COVID-19 and the Many Languages of God
“The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-69)
Of late, a number of people have asked if I was aware of any distinctly Jewish prayer for the sick that speaks specifically of COVID-19. In each case I told the enquirers that as of the moment I did not, promised that I would check it out and if necessary, would write one myself. It didn’t take all that long for me to find such a prayer - one written by Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Along the way, I remembered a short-short story I wrote years and years ago. It concerned a young child who was studying Torah with his or her elderly rabbi. One day, they were learning the story about the Tower of Babel (מִגְדַל בָּבֵל migdahl bavel), which attempts to explain how the world came to have so many languages. Suddenly, the child asked the rabbi “Rebbe, how many languages are there in the world?” to which the rabbi replied “Well, according to our sages of old, there are 70 different languages.” “And how many does God speak?” the child asked. The rabbi pondered the question for a moment or two and then answered “Why, all of them” he answered, and then pausing, a twinkle in his eye concluded with the words “. . . but mit a Jewish accent!” In these times of sickness, stress, isolation and self-quarantine, many understandably feel the need for prayer; of creating some kind of direct link with "the healer of the sick.” In the Jewish world, we frequently feel a bit more comfortable saying these prayers in “the mother tongue” (מאמע לשון - mama loschen) . . . Hebrew or occasionally Yiddish. Again, in the Jewish world, it is a custom of long, long standing that when one says a prayer for people who are ill, the words are accompanied by a tangible deed . . . normally, making a contribution to a cause or fund. This tangible act is called Tzdakah (צדקה), which comes from a word meaning not “charity,” but rather, “justice.”
What follows is the prayer I found, composed, as mentioned above, by Yitzchak Yosef, the Chief Sephardi Rabbi of the State of Israel:
אָנָא אֵל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן, תְהֵא הַשָעָה הַזֹאת שְעַת רַחֲמִים וְעֵת רָצוֹן מִלְפָנֶיךָ. תָחוֹן וְתַחְמוֹל וּתְרַחֵם עָלֵינוּ, אֲנָשִים נָשִים וָטָף, וְתַצִילֵנוּ מִכָל פֶגַע רָע, וּבִפְרָט מִנָגִיף הַקוֹרוֹנָה הַמִתְפַשֵט בְכָל רַחֲבֵי הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶר רַבִים חֲלָלִים הִפִיל, וּרְבָבוֹת וַאֲלָפִים נֶחְלוּ וְנִדְבְקוּ בוֹ.
הוֹשִיעֵנוּ וְרַחֲמֵנוּ וְהַצִילֵנוּ. כִי כֵן דַרְכְךָ לַעֲשֹוֹת חֶסֶד חִנָם בְכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר.
רִבּוֹן כָל הָעוֹלָמִים, הַעֲלֶה אֲרוּכָה וּמַרְפֵא לְכָל תַחֲלוּאֵינוּ, וּלְכָל מַכְאוֹבֵינוּ וּלְכָל מַכּוֹתֵינוּ. וּשְלַח מָזוֹר לְמַחֲלָה זוֹ. וְהַצֵל אֶת הָעוֹלָם כֻלּוֹ מִכָל דֶבֶר וּמַגֵפָה וּבִפְרָט מִנָגִיף הַקוֹרוֹנָה.
וְקַבֵל בְרַחֲמִים וּבְרָצוֹן אֶת תְפִלָתֵנוּ.
אָמֵן
(“AH-nah EHL rah-KHOOM və-khah-NOON, tə-HEH hah-shah-AH hah-ZOHT shə-AHT rah-khah-MEEM və-EHT rah-TSOHN mee-lə-fah-NEH-khah. tah-KHOHN və-tahkh-MOHL oot-rah-KHEHM ah-LEHY-noo, ah-nah-SHEEM, nah-SHEEM vah-TAHF, və-tah-tsee-LEH-noo mee-KOHL PEH-gah RAH oo-veef-RAHT mee-nah-GEEF hah-koh-ROH-nah ha-meet-pah-SHEHT bə-KHOHL rahkh-VEHY hah-oh-LAHM ah-SHEHR rah-BEEM khah-lah-LEEM hee-PEEL, oor-vah-VOHT vah-ah-lah-FEEM NEKH-loo və-need-bə-KOO VOH.
hoh-shee-EH-noo və-rah-khah-MEH-noo və-hah-tsee-LEH-noo. KEE KHEHN dahr-kə-KHAH lah-ah-SOHT KHEH-sehd khee-NAHM bə-KHOHL DOHR vah-DOHR.
ree-BOHN KOHL hah-oh-lah-MEEM, hah-ah-LEH ah-roo-KHAH oo-mahr-PEH lə-KHOHL tah-khah-loo-EHY-noo, ool-KHOHL mahkh-oh-VEHY-noo ool-KHOHL mah-koh-TEHY-noo. oosh-LAHKH mah-ZOHR lə-mah-khah-LAH ZOH. və-hah-TSEHL EHT hah-oh-LAHM koo-LOH mee-KOHL DEH-vehr oo-mah-geh-FAH oo-veef-RAHT mee-nah-GEEF hah-koh-ROH-nah.
və-kah-BEHL bə-rah-khah-MEEM oov-rah-TSOHN EHT tə-fee-lah-TEH-noo. ah-MEHN.”)
Please, our merciful and gracious God, let this be a time of mercy and good will before you. Show grace, compassion and mercy to all of us: men, women, and children. Save us from bad affliction, and in particular from the coronavirus which is spreading throughout the world, and which has felled many, and many tens of thousands have become ill and infected with it.
Save us, have mercy on us, and rescue us, because it is your way to do gratuitous kindness in every single generation.
Master of the universe, bring recovery and healing for all our diseases, sufferings and injuries, and send a cure for this disease. Rescue the entire world from every pestilence and plague, and in particular from the coronavirus.
And receive our prayer with mercy and good will.
Amen.
In terms of where you might wish to direct your act of tzdakah, permit me to suggest 3 galaxy-class research institutions:
In one of the major commentaries to the Biblical tale about migdahl bavel (the Tower of Babel), the rabbis taught that the thing that really, truly got God the angriest at the people was not their narcissistic desire to “Make ourselves a name” (Gen. 11:4), but rather the heartless way in which they responded to tragedy. According to this commentary, it happened that one of the tower builders, nearing the top of the structure, heavy brick in hand, fell to his death. And instead of the other builders feeling terribly over the loss of a human life, they were infinitely more concerned and angered over the lost brick . . . which now had to be remade and brought back up to top of the structure. In other words, God’s anger was kindled - and thus “co” (my dual “he/she” pronoun for the Divine) confused their speech because they put materiality far above humanity.
Let us not, I pray, fall pray to the same sin.
Now, more than ever, we must rise to the challenge and with combined prayers, compassion, generosity, empathy and that which is best in each and every one of us, speak one language . . . the language of healing and humanity.
Copyright©2020 Kurt F. Stone