How Jews Dealt With Pandemics in the Past

By COLlive reporter

As shuls, schools, communities, and cities around the world tentatively emerge from their corona-induced coma of the past few months, a class from the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) provides some perspective from the Torah, for these uncertain times.

“What Goes Around: Perspectives on Pandemics in Jewish History” offers a sweeping survey of major plagues and epidemics in Jewish history, from biblical, through Talmudic, to modern times, with a view to how our people have reacted to them.

The class assembles advice, antidotes, and anecdata relating to the practical, Halachic, and spiritual aspects of the plague, it considers how Jewish life has been historically disrupted by epidemics – and ultimately recovered from, and adapted to it.

The class was originally created by Rabbi Mendel Silberstein, Director of Chabad of Larchmont & Mamaroneck in New York, who was surprised by how enthusiastically his own community had responded to it.

As he later explained, “people were comforted by the knowledge that Torah has an answer for how to deal with a plague,” he said.

The broad theme of that answer, Rabbi Silberstein put it, was this: “Strengthening ourselves in Torah and Mitzvos – and a few specific Mitzvos – strengthens our spiritual immune system.”

Along with reworking the class for publication, JLI also prepared a slideshow presentation to accompany the class, and has since used its platform to make the class available to Shluchim everywhere.

The coronavirus hasn’t disappeared yet – not by a long shot – but knowing how Jewish communities have reacted and adapted to plague in the past, can help us as we move forward today, staff at JLI said.

VIDEO:
Rabbi Dov Lisker, Director of the Mequon Torah Center, a division of Chabad of Mequon in Wisconsin presents the class