1,369. Epidemics, Sustenance

Hilchos Taaniyos 2:13

An epidemic refers to a single disease, such as diphtheria or typhoid, that is affecting many people in a city and causing deaths. Such an illness is considered a community trouble warranting a fast and sounding trumpets. Similarly, if most of a community is affected by moist, boil-like sores, we fast and sound trumpets. If the community is affected by a dry itchy rash, we only cry out to God for mercy.

Hilchos Taaniyos 2:14

Crying out because of sustenance means that the price of the things upon which most of a city’s residents rely to earn their living has dropped. Examples can include linen in Babylonia or wine and oil in Israel. If business in these wares has decreased such that a merchant must offer them for only 60% of their actual value in order to sell them, it is considered a community trouble for which we cry out to God even on Shabbos.