MAY 7 • 2020 | 23
workers and other essential
employees.
“We’
re doing nasal swab
testing, which is what allows
you to detect the virus if it’
s
present,” Levy explains. “Our
goal is to test as many people
in high-risk subgroups as
possible.”
More than 3,200
symptomatic health
care workers and first
responders were tested in
Detroit and Dearborn from
March 20-April 10. Levy
is overseeing that effort in
partnership with the city of
Detroit and others, as well
as the first mobile testing
service in Michigan.
Ford is providing vehicles,
drivers and equipment; each
vehicle has the capability of
testing up to 100 people a
day, with tests returned in
24-36 hours. The vehicles
will be deployed to various
locations, including
Dickerson Detention Facility
in Hamtramck, the Taylor
Police Department, Kent
County Jail in Grand Rapids
and the Battle Creek Police
Department. Homeless
individuals are also being
tested at a Salvation Army
shelter in Detroit.
Then there are clinical
trials. Wayne State
University is collaborating
with Henry Ford Health
System, Beaumont,
Ascension Michigan and
Detroit Medical Center to
bring large-scale COVID-
19 drug trials to southeast
Michigan. Numerous other
trials involving Wayne State
University clinical faculty
are also in the works.
“By joining forces we can
marshal greater research
capabilities to effectively
test vaccines and treatments
to combat this virus,” Levy
says.
“We won’
t know how
many people need the
vaccine until we know
who’
s had the virus.” he
adds. “I think you have
to test everybody. I think
everybody needs to have a
COVID profile.”
continued from page 22
T
his year, we read
Parshat Emor from
inside our homes.
Forced by social distancing
to remain in place, we find
ourselves experiencing
a rare phenomenon, at
least for us Americans:
We are all going
through this together,
with little respect for
our social, psycholog-
ical or physical differ-
ences. Yes, our more
vulnerable populations
are suffering more.
Yet we are all equally
subject to this sickness,
which is why we are
all observing the same
health guidelines to curb its
spread.
Emor speaks directly
about the universalism of
justice and well-being. It
does so in part through a
disturbing story from chap-
ter 24: A man of mixed
descent profanes God’
s
name, an act so terrible
that Moses orders the man
stoned to death. Why would
Torah go out of its way to
identify this man’
s heritage
as “mixed”?
One answer might
be that it doesn’
t mat-
ter someone’
s outer
differences; whether
“fully” or only “partly”
Israelite, anyone who
profanes God’
s name
puts the entire camp
at risk. Everyone’
s sur-
vival is at stake.
Just as blasphemy
threatened the camp
in biblical times, so,
too, does coronavirus
threaten us all today.
This virus doesn’
t care who
we are or what we do. It will
infect whoever among us
contracts it. Moses was like
a biblical Dr. Fauci or Dr.
Birx, if you’
ll allow the thin-
ly stretched analogy. Moshe
perceived the massive threat
to everyone in the camp and
their well-being, no matter
who — Israelite or other —
uttered God’
s name in vain.
Elsewhere in Parshat
Emor, lechem ha panim — the
showbread displayed before
the entire camp, further
illustrates the notion of com-
munal inter-
reliance. It starts from one
single mass of dough and
is baked into 12 loaves,
symbolizing the 12 tribes.
Starting from a single,
common source symbol-
izes brotherhood. With
each loaf the same size and
shape, it further symbol-
izes the notion that justice
and equality is “baked in.”
Finally, the loaves are baked
in pans so wide that they can
be stacked into two neat col-
umns — perhaps intended to
look like the two tablets.
Rabbi S. R. Hirsch said
that the lechem ha panim
showed that “each tribe
devotes itself to the support
of its brother tribe as much,
or nearly as much, as it
devotes to supporting itself.”
In today’
s parlance,
observing health guidelines
resembles the showbread,
in that it is a form of both
sacrifice and of service. In
so doing, we support each
other at least as much as, if
not more, than we support
ourselves.
Thankfully, today, we don’
t
turn to stoning as a means of
quelling viruses that threat-
en us. We rightly turn to sci-
ence and medicine. Then, as
now, however, when it comes
to societal threats, we are all
responsible for each other.
By sheltering in place, we
are expressing our love and
care for each other; we are
protecting one another and
we are helping each other
live. May the Holy Blessed
One bring a swift end to this
virus and bring healing to us
all soon.
Aura Ahuvia is rabbi at
Congregation Shir Tikvah in Troy.
Parshat
Emor:
Leviticus
21:1-24:23;
Ezekiel
44:15-31.
Rabbi Aura
Ahuvia
Spirit
torah portion
For The Good Of All