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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EXOD234 While God in the Jewish tradition is transcendent and awesome, the dominant emphases in Jewish theology are on God's immanence and beneficence. God is portrayed in the Bible as morally good, and God describes Himself as "a God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving in equity, transgression, and sin." [Exodus 34:6-7; compare Numbers 14:18–19] Moreover, God is described many times in the Bible as our Healer [this verse; Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 19:22, 57: 18–19; Jeremiah 30:17, 33:6; Hosea 6:1; Psalms 103:2-3, 107:20; and Job 5:18. Similarly, the daily liturgy proclaims, "Heal us, Lord, and we shall be healed"; Ultimately all health and healing rest with God], and the Torah promises that if we obey God's commandments, God will prevent illness in the first place [this verse; see also Deuteronomy 7:15 and compare 28:60] Indeed, in thinking about the relationship between God and illness, we must remember that most of us for most of our lives are healthy. We dare not take that for granted. It is a strong piece of evidence for a benevolent and compassionate God. These aspects of God can and should buoy up a sick person's hope.

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EXOD231 See [[EXOD901]] Exodus 23:25 bless DUTIES 185-7

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EXOD230 See [[LEV1119]] Leviticus 26:16 wreak OXFORD 313-4

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EXOD236 From here it was said: if one hears [i.e., accepts] one mitzvah, he is privileged to hear many mitzvot, as it is written: "If you hear, hear" (Mechilta)

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EXOD237 This refers to honesty in business dealings. We are hereby taught that all who are honest in business dealings are held in favor by their fellow men, and looked upon as if they were to have fulfilled the entire Torah (Mechilta).

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