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