EXOD223 Bar Kappara expounded: Greater is the "Creation" of the righteous [i.e., what is created by them] than the creation of heaven and earth. For in respect to the latter it is written (Isaiah 48:13): "My hand [singular], too, has founded the earth," whereas in relation to the "creation" of the righteous [i.e., the sanctuary] it is written: "the sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands [plural] have established" (Kethuvoth 5a)

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EXOD224 The meaning of Tikkun Olam. Jews today speak of tikkun olam as a central Jewish precept, and concerned for literally “fixing the world” by making it a better place through activities often called “social action” is certainly at the heart of a Jewish perspective on life. That meaning of the term tikkun olam, however, is itself very new in Jewish history. The first occurrences of the phrase tikkun olam in the Jewish tradition appear in the literature of the classical Rabbis. They are the people whose work first appears in the Mishnah, Midrash Halakhah, and Tosefta, (the earliest compilations of the oral tradition, all edited around 200 C.E.) and then in the Talmud (edited around 500 C.E.) and the various books of the Midrash Aggadah, which were edited from the fifth to the twelfth centuries C.E. The Mishnah records that the Rabbis instituted a number of changes in Jewish law “for the sake of tikkun olum.” In these first usages, the term probably means, as the Reuben Alcalay and Evan-Shoshan dictionaries suggest as their first definitions, guarding the established order in the physical or social world (with derivatives t’kinah meaning “standardization” and t’kinut meaning “normalcy, regularity, orderliness, propriety”). In the twelfth century, Maimonides expanded on this idea considerably, claiming that the Rabbis created all of the rulings, customs and decrees--that is, the entire rabbinic legal tradition--in order “to strengthen the religion and order (fix) the world.” In this first meaning of the term, then, rabbis order the world by making Jewish law apply fairly and effectively to their contemporary circumstances. They thus structure the world with proper proportion and balance. The next time the phrase is used with a different meeting occurs in the second paragraph of the Alenu prayer, which was first used in Jewish liturgy in the fourteenth century. That paragraph is much less often sung than the first and therefore is much less well known, even though it is the core of the prayer’s meaning. The first paragraph says that we have a duty to praise God for making us Jews a distinctive nation and for creating and ruling the world. The second paragraph then states “Therefore we hope in You, Adonai, our God, soon to see the glory of Your might, sweeping idolatry away so that false gods will be utterly destroyed, to fix [perfect] the world by [to be] the Kingdom of the Almighty (letakken olam b’malkhut shaddai) so that all human beings will pray [call out] in Your Name, bringing all the earth’s wicked back to You, repentant. Then all who dwell on earth will acknowledge and know that to You every knee must bend in every tongue pledge loyalty. Before You, Adonai, our God, they will bow and prostrate themselves, and they will give honor to Your Name. All of them will accept the yoke of Your Sovereignty, and You will rule over them soon and forever; for sovereignty is Yours, and You will rule with honor always, and forever, as it is written in Your Torah [Exodus 15:18], “Adonai will rule forever and ever.” Furthermore, it is said [in the Prophets, specifically, Zachariah 14:9], “And Adonai will be acknowledged Sovereign over the whole Earth, on that day Adonai will be one and His Name one.” Notice several things about the concept as it appears in this paragraph. First, because God chose us, created the whole world, and rules it alone (that is, without the aid of any other god), we hope and pray that God will fix the world. This is definitely not the modern notion that we human beings are called to do that. Second, the fixing about which the prayer speaks is not what moderns call “social action.” It is rather theological--that Adonai will be recognized by all human beings (literally, “all creatures of flesh”) as the one and sole God. God's rule and therefore God's moral standards will become absolute and universal, forcing “all the evil [people] of the earth” to turn to God and, presumably, change their ways. A fixed world will thus involve universal recognition and acceptance of a clear and exclusive standard of behavior, with everyone fixing his or her attitudes and behavior to conform to that standard. But while this prayer envisions a moral renaissance as a corollary to universal recognition of one and only one God, it does not speak of a world rid of war, poverty, dissention, and disrespect--except, perhaps, implicitly. That is, everyone following God's rules and aspiring to God's ideals for human beings may well produce a world in which those limitations no longer exist. However, that kind of moral ideal is not the explicit message of the prayer. It is, rather, an expression of hope for a theological ideal, that of monotheism.

