Hear Our Voice

“Wash your hands after going to the bathroom

Wash your hands after changing baby too

Cause you don’t want to spread hepatitis

And we don’t want hepatitis to get you”

I had never heard, or even heard of, this jingle until I heard Natalie sing it aloud, right about the time we had babies in diapers.  I think it was her subtle way of reminding parents, siblings, our nannies, of the importance of washing hands.  And it worked! 

We also had a nanny, who taught us what she had learned in school, that one should wash one’s hands for at least as long as it takes to sing the Happy Birthday song. (A TX Children’s Doc recently shared, “the recommendation now is to wash for as long as it takes to sing the Happy Birthday song twice!”

But let’s be clear here.  As your Rabbi and teacher, I don’t generally spend this “limited real estate” on matters of the body, but this is probably the right time.   We’ve heard the news, and depending on how it’s being reported, and exactly what is being reported, most people I talk to are either somewhat alarmed or out and out panicked.  This morning, March 5, 2020, The Texas Department of State Health Services posted:

On March 4, 2020 DSHS announced the first positive test result for COVID-19 in Texas. The patient is a resident of Fort Bend County who recently returned from travel abroad and is currently isolated in the hospital. DSHS is supporting Fort Bend County in identifying any close contacts of the patient while he was sick so they can be isolated and monitored for symptoms and quickly tested, if needed.

A travel-related case in Texas doesn’t indicate spread within the state, but DSHS, the Texas Division of Emergency Management, and all state agencies continue their ongoing preparations so that all of state government is working together to limit the spread of the virus and protect Texans. The immediate risk to most Texans remains low.

That said, this may be a very good time to get a bit more observant.  That is, Jewishly observant.  I don’t mean to suggest that we should try to pray our way out of this (although I don’t discourage prayer!) nor am I suggesting that being more shomer shabbes (Shabbat observant) or shomer kashrut (Kosher observant) will spiritually inoculate us from this and other viruses.  However, washing hands IS a Jewishly mandated act.  Washing oneself and keeping clean is built into Jewish tradition and has been for 1000s of years.  In comparison to their non-Jewish neighbors, Jews did indeed better survive the Black Plague, but it certainly wasn’t because of the many anti-semitic accusations of having caused it!  It was because Jews washed more!  Full stop. Jews are commanded to wash their hands immediately upon waking up, before partaking of any meal, And especially after having used the facilities. Jews must wash their hands after having had intimate contact with another person, whether as a lover or as a care giver.  (Note to college kids: Holding someone’s hair back while they “Pray at the porcelain altar” is quite an intimate act indeed!)

Perhaps this is a necessary reminder for you and yours.  Perhaps not.  But as a friend recently mentioned to me, when in the public restroom at his place of business, he is painfully aware of the guys who leave without washing their hands.  And it happens all the time.  So, if necessary, imagine someone is watching, who cares about you and others.  Maybe it's God, maybe it’s a colleague, maybe it’s the person who would have become your friend (had you not neglected to wash your hands!). Whatever works – let this be a reminder from Psalm 24.

“Who may ascend the mountain of God?

Who may stand in God’s Holy place?

The one who has clean hands and a pure heart.”

God’s “Holy Place” is, according to the Baal Shem Tov, “wherever we let God in.”  However, making space for God means making space for others and thus the cleanliness of our hands appears even to precede the purity of our hearts.