This week’s double portion, Behar-Bechukotai, marks the end of the Book of Leviticus, a book that has been with us almost since the beginning of the current pandemic. The shortest book of the Torah and usually the most forgettable, Leviticus has only ten portions, six of which are often combined like they were this year, meaning that it takes only seven total Shabbats to read through the entirety of it (the other four books take on average three full months).
While it may seem like eons ago, we began out journey through Leviticus on the week of March 22nd, the same week Governor Cuomo declared New York City the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic. At that time face masks were still a rare commodity and we had barely started to process that social distancing would be with us for an extended period of time.
In many ways the pandemic has taught us a great deal about Leviticus and Leviticus has taught us a great deal about the pandemic. Here are the central lessons I come away with:
“Wash your hands, wash your hands, and wash your hands again!” – If the Levitical priests were around today their hands would be so raw with sanitizer they would require a constant stream of moisturizer. But, for good reasons. Our Biblical ancestors understood the importance of repetitive ritual, enforcing hand washing as a key element of almost any activity. Regardless of our religious observance, we need to be religious about keeping our hands clean.
“Build testing mechanisms into everyday life” – long before antibody or viral tests, our ancestors created a regular system to determine who was healthy and who was not. The words Tohor and Tamei, usually translated as pure and impure, are actually closer to disease positive and disease negative. The entire Israelite society continually went into levels of quarantine based on risk of infection. The priests were then in charge of routine follow ups at specific intervals of time. The system is simple, well thought through, and easy to implement. We would do well to follow their lead.
“Base everything on holiness” – the end goal of it all is to be in communion with God. Holiness and Godliness are intertwined. The motto of the entire book comes in the second verse of chapter 19: “you shall be holy, for I, your God, am holy.” Spiritual and physical health are intertwined. This is what we must seek out as we make sense of our current predicament.
In the end, Leviticus reminds us of where we are in our journey: opposite Mount Sinai, the most majestic place in the Biblical landscape. Even as scary as being in the wilderness is, we must never lose sight of the beauty that surrounds us. Next week, we will officially begin our march to the Promised Land, until then I am perfectly satisfied staying in Leviticus.