Torah parsha Ekev, Deuteronomy Chapters 7:12–11:25
By Irv Jacobs, MD
LA JOLLA, California — In this week’s parsha, I focus on several references to medical conditions in ancient times, both real and metaphoric.
(I.) Medical Conditions: Ch. 7: vv. 14-15 “You shall be blessed above all other peoples:there shall be no sterile male or female among you or among your livestock. The Lord will ward off from you all sickness; he will not bring upon you any of the dreadful diseases of Egypt, about which you know….”
The Bible gives several examples of humans suffering sterility, e.g. Rachael: “Give me children or I shall die.”
As for the diseases of Egypt, scholars have studied mummies, hieroglyphics, and papyrus manuscripts. The embalming preservatives, pine resins and plant oil/animalfat in the linen wrappings of preserved bodies from as early as 4500 BCE are identified via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Some of those agents are now known to be anti-bacterial, which in turn played a role in the preservation of the specimens. Mummies themselves have been studied via CT and MRI scans, and preserved specimens have yielded DNA of both the human remains and their infecting agents. From these, we know Egyptians suffered polio, plague, influenza, malaria, schistosomiasis, prostate cancer, tuberculosis, gastric ulcers, cirrhosis, and smallpox. Even helicobacter pylori, the bacteria now known to cause gastric ulcers has been identified. Bone deformities also suggest certain diseases’ effects.
In addition, Egyptians had dwarfism and tooth decay. Of some interest is that people who lived along the coasts and ingested fluroride in their fish diets had less dental decay than people living inland.
Egyptians had sexually-transmitted diseases, such as urethritis (?gonorrhea) and pelvic inflammatory disease. Of interest is the story of Ba’al Peor (Numbers Ch. 25 and 31), in which the Israelites were guilty of “whoring” with the Midianites and Moabites. Moses was commanded to kill all the non-virgin women involved as well as the guilty Israelite men. It can be argued that this was a ‘public health’ measure to avoid the spread of venereal infection (gonorrhea, herpes, etc.).
The above tests also reveal that half the mummies had clogged arteries of arteriosclerosis, which made the subjects vulnerable to heart attacks and strokes. Likely the subjects, unlike today, were not sedentary nor did they eat high fat diets. The theory is that they suffered repeated infectious/inflammatory diseases, now known to increase the course toward coronary disease.
A male mummy, dated from 7th or 6th century BCE shows holes drilled into the skull, evidently to drain sinusitis, and which left a deformity of the left eye anatomy.
The world’s oldest cases of tuberculosis can be dated to 9000 years ago, found on the sea floor off the coast of Haifa.
Egypt’s agricultural system likely led to spread of certain diseases, due to mixing of the wastes of animals in the water, particularly in stagnant sites like irrigation canals.
(II.) Metaphoric Conditions: Deuteronomy Chapter 10: v. 16 Literally “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart and stiffen (make stubborn) your necks no more.” though translated by the Jewish Publication Society as ‘Cut away, therefore, the thickening about your heart…’ i.e. the cover that blocks your heart and renders it inaccessible to God’s teachings. Foreskin is a metaphor for a mental block that has made Israel stubborn. (Milgrom, Jacob, The JPS Torah Commentary, Deuteronomy, 1996, p. 108).
I can find no precedent in any ancient literature with such a metaphor, i.e. this is a Hebrew original.
The metaphor surfaces also in Leviticus Ch. 26: v. 41; Jeremiah (3 times) Ch. 4: v. 4; Ch. 6: v. 10; Ch. 9; 26; and Ezekiel Ch. 47: vv. 7-9. Christians adopted the metaphor, where it appears in Romans Chapter 2: vv. 28-29; Romans Chapter 9: vv.24-20; and Collosians Chapter 2: vv 11-12.
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Jacobs is a freelance writer interested in religion. He often delivers a commentary on Torah at Congregation Beth El and to his chavurah.