I get sinus infections. I often get them more than once a year. By the time my symptoms go from bad to worse, I’m on antibiotics, an antihistamine, a steroid inhaler, a nasal spray, a nasal rinse, an anti-inflammatory, an antacid, and chicken soup. This has happened so many times that I can tell you exactly how the symptoms will go, what will help, what won’t help, what is happening before it happens.

I once went to see a doctor in LA, and he told me he can’t give me the inhaler I wanted because I have to show symptoms for a certain amount of time before he can offer a treatment. It didn’t matter that I’ve watched this take its course in my body multiple times a year, that I can predict how terrible it’ll be without the inhaler, and how much it would help. This doctor didn’t know me from Adam. He was just following policy. It’s not personal; it’s strictly business.

The thing about policy is, it makes it easy for the practitioner, not so much for the patient. Policy reduces the patient to a flowchart. Symptom A with Timeline B, equals Diagnosis C. But in many cases, it is just more complicated. We trust the experts not only to follow protocol and procedure when necessary, but to use their expertise and their empathy to make a just decision. For the patient, policy is personal. The person with the illness suffers the consequences of policy.

To quote our Torah portion(s) this week, Tazria – Metzora, if a person develops a rash, and it turns scaly, the Kohen (priest) should examine them for leprosy. If the priest finds there is leprosy, the patient is put into quarantine. The rashes are examined by the priest on a weekly basis until the priest determines the leprosy has stopped spreading.

At the time, the priestly duties went way beyond officiating rituals and prayers. The priests were also the kosher butchers, the barbecue pit masters, and the ministers of public health. And the Torah is clear, there are certainly policies in place to keep everyone safe from leprosy. But ultimately, the policy is not explained in great detail. We do not know the clear steps that could place such a decision in the hands of artificial intelligence. At the end of the day, the priest makes a judgment call. Keeping the community safe from disease is one issue, and treating the patient is another. We trust that their leadership is not based only on policy, but also on what the patient needs.

This perspective becomes clear in the Talmud. If a person is ill or otherwise compromised on Yom Kippur, the rabbis insist that you feed them until they are satisfied, for their own health. If a woman is pregnant and hungry on Yom Kippur, the Talmud says you give her whatever she desires. If she wants roast pork, you stick a straw into that juicy pig and put it right in her mouth (Talmud Bavli, Yoma 82a). Mar bar Rav Ashi said: Whenever a medically compromised person says: “I need to eat,” we listen to him and feed him, even if there are 100 medical experts who say he doesn’t need to eat, as the Bible says: “The heart knows its own pain.”

This passage became such a guiding force in both Jewish law and culture that it gave way to a popular Yiddish adage, “Freg nisht dem royfeh, Freg dem khoyleh”: Don’t ask the doctor, ask the patient.

There are certain decisions that can’t be captured by policy alone. Policy is great when the situation is black and white. People love a good binary. Are you sick, or are you better? But for someone who is in remission, someone pregnant, someone struggling with infertility, someone going through separation or divorce, someone coping with the void left by a loss, there is nothing as simple as feeling “good” or “better.” When we are living in the gray, true leadership from the experts means understanding that only the patient knows their own pain.

Policy is personal. Our Jewish tradition knows that every matter of policy is also a matter of humanity. We pray that our leaders and experts, as they make policy decisions that impact our lives, understand this too.

Rabbi Jared Skoff serves Congregation B’nai Amoona and is a member of the St. Louis Rabbinical and Cantorial Association, which coordinates the d’var Torah for the Jewish Light.