Don’t rely upon miracles TB Shabbat 32

The rabbis in the Talmud want to know why some people died untimely deaths. They identified different punishments with different sins. Today’s daf TB Shabbat 32 identifies some of those sins and punishments. As a modern and liberal Rabbi (meaning I am not Orthodox), I can say that those rabbis are dead wrong. There is no connection between sinning and a divine punishment. Laws of nature and physics will determine the outcome and not a person’s sin.

Because God created the world with the laws of nature, we cannot expect Him to revoke them from time to time. Rabbi Harold Kushner writes: “Laws of nature treat everyone alike. They do not make exceptions for good people or for useful people. If a man enters a house where someone has a contagious disease, he runs the risk of catching the disease. It makes no difference why he is in the house. He may be a doctor or burglar; disease germs cannot tell the difference.”  (When Bad Things Happen To Good People, page 58)

Only one rabbi’s response today resonates with me. “Rabbi Yannai would examine the ferry (to see if the boat was sea worthy or not before he would board it) and cross. The Gemara comments that Rabbi Yannai acted in accordance with his reasoning stated elsewhere, as he said: A person should never stand in a place of danger saying that they on High will perform a miracle for him, lest in the end they do not perform a miracle for him.” (Sefaria.org  translation)

I am dumbfounded when I read in the newspapers and hear on the news how evangelical pastors are keeping their churches open and hundreds if not thousands of parishioners are disobeying their state governor’s order to self-shelter or how the ultra-Orthodox Jews continue to have large weddings and yeshiva classes. Religious fundamentalists are not the only people who are not only endangering themselves, but the rest of us. In today’s New York Times I read, “On this March day he’s (Ammon Bundy, the antigovernment activists in Idaho who led the standoff at Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge four years ago) rallying people against the stay-at-home order Idaho issued to curb the spread of COVID-19. Among other things, Bundy is threatening to lead a march on the homes of Idaho Governor Brad Little and the director of the state’s Department of Health and Welfare. He also says he’d like to form a human cordon around businesses staying open in defiance of the order.” (April 7, 2020)

What is the Jewish response to the coronavirus? Judaism teaches us that we should not rely on a miracle, but take good care of ourselves. Moses Maimonides, Rambam, codified that it is a positive mitzvah to preserve our health. “Since the bodies’ good health and physical perfection are divine qualities, it is impossible to comprehend God when one is afflicted with illness; therefore, one must distance himself from things that harm the body and conduct oneself in ways that lead to health.” Mishneh Torah, Laws of Knowledge 4:1)

 I think today as a physician as well as a rabbi, Rambam would prescribe self-sheltering, social distancing and wearing a mask in public places to flatten the curve. If only more of the modern 21^st century public would listen to this great Sage of the 12^th century.