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EXOD225 See [[EXOD93]] Exodus 4:27 met SINAI3 165-7

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EXOD226 It is particularly when one is in need, when one's well-being is threatened, that the expressions of love on the part of a neighbor count for most. The ethics of love demand that care be taken of the defenseless and the weak. We receive constant reminders to care for the widow and the fatherless, especially when our fortunes go well with us, for then we are most likely to forget the needs of those less fortunate. The burden of their loss must be made to weigh easier for them to shoulder. As for the poor in general, not only are they to be supported but they should not be made to feel the stigma of charity. [cf. Ps. xli. 2. See Yer. Shek. v.4; Lev. R. xxxv]. The stranger, too, must be made to feel that he has full share of our consideration: "And a stranger shalt thou not oppress: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." [Exodus xxiii.9]. In thirty-six places does the Torah urge consideration for the stranger. Hence says a Rabbi: "to divert the right of a stranger is to divert the right of God". [B. Metz 59b]. Another teacher considers the crime of robbing a stranger to be worse than that of robbing a Jew. [B. Kama 113a] Kiddush Ha'shem, like Imitatio Dei, is only observed when one displays kindness to all. Of Rabbi Johanan b. Zakkai it is told that he would be the first to greet a non-Jew. Other rabbis are also described as the possessors of similar courtesy. It was a saying of the Rabbis [Gittin 59b] that since the paths of the Torah lead to peace, we should do acts of grace even unto those not of our faith in order to establish peace and goodwill among all men. God says: "Both the Gentiles and the Israelites are My handiwork. How can I, then, let the former perish on account of the latter?" [Sanhed 39b; Meg. 10b]. For this reason did He stop the Song of the Sea with the protest: "My handiwork is drowning in the sea--and you dare to sing a song?" [e.g., this verse].

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EXOD227 Another disadvantage of money and wealth is that it often keeps Jews from getting to or for living in Israel. This phenomenon, which has kept millions of Jews from leaving the Diaspora and settling in the State of Israel after 1948, is not new. There are three allusions to this idea in the Torah. When Jacob crossed over the Yabok River on the night before meeting his brother Esau, Genesis 32:35, Rashi says that the reason he went back was to get some jars that he did not want to leave behind. According to many commentaries, this river was the border between Israel and the Diaspora. Thus, for monetary reasons, Jacob left Israel and, consequently, met up with the angel that made him fight for his life. Later on in the Torah, when the Jews finally defeated the Egyptians after the miracle of the Red Sea, it says [this verse] that Moses brought the Jews into the wilderness on a march that was supposed to lead them, within a short time, to the land of Israel. But the word for "he brought" is vayasa, and not the usual form of verb, vayisa, implying that Moses had to force the Jews to travel. Noting this change of usage, Rashi, based on the Mechilta, says that the people did indeed refuse to travel, insisting on staying to retrieve all the gold and silver of the Egyptians that washed up on the beach. Thus, Moses had to force them to travel and abandon these riches. This is another example how the possibility of gold and silver held back Jews from traveling towards the land of Israel. Perhaps the most clear example of this is the story of the two and one-half tribes (Reuven, Gad, and one half of Menasheh), Numbers, chap. 32, who requested not to enter and live in Israel proper in order to have ample grazing room for their cattle, which was the measure of wealth in that desert society. After lengthy negotiations, they were granted the request on certain conditions. Once again, the wealth of Jews prevented them from entering the land of Israel. Historically, these were also the first tribes that were defeated in conquest and disappeared forever.

