חנניה ווייסמאן Chananya Weissman

Medical Intervention in the Torah Part 2

Chizkiyahu’s illness, like all others mentioned in the Torah, had a direct spiritual cause: he had refrained from marrying and starting a family. The prophet Yeshayahu instructed him to give his final instructions to his household, for he was going to die (see Melachim II 20:1-11). Chizkiyahu replied: “Finish your prophecy and get out! I have a tradition from my forefather [King David], even if the point of the sword is on the neck of a man, he should not hold himself back from mercy.” (Brachos 10A)

Chizkiyahu immediately prayed and cried to Hashem from the depths of his heart. Before Yeshayahu could get far, Hashem spoke and told him to return with a message for Chizkiyahu. He would be granted another fifteen years of life and would witness miraculous salvation from the powerful Assyrian army that had besieged Jerusalem. (This could have been the ultimate redemption and Chizkiyahu could have been Moshiach, but the opportunity was lost [Sanhedrin 94A].)

Yeshayahu then instructed Chizkiyahu to place pressed figs on his inflamed skin, after which it healed. Chazal teach that such a treatment should have been harmful even to healthy skin, but Hashem performed a miracle within a miracle to show that He is in charge of all healing, and nature is really nothing more than a camouflage for His intervention (Melachim II 20:7, Rashi, Radak). This is one of the reasons we must engage in reasonable natural efforts, to maintain “plausible deniability” for those who wish to deny God’s intervention, and thereby preserve free choice (see Ralbag). Without the camouflage of nature, that would be impossible. Nevertheless, the true cause of illness and healing (unless one sabotages his own health) is entirely spiritual.

Deep down we all know this. Even those who trust doctors and scientists far more than they ever deserved nevertheless pray in times of medical distress. We do not pray for the plumber to find the cause of the leak and successfully repair it (though perhaps we should). Ditto with the auto repairman, the electrician, the tailor, and so many others whose services and expertise we rely upon to fix that which needs fixing. We know that there is a step-by-step process to their work, the outcome of which – short of negligence – can be entirely predictable.

Yet when it comes to curing an illness or healing the body, we innately understand that the outcome is never entirely predictable. No doctor has ever cured a patient. The most they can do is facilitate the body’s healing, with God’s permission for it to heal. This is why people are nervous even when they undergo “routine” procedures or take medication, and those with sense pray for it to be successful. The step-by-step process of medical treatment includes a lacuna that no doctor can control: the body’s response to treatment. Unlike repairing a car or a shoe, anything can go wrong.

Despite this, doctors have a vaunted belief in their own abilities (a big reason why “the best doctors go to hell”), and most people place doctors on a pedestal. Faith in science and the abilities of doctors has become a religion unto itself, if not a cult. Even most religious people look to doctors with reverence, the sort of reverence that is given to great rabbis and few others. The stereotypical Jewish mother takes the greatest pride in her son, the doctor.

Chazal teach us that Chizkiyahu did six controversial things, three of which received the approval of the Sages and three of which did not (Pesachim 56A). The three which received approval all countered avoda zara: he dragged the bones of his father, an idolater, on a bed of rope, he pulverized the copper snake that Moshe fashioned (Bamidbar Chapter 21) which the Jews later began to worship, and he hid away the book of cures.

The latter is most intriguing. Rashi explains that people used this book of cures (which the Ramban in his introduction to Bereishis attributes to Shlomo Hamelech) to heal immediately, and they didn’t humble their hearts. Chizkiyahu hid it to compel the people to turn to Hashem.

The Rambam vehemently rejects this explanation (see his Pirush Hamishnayos). He suggests that the book of cures might have contained information about how to prepare various poisons from plants, what illnesses they would cause, and how to cure them. When Chizkiyahu saw that this scientific information was being used to murder people, he hid the book.

However, the Rambam’s preferred explanation appears in Moreh Nevuchim Part 3 Chapter 37. There he writes that the book of cures was based on the idolatrous ideology of the Sabeans, which dated back to the times of Avraham. This ideology was dominant at the time; it combined nature-worship, star-worship, and sexual perversity. Their cultish behaviors were not merely religion, but the accepted science of the time. Consequently, one who veered from their behaviors was considered a heretic, a science-denier, and a threat to society. The Rambam is