Disinfected mail

I must say I do not like Corona. Why did they name a beer after a virus? The truth is, I personally do not like beer, much prefer wine or whiskey, and that fits into today's story.

I got to see a few short videos recently, one of which was by Monty Python, they are always valid in my opinion. The new president of the United States has declared that the United States has crossed the threshold of half a million deaths from the virus, more than all four years of World War II (remember that the United States entered two years after the war began). At the same time in the Monty Python video I was watching, I heard someone call out, "Bring out your dead, bring out your dead" and then I decided to take out this newsletter.

 About 700 years ago, Europeans did business with the Far East, and they had heard about some deadly disease that was spreading somewhere in the East. The World Health Organization did not address the issue properly, much like a year ago, but in this case, they did not exist.

This disease dubbed "Black Death", and probably reached European shores by traders from regions

that were badly infected. The innocent Europeans did not know how to deal with the epidemic. I will not go into the symptoms of the disease, our Corona is bad enough and probably when comparing it to the Black Plague, Corona may be mild, but the disease was passed from person to person, also by touching. Remember that in the beginning of Corona people walked around with gloves? And people came out with patents how not to press elevator buttons? Only then did they not have alcohol to wash their hands, they had alcohol for the reason it was invented - For drinking. During the past year I have had more alcohol on my hands than in my stomach, for better or worse.

It turned out that the disease was passed from person to person mainly through fleas and rats, that ran amok not only on the ships but also in houses, remembering that at that time, people did not shower every day and not every house had running water.

Who was blamed for the Black Death? Not the rats but the Jews, of course. OK, some people even today thing that it is the same thing. Why were the Jews blamed this time? First of all because of our customs. We wash our hands before a meal and therefore less people fell ill. Even today, in these Corona times, washing hands is one of the main guidelines. Also in our New Year festivities, in Tashlich, it is customary to throw your sins into running water. So people claimed that we were polluting the water sources. Because of these accusations, thousands of Jews were murdered.

Eventually the Republic of Venice declared that anyone entering the Republic, sailors, tourists, merchants, etc., was obliged to be forced into isolation for forty days. They called it quaranta giorni and from there we get the word quarantine. Those who fell ill and died during the isolation period did not endanger the residents of the city. Anyone who was suspected of being ill or was visibly ill, could not enter, nor receive medical treatment. No one knew what to do anyway.

But where did the number 40 come from? According to Douglas Adams, 42 is the meaning of life but 40? The number forty is considered to have almost special magic properties, and is mentioned in the Bible about 130 many times: the flood lasted forty days, 40 years of wandering in the desert and more and it also appears in Christianity: Jesus ascended to heaven forty days after his resurrection and there are more examples. Islam also adopted the number and the period of mourning in Islam lasts forty days.

Here in Israel, during the first Gulf War, between Iraq and the world, we sat in sealed rooms with gas masks for fear of a biological attack. Well in those days of epidemics in Europe, Mongol forces laid siege to the city of Kappa, situated in Crimea. During the siege, the Mongol forces suffered a plague, and with the help of catapults, hurled the diseased bodies into the besieged city. In doing so, the Mongols invented the biological war.

At the beginning of our plague, people were afraid to receive packages from China for fear that they would contain Corona remnants. Eventually the postal authority issued a circular saying there was really no problem. But in previous years, people believed that diseases, such as Cholera and Yellow Fever, could be spread through the mail, so methods had to be found to disinfect the mail, seeing as how mail was the only means of communication. Because of this, the postal authorities and the state tried to disinfect the letters that arrived.

Today you would not receive a letter in which holes are made, cuts or stains are covered, but in the days of epidemics in the world it was completely normal. One of the most common methods was smoking in the oven or using vinegar. Incisions were made and holes were punctured in advance so that the contents remained intact but the viruses and bacteria were killed and that apparently did the trick.

The letter shown here was sent from Aleppo in Syria to Livorno in Italy in 1692, probably through Beirut and was treated with scorching. Aleppo had a large Jewish community and Livorno also had a large community of Spanish Jews who were expelled in 1492. According to the names, it is possible that the letter was sent from Jew to Jew.

 
The information comes from several sources as well as from Dr. Hedy Faivel in his article "The Evolution of Infectious Diseases" in the Israeli Thematic journal, Noson, Journal 115.