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EXOD228 See [[EXOD574]] Exodus 21:19 healed DUTIES 407-9

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EXOD229 Medical Intervention: The Theological Dilemma. Application of this principle to medical intervention for the purpose of preserving life is not without theological and philosophical difficulties. It is to be anticipated that a theology which ascribes providential concern to the Deity will view sickness as part of the Divine scheme. A personal God does not allow His creatures, over whom He exercises providential guardianship, to become ill unless the affliction is divinely ordained as a means of punishment, for purposes of expiation of sin or for some other beneficial purpose entirely comprehensible to the Deity, if not to man. Thus, while the ancient Greeks regarded illness as a curse and the sick as inferior persons because, to them, malady represented the disruption of the harmony of the body which is synonymous with health, in Christianity suffering was deemed to be a manifestation of divine grace because it effected purification of the afflicted and served as an enobling process. Since illness resulted in a state of enhanced spiritual perfection, the sick man was viewed as marked by divine favor. Human intervention in causing or speeding of the therapeutic process is, then, in a sense, interference with the deliberate design of providence. The patient in seeking medical attention betrays a lack of faith in failing to put his trust in God. This attitude is reflected in the teaching of a number of early and medieval Christian theologians who counseled against seeking medical attention [See T.C. Allbutt, Greek Medicine in Rome (New York, 1921), p. 402). The Karaites rejected all forms of human healing and relied entirely upon prayer. Consistent with their fundamentalist orientation they based their position on a quite literal reading of [this verse]. A literal translation of the Hebrew text of the passage reads as follows: "I will put none of the diseases upon thee which I have put upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord thy physician." [See Abraham ibn Ezra, Commentary on the Bible, ad locum]. Hence, the Karaites taught that God alone should be sought as physician. [See A. Harkavy, Likkuei Kadmoniyot (St. Petersburg, 1903), II, 148 and Harry Friedenald, The Jews and Medicine (Baltimore, 1944), p.9]. This view was rejected in normative Jewish teaching, but not without due recognition of the cogency of the theological argument upon which it is based. Rabbinic teaching recognized that intervention for the purpose of thwarting the natural course of the disease could be sanctioned only on the basis of specific divine dispensation. Such license is found, on the basis of Talmudic exegesis, in the scriptural passage dealing with compensation for personal injury [Exodus 21:18-19]. Ostensibly, this passage refers simply to financial liability incurred as a result of an act of assault. However, since specific reference is made to liability for medical expenses it follows that liability for such expenses implies Biblical license to incur those expenses in the course of seeking the ministrations of a practitioner of the healing arts. Thus, the Talmud, Bava Kamma 85a, comments, "From here [It is derived] that the physician is granted permission to cure."

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EXOD232 The fact that doctors hold an important place in Jewish communities does not negate the fundamental Jewish belief that all healing does not come about due to any medicine or a particular doctor, but only through God. God is called "your doctor" in Scripture (this verse) including the healing that is derived from medicines and the advice of doctors. In fact, traditional Jews pray three times daily for God to relieve their illnesses without placing their faith on doctors or medicines. (Tenth blessing of the daily Shemoneh Esreh). Thus, in Judaism, prayer is no less an effective "medicine" to achieve healing than any physical pill or treatment.

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EXOD233 There is an essential existential dilemma: if Jews believe that events and many experiences in their lives come directly from God (including sickness), then what right does man have to interfere with the desires of God (for a person to suffer through sickness) and take away that malady and pain? It is for this reason that many religions actually forbid physicians from treating the ill (Christian scientists, for example). The Rabbis discuss this issue and martial sources on both sides of this moral question. On the one hand, is very clear in Jewish thought that sickness comes directly from God, often as a reaction to immoral actions by man. That is why God promises a life of health without sickness for those that follow in God's ways. King David said that God, not doctors, protects individual from sickness and keeps a person alive, (Psalms 41:2–3) and each weekday traditional Jews pray to God three times a day, as the ultimate doctor and healer, to remove any and all sicknesses. (Eighth blessing of Shemoneh Esreh). How then are doctors ever allowed to step in and heal according to Jewish thought? Where is the logic? Since the Torah itself discusses paying doctor bills as part of restitution for damages, the Talmud citesthis verse as "permission" for doctors to heal.(Exodus 21:19, Berachot 60a). But how does it work? Since God knows that doctors exist and have the ability to heal in society, when He brings sickness upon an individual, God wants that doctor to administer medicine and heal the patient. Therefore, if a person contracts an illness that would normally take three weeks to heal without medicine, and the doctor can eliminate the malady in a week, then God intentionally wanted the person to be ill for a week, not three weeks. In this way, the physician actually partners with God in healing human beings. But even as the doctor prescribes treatment, Jews believe that the healing still comes from God-not the doctor. Chovot Halevavot, chapter 4.

