A Jewish Approach to Pandemics: Pikuach Nefesh Throughout the Ages

Abstract

Until the outbreak of the Coronavirus, pandemic was a term most often found in history books in association with the Black Death (1346-1353), the Spanish Influenza (1918) and the Cholera pandemic (nineteenth and twentieth centuries). As I am living through a pandemic that will fill the future pages of history, I now have a deeper and more personal understanding of what a pandemic actually is. I feel that as a firsthand witness, it is a worthwhile endeavor to research and analyze the effects of the current pandemic in comparison to those throughout history. The analysis will be made through the context of Judaic law and its focus on the value of human life above all else. This paper will examine how Judaism defines the value of a life and the influence this value has on rabbinic responsa and Jewish communal operation during global pandemics, both currently and throughout history. The goal of this paper is to examine how the Jewish concept of pikuach nefesh played out in rabbinic responsa during each pandemic, through comparing and contrasting the development.