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Jews and pandemics from the Bible to COVID-19
In the nineteenth century, Rabbi Yehoshua Shlomo Ardit (1789-1876) noted how daily life in the towns and villages around Izmir in western Turkey, where he lived, was controlled by a predictable cycle of plagues and pandemics. Most business, he observed, was conducted during the winter months, while marriages were arranged around the Spring festival of Passover. "But after Passover it was not possible to do so, because then the overwhelming majority of people became ill with the plague (may we be spared). Sometimes the epidemic would last until the end of the Spring, which is why most of the inhabitants would have left for the villages and other hamlets." It is easy to overlook this eyewitness account, for it is not found in a diary or journal, but in a commentary on a talmudic tractate about the laws of Jewish marriage contracts. And yet, the reality of life in nineteenth century Turkey was that plagues and pandemics were so common that you could set your Jewish calendar by them.
Five golden swellings: pandemics in the Bible -- The Angel of Death walks in the middle of the road: pandemics in the Talmud and the question of fleeing plague and divine punishment -- A world turned upside down: the Black Death and bubonic plague -- God has opened the eyes of the wise-hearted Dr Jenner: smallpox, vaccination, and hope -- Your hand lay heavily on the inhabitants of this land: cholera -- I sent you something priceless: amulets and miracle workers -- So they will not be depressed: the plague wedding -- Our Father, our King, save us from this plague: fasting, prayer, and pandemic theology -- The Jews have been burned by due legal process: the Black Death and anti-Jewish violence -- A menace to the health of the country: the Jewish immigrant as a carrier of disease -- The right to die: Jewish anti-vaxxers and the limits of rabbinic authority -- The plague of Biblical proportions: Jews and Judaism in the age of COVID-19.
Includes bibliographical references (pages [445]-476) and indexes.