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EXOD235 While invoking God as the "Faithful Physician" and as the source of all blessings, the Jewish people have been taught to look for His aid to come through human as through natural agencies. Ben Sira counsels: "Cultivate the physician in accordance with the need of him. For him also God ordained. It is from God that the physician getteth wisdom. ... God hath created medicines out of the earth, And let not a discerning man reject them. ... My son, in sickness be not negligent; Pray unto God, for He can heal. (Turn) from iniquity, and purify thy hands; ... Give a meal–offering with a memorial, And offer a fat sacrifice to the utmost of thy means. And to the physician also give a place. ... For there is a time when successful help is in his power; For he also maketh supplication to God, To make his diagnosis successful, And the treatment that it may promote recovery." [38:1ff.] Ben Sira's attitude still reflects the old notion of sickness as a direct manifestation of God's retributive justice as expressed in [this verse]. Hence the emphasis on the need of proper atonement as a first step to healing, and the concluding statement: "He that sinneth before his Maker shall be delivered into the hands of the physician" (v. 15). Popular Jewish belief retains this notion to the present-day, as evidenced by the gifts of charity which are dispensed on behalf of the sick or by the sick themselves. However, since Job's searching critique of the popular conception of suffering, there always has been some reluctance to consider all sickness as the result of misbehavior or sin, although in many instances this may be the case. If, then, in sickness as in health, God's help is invoked, while utilizing all the aid of human skill, it is because of the conviction that to a considerable--though not exclusive--degree the right mental attitude contributes to physical well-being. The attitude of Judaism to medicine is strikingly expressed in the following story, recorded in the late Midrash Temurah, in connection with the words of Psalm 103:15:"Man's days are as grass." "R. Ishmael and R. Akiba were walking through the streets of Jerusalem, and a certain man accompanied them. They were met by a sick person, who appealed to them: "My masters, advise me wherewith to be cured.' As they prescribed for him, their companion asked: 'And who smote him?' To which they replied: 'God.' 'Then, why do you interfere in something that is not your affair? He smote and you cure! Are you not transgressing His will?' In reply, the Rabbis asked him: 'What is your occupation?' 'A farmer,' he answered, 'as you see from the sickle in my hands.' 'And who created the soil?' they asked. 'God," was his reply. 'And you interfere in something that is not your affair?' they demanded. 'He created it and you cut its fruit!' 'If I did not go out to plow, hoe, fertilize, and weed the soil, it would not yield anything.' The Rabbis said: 'Most foolish man, from your work do you not understand the saying of the Scripture, "Man's days are as grass"? Even as the plant, if not weeded, fertilized and plowed, does not grow, and if it begins to grow and is not properly watered and cared for, cannot thrive and withers, so is the body of man. The fertilizer is the medicine and the husbandman is the physician.'" [Beth Hamidrash, I, pp. 107-108; see also Midr. Samuel IV, 1.] They in nowise conflict with God's providential care of man. Rab Aha teaches that on being cupped one should pray: "May it be Thy will, O Lord my God, that this action may serve me as healing, and mayest Thou heal me, for Thou art a faithful healer and Thy healing is certain for it is not the way of human beings to cure, but this is their custom." [Ber. 60a. See "The Physician's Prayer" in the Selected Poems of Judah Halevi, ed. Brody-Salomon, p. 113.]

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