Solitary Confinement

“…The Kohein shall quarantine the [person with the] lesion for seven days.” (Vayikra 13:4)

“N

o man is an island.”

“It takes a village.”

These clichés are used to convey the importance of realizing that people cannot “go at it alone.” But it’s equally vital to recognize the benefits of occasional solitude and of the need to sometimes just be alone.

This week’s parshah discusses tzaraas, understood by our sages to be the consequence of immoral behavior, particularly malicious gossip. The Torah prescribes that this individual’s dwelling must be outside the camp of Israel. 

Opinions vary as to why he must be removed from society. I prefer the view that believes that solitude is imposed to afford [the sinner] an opportunity for thoroughgoing introspection — to think, reconsider his actions, and resolve to live a new moral lifestyle (Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU Torah).

The term quarantine has taken on a new dimension since Covid. Years ago, the word would’ve conjured images of the early 1900s, when sickness was rampant and quarantines were the best route to contain them. But just a few years back, as Covid raged through Eretz Yisrael, quarantine, or bidud as it’s called here, became a way of life.

Israel was very strict with its bidud laws, and in the early days of the pandemic, the restrictions and the police checks only compounded the panic and fear.

It was during these early months that my whole family got Covid. Everyone, that is, except for me. Faced with the prospect of trying to quarantine everyone in the family, we made the decision that only I would quarantine, alone in my room, for two weeks.

In retrospect, I still don’t know if I did the right thing. I had two single daughters living at home then, so the house was running and the younger kids were cared for, but it was torture hearing the background noises of my home humming from behind my door, while I was powerless to step in.