Seeing our way out of darkness, into light of our lives
This year I often thought about the pandemic.
I was worried about our health and confused about what we were hearing from all those around us. In the beginning, our politicians did not agree on what to do; and we were also fed falsehoods and misinformation.
Our friends and family members reacted to the pandemic in wildly different ways. Some never left the house, some went to the store but nothing else and some pushed the envelope.
With joy and astonishment about the success of science, we are now seeing our way out of this darkness into the light of our lives, and returning to some form of normalcy.
I am grateful that we have a vaccine that works and that I can hug my loved ones.
But I need to put all of this together and make some sense out of it. How do we move forward? How do we heal from a worldwide pandemic that caused anxiety and despair to all the peoples of our world?
I remember distinctly the words of my professors at seminary: go back to our tradition. This applies to all religious traditions as they provide guidance in the profound questions of life.
I was studying the Bible portions TazriaM’tzora, which deal with leprosy and other skin diseases. If the priest, who acts like a doctor in ancient Israel, comes across a person with a rash, he pronounces the person unclean. This is the description in the Bible:
“As for the person with the leprous affection, the clothes shall be rent, the head left bare, and the upper lip shall be covered over; and the person shall call out, “Impure! Impure! That person shall be impure as long as the disease and shall dwell apart in a dwelling outside the camp”. ( Lev. 13:45-46)
Somehow, 3,500 years ago the Bible told the Israelites to do exactly what we are doing now. We are to identify the afflicted person, today by testing for antibodies. In the Bible, the person is identified as unclean and must announce to everyone that they are impure.
We are to cover our mouths with masks, just like it says in the Bible. The sick person is to be separated from the community. We learn later on in the portion that the person is to be isolated for 14 days and then examined to see if the disease is still visible. It is amazing that we still do the same thing 3,500 years later.
What does this teach us? First of all, the Bible is a remarkable document and always has something to teach us; secondly, human beings at their core are the same over the ages and we share a history with our forebearers.
However, the Bible gives us the most important message of all: hope.
Leviticus 14 begins: “This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time of purification … the priest shall go outside the camp. If the priest sees that the leper has been healed ... he now leads the individual through a ritual of purification”.
The ritual involves the killing of a bird, mixing blood with water which is sprinkled over the person and letting a bird free. This is how they thanked God for renewed health. It was also a way to go back to normal life.
We too should make note of this time of healing and create some ritual to remind us that ultimately we have come through this darkness.
The other day for the first time, I had dinner with friends. We were fully vaccinated, inside my house and without masks. I recited a prayer called the Shehecheyanu.
It says: “Praise to You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, for giving us life, sustaining us and enabling us to reach this season”. Please say this prayer, or one of your own, as we slowly return to “normal”. Ritual has a restorative effect. The ancients knew that perhaps we should as well.