Dairy || meat,     dairy-meat,      dairy/meat,      dairy + meat . . .

A Dream

One night, I dreamt that a spider bit me under my eye.
A very vivid dream of a very ugly orange spider.

-end of dream-

The next morning, sure enough, my cheek was swollen and I had what appeared to be a spider bite. Since I had previously had mosquito and other insect bites, I thought nothing of the swelling. I applied some ointment to the swollen area and went back to work.

Several days later, I now look like a prizefighter who had just gone 10 rounds with Rocky Balboa. My eye is almost swollen shut and I have something that looks like chicken pox at my hairline.

With much reluctance, I drag myself to the hospital emergency room and wait. The nurse who takes my information tells me she knows what’s wrong with me, but she just can’t remember the name of this affliction.

The doctor takes one look at me and says, “Shingles.”

“Shingles?” I repeat. “Aren’t those roofing components?”

“No,” he says “they are a latent form of chicken pox.”

And he launches into an explanation that sounds roughly like this:

“Chickenpox is a common disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus (VZV), which is part of the herpesvirus family. Although many people associate the word herpes with genital herpes, the herpesvirus family is made up of nearly 100 kinds of viruses, eight of which cause disease in humans. Examples of different herpesviruses are herpes simplex virus (which causes cold sores and genital herpes infections), Epstein-Barr virus (which causes infectious mononucleosis), and varicella-zoster virus (which causes chickenpox and shingles). Varicella-zoster virus spreads in the air through coughs or sneezes or through contact with fluid from inside the chickenpox blisters.”

“But I had chicken pox when I was a kid.” I tell him.

He continues something like this: “A person usually has only one episode of chickenpox in his or her lifetime. But the virus that causes chickenpox can lie dormant within the body and can cause a different type of skin eruption later in life called shingles, also referred to as herpes-zoster.”

“Some measures you can take to get through this itchy, uncomfortable time….

... Oatmeal baths, available at the supermarket or pharmacy, can help relieve itching.”

Hey, this rings a bell, “….heat the item to a certain temperature, boil it in bleached water, plunge it in earth, immerse it in a special ritual bath, say a prayer.”

So what is it that this kashrut (law of kosher) know that we don’t know?

Do bacteria, viruses, germs live in a different realm from humans? Can they retreat to this realm - that is, lie dormant - and resurface at will? And who’s will would that be? And exactly where is this dimension? Or is this dimension a when? place?

Continue to part three