Commentary for Berakhot 10:7

Declining to draw the fine distinction between "an altar of atonement" and "chastenings of love," an alternative answer is suggested, viz. "our," i.e. the teaching of the Babylonian Schools regards plagues as "chastenings of love," because a more lenient view was taken of them than by the Palestinian Schools, to which R. Johanan belonged. In Palestine, a plague-infected person had to be isolated outside the city (cf. Lev. xiii. 46), and therefore the consequences were too severe for the plague to be regarded as "chastenings of love."