JUSTICE - No. 65

20 No. 65 JUSTICE claimed many lives. Some of these epidemics broke out following severe droughts and then spread rapidly due to crowded and unsanitary conditions and the lack of appropriate medical services. When a cholera epidemic swept through Poland in 1831, Rabbi Akiva Eiger, one of the great halakhic scholars of that period, wrote about the regulations enacted at that time. 4 This included the rule that not too many people should gather in one place. He sent to his student, Rabbi Eliyahu Gutmacher, 5 one of the early members of the Hovevei Zion movement, guidelines that are like some of the regulations we have seen in response to the coronavirus: In my opinion, it is indeed the case that gathering in a narrow space is not correct, but it is possible to pray group by group, and each time with very few people, about 15 people, and they should begin with the first light of the morning, and after the first group another…and to ensure that more people than the number mentioned above do not crowd into the synagogue, it is possible to place a police guard to ensure that once this number has been reached, no one else will be allowed to enter until the current group has finished. And people must take great care not to become cold, it would be good for each person to wear a flannel cover belted around his waist; people should not eat harmful foods, particularly not cucumbers and they should not eat too much fruit and fish and should not drink alcohol; they should not eat to the point of satiation, and it is preferable to eat frequently, and not too much at a time; to be hygienic, and not to live in filth and dirt at home; and with all of this to change one’s undergarments twice a week with freshly laundered and clean undergarments. One should not worry and should avoid all sorts of sorrows; one should not walk at night in the air of the city. In the afternoon, when the sun is shining, it is good to take a walk in a field in order to take in the air and to open the windows in the morning to air out the rooms. A few months later, on the eve of Yom Kippur 5592 (1831), Rabbi Akiva Eiger wrote a moving letter to the patrons of the Jewish communities of Hamburg, London and Amsterdam, asking them to come to the aid of his community and to support it during its difficult time. In describing the distress of his community's members, he wrote: You have heard from the newspapers that due to our many sins, cholera has come flying in upon us and has taken up residence here in our city, its rot and stench rise in our quarters and it is indeed killing, and with unmerciful fury, it pours from its brimming cup of potent wine in its hand; it sets the table, and slaughters and invites its guests. The clouds swell with its poisonous vapors, and upon descending to the earth they do not return until they have consumed their fill. Wherever it turns, it unleashes death and destruction in its wake. It claims one and all – the elderly and the young are given no respite; its consolations are heartless. Behold this cholera laughs in the face of famine and famishment, for it descends into the chambers of the stomach if it is empty and has no contents. This disease does not say “enough”; if it takes but one soul as body it is not placated, refusing to rest until it makes a potion out of those living in the house of the deceased, grinding them all underfoot and there is none to save them, there is no refuge from its poison, no shield against its weapons of destruction, it is insatiable and trails blood. P ARASHAT H ASHAVUA , no. 500-501 (5780-2020) [Hebrew]; Aviad Hacohen, “‘The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Laws and Regulations - Decrees that the Public is Unable to Abide By?’ — An Aspect of Legislation in Jewish Law”; P ARASHAT H ASHAVUA , no. 503 (5780-2020) [Hebrew], available at https://www.gov.il/he/Departments/ DynamicCollectors/weekly-parsha-issues 4. L ETTERS OF R ABBI A KIVA E IGER , Jerusalem 5759-1999, secs. 71-73 [Hebrew]. 5. Rabbi Eliyahu Guttmacher (1796-1874) served as rabbi and head of the rabbinic court in several communities in Poland. He was later appointed rabbi and head of the rabbinic court in Grodetz, Saxony in Germany.