהִ֤י מְאֹרֹת֙ בִּרְקִ֣יעַ הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם לְהַבְדִּ֕יל בֵּ֥ין הַיּ֖וֹם וּבֵ֣ין הַלָּ֑יְלָה וְהָי֤וּ לְאֹתֹת֙ וּלְמ֣וֹעֲדִ֔ים וּלְיָמִ֖ים וְשָׁנִֽים׃
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
“Let there be light.” It is one of the most famous phrases in the Bible, pronounced by God on the very first day of creation. But then, on the fourth day, God created the “lights of the firmament” - the stars - to project that Light. Several commentaries wonder why these stars were needed if Light (with a capital L) had already been created. Here, for example, is Moses ben Nachman, better known as Nachmanides or by his acronym, the Ramban. He was born in northern Spain in 1194 and later lived in Israel.
פירוש הרמב׳ן על התורה בראשית 1:14
יְהִי מְאוֹרוֹת הנה האור נברא ביום ראשון ומאיר ביסודות וכאשר נעשה הרקיע בשני הפסיק באור ומנע אותו מהאיר ביסודות התחתונים …"יְהִי מְאוֹרוֹת" כי מחומר השמים גזר בראשון שיהיה אור במדת היום ועתה גזר שיתגשם ויתהוה ממנו גוף מאיר ביום גדול
Now the light was created on the first day, illuminating the elements, but when on the second day the firmament was made, it intercepted the light and prevented it from illuminating the lower elements… He decreed on the first day that from the substance of the heavens there should come forth a light for the period of the day, and now He decreed that it become corporeal and that a luminous body come forth from it which would give light during the day with a great illumination, and that another body of lesser light [should come into existence] to illumine at night, and He suspended both in the firmament of the heavens in order that they illumine below as well.
Here the Ramban is focussed on figuring out what happened to that Light after it was created in the First Day, and explained that it was incorporated into our sun and into the stars on the Fourth. Many other commentaries spend time with this idea too. But the Talmud was concerned with another problem found in this verse, and it has nothing to do with the cosmos. It has to do with bacteria.
On the Fourth day, God created disease
Pay attention to that word מארת, meaning lights. It is vocalised as me’orot, despite the fact that it is written without the vowel letter ו. Without this letter, the word should be pronounced m’arat, meaning cursed. In explaining this, Rashi cites the Jerusalem Talmud:
רש׳י שם
יהי מארת. חָסֵר וָי"ו כְּתִיב, עַל שֶׁהוּא יוֹם מְאֵרָה לִפֹּל אַסְכָּרָה בַּתִּינוֹקוֹת, הוּא שֶׁשָּׁנִינוּ בְּד' הָיוּ מִתְעַנִּים עַל אַסְכָּרָה שֶׁלֹּא תִפֹּל בַּתִּינוֹקוֹת
יהי מארת The word is written without the ו after the א (so that it should be read מארת, cursed), because it is a cursed day when children are liable to suffer from croup. In reference to this we read: (Yerushalmi Taanit 4:3).On the fourth day of the week they used to fast to avert croup from the children…
Here is some context: according to the Talmud there were a number of tasks given to the townspeople who remained behind when it was the turn of their local priests, the Cohanim, to serve in the Temple in Jerusalem. These townspeople had very specific orders, as outlined in the Talmud Yerushalmi which Rashi cited:
ירושלמי תענית 4:3
תַּנֵּי. אַנְשֵׁי מִשְׁמָר הָיוּ מִתְעַנִּים בְכָל־יוֹם. בַּשֵּׁינִי הָיוּ מִתְעַנִּין עַל מַפְרִשֵׂי יַמִּים. וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֔ים יְהִ֥י רָקִ֖יעַ בְּת֣וֹךְ הַמָּ֑יִם. בַּשְּׁלִישִׁי הָיוּ מִתְעַנִּין עַל יוֹצְאֵי דְרָכִים. וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יִקָּו֙וּ הַמַּ֝יִם מִתַּ֤חַת הַשָּׁמַ֙יִם֙. בָּרְבִיעִי הָיוּ מִתְעַנִּין עַל הַתִּינוֹקוֹת שֶׁלֹּא תַעֲלֶה אַסְכָּרָה לְתוֹךְ פִּיהֶם. וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֱלֹהִ֗ים יְהִ֤י מְאוֹרוֹת. מְאֹרֹת֙ כָּתוּב
It was stated: The people of the watch would fast every day. On Monday they would fast for travellers at sea, [because on Monday God said] “there shall be a spread in midst of the water.” On Tuesday they fasted for travellers on the road, [because on Tuesday God said], “the waters under the sky shall be gathered into dry land.” On Wednesday they fasted that the children should be spared from askara [diphtheria, because on Wednesday God said], there shall be lights in the firmament, [and the word for “lights” [מאורות] is written as “curses’ [מארת].
