Party for National Health

Nighttime images help track disease from the sky

According to this article, Nigeria used satellite images of city lights to correlate population movements to epidemic outbreaks. After the harvest season, there is a small population boom in the cities as migrant agricultural workers look for off-season employment. The close proximity of people combined with insufficient sanitation promotes the spread of diseases such as the measles. Interesting stuff.

It made me wonder about God's three feasts of ascent (Unleavened Bread/Passover, Shavuot/Pentecost, and Sukkot/Tabernacles) where essentially the same thing happens. Three times each year, the entire nation (or at least representative men from each house) is supposed to gather in Jerusalem. Ancient Israel had superior hygienic practices than most of the rest of the ancient world, but that many people suddenly crammed into a much smaller space is sure to facilitate the sharing of germs.

That's not necessarily a bad thing.

The men pick up the viruses and whatnot in Jerusalem and bring them back home and spread it around at the farm. If the mitzvot (commandments) concerning cleanliness were strictly observed the chances of a serious outbreak were minimized, yet the whole community could be exposed to and inoculated against new strains of disease.

The Feasts of Ascent might have served a secondary purpose as national pox parties.