As the COVID-19 crisis rages on, more and more women will need to go to the Mikvah and may not be allowed to do so if they still might be contagious. This matter has even reached the attention of secular news outlets, as featured in this article in the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/04/orthodox-jews-mikvah-immersion-covid-19/610204/

I wish I had an easy solution, but while meditating on the matter of Mikvah and hygiene, I thought some readers will appreciate this fascinating awareness of epidemiology embedded within the Torah. It is not a coincidence that the Biblical and rabbinic emphasis on purifying waters has helped maintain sanitary conditions for Jews for millennia. This is not just an observation by secular historians, but even by rabbinic authorities (for example see Sefer Mitzvos Gadol, Essin 27, where he offers two reasons for the rabbis’ obligation to wash for bread, one of which was for cleanliness.) But here is an even more interesting halakhic practice that may have helped forestall the spread of diseases:

See Simcha Feuerman’s YouTube Channel: Simcha Feuerman Youtube Channel

The Mishna (Mikvaos 1:8) describes various bodies of water that can purify for persons who become tamey. Interestingly, a Zav cannot go to the Mikvah to purify himself but must only use a spring, unlike a person who has a seminal emission who may immerse in a Mikvah. Unlike the Baal Keri (male who has a seminal emission), it is apparent that a Zav is a male suffering from some kind of a disease as a punishment, similar to a metzorah. (See for example Tosefta Zavim (2:2) which describes the Zav’s emission as a pus-like substance issuing from diseased flesh.) Keep in mind, a Mikvah is by definition standing stagnant water, while a spring (Ma’ayan) is flowing water.

If so, as it turns out, this is a striking example of the Torah’s wisdom in reducing the spread of epidemic diseases. Imagine Yerushalayim in the times of the Temple with throngs of people trying to purify themselves for the festivals. At least the heavily diseased Zav was not allowed to enter the Mikvah and instead had to use a spring, which surely reduced the contagion! (So wrote Louis Finkelstein, the Conservative Scholar in his monumental work, “The Pharisees”. Though this book has questionable assertions from an Orthodox halakhic and ethical perspective, Finkelstein was an incredibly learned sage, and makes many worthy observations as well.) 

Translations Courtesy of Sefaria, except when, sometimes, I disagree with the translation

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