“No case of diphtheria is unattended by danger. However mild the case may seem at the commencement, death may end it. Never be off your guard.”
diphtheria
Askara was the dreaded disease diphtheria. Here is how it is described in the Talmud:
תַּנְיָא נָמֵי הָכִי: תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת וּשְׁלֹשָׁה מִינֵי מִיתָה נִבְרְאוּ בָּעוֹלָם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר: ״לַמָּוֶת תּוֹצָאוֹת״, ״תּוֹצָאוֹת״ בְּגִימַטְרִיָּא הָכִי הָווּ. קָשָׁה שֶׁבְּכֻלָּן — אַסְכָּרָא, נִיחָא שֶׁבְּכֻלָּן — נְשִׁיקָה. אַסְכָּרָא דָּמְיָא כְּחִיזְרָא בִּגְבָבָא דְעַמְרָא דִּלְאַחוֹרֵי נַשְׁרָא, וְאִיכָּא דְאָמְרִי כְּפִיטּוּרֵי בְּפִי וֶשֶׁט, נְשִׁיקָה דָּמְיָא כְּמִשְׁחַל בִּנִיתָא מֵחֲלָבָא
It was also taught in a baraita: Nine hundred and three types of death were created in the world, as it is stated: “Issues [totzaot] of death,” and that, 903, is the numerical value [gimatriya] of totzaot. The most difficult of all these types of death is askara, while the easiest is the kiss of death. Croup is like a thorn entangled in a wool fleece, which, when pulled out backwards, tears the wool. Some say that croup is like ropes at the entrance to the esophagus, which would be nearly impossible to insert and excruciating to remove…
And here is how Paul de Kruif, the author of the famous 1926 book Microbe Hunters, described the toll on the children, who were especially likely to die from the disease.
The wards of the hospitals for sick children were melancholy with a forlorn wailing; there were gurgling coughs foretelling suffocation; on the sad rows of narrow beds were white pillows framing small faces blue with the strangling grip of an unknown hand. Through these rooms walked doctors trying to conceal their hopelessness with cheerfulness; powerless they went from cot to cot—trying now and again to give a choking child its breath by pushing a tube into its membrane-plugged windpipe…Five out of ten of these cots sent their tenants to the morgue.
For the rabbis of the Talmud, diphtheria was a reality built into the very fabric of creation. God had deliberately created this terrible disease alongside the marvels of Creation. This was a divine decree and it required regular prayer and fasting if it were to be mitigated. And as this week has reminded us, evil, too, seems to be part of the fabric of our universe. Whether in the guise of man or microbes, it is never far.
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[To read more about diphtheria in the Talmud, and the Jewish pediatrician Abraham Jacobi who dedicated his career to fighting it, click here.]
אַחֵינוּ כָּל בֵּית יִשְׂרָאֵל
הַנְּתוּנִים בַּצָּרָה וּבַשִּׁבְיָה
הָעוֹמְדִים בֵּין בַּיָּם וּבֵין בַּיַּבָּשָׁה
הַמָּקוֹם יְרַחֵם עֲלֵיהֶם
וְיוֹצִיאֵם מִצָּרָה לִרְוָחָה
וּמֵאֲפֵלָה לְאוֹרָה
וּמִשִּׁעְבּוּד לִגְאֻלָּה
הָשָׁתָא בַּעֲגָלָא וּבִזְמַן קָרִיב
