Berakhot 52
“One mixes water with the wine in the cup and only washes his hands thereafter.”
What struck me with today’s reading is how much insight it provides into domestic life, with mention of tables, tablecloths, the sweeping of crumbs, concern for preservation of leftovers, candles and spices. The Koren Talmud provides background on the prohibition against saying blessings over “spices of idolatry” and suggests that such spices are used as scent to neutralize a bathroom. Through these types of glimpses, I am beginning to get a view of what a home was like 2,000 years ago. (And I imagine fairly strong spices were need in the bathroom in the days before modern plumbing.)
The discussion of ritual impurity is complicated; such impurity can come from “a dead creeping animal, the carcass of an animal, and a leper.” Second degree ritual impurity can arise through a person who has been in contact with these animals or persons. This resonates with what we are living through today with the coronavirus. People who have primary infections are being quarantined in government and medical facilities (some against their wills), while those with secondary exposure are being asked to lock themselves up in their homes for two weeks during the incubation period.
People with leprosy (Hansen’s disease) were likewise quarantined in leper colonies in the past. Interestingly enough, if someone was suspected of leprosy, he would be isolated for two weeks during which period he would be observed by a Priest. After the two-week period, if there was no evidence of acceleration of symptoms, he would be allowed to reenter society. If the symptoms deteriorated during this time the Priest made the decision to move the afflicted out of the community.
My heart goes out to the people who were leper outcasts, just as it does to the afflicted with the coronavirus in China who are pictured clinging to their doorways as they are forcibly removed from their homes. This article reminds us of our responsibility as a “nation of priests” to remember the disenfranchised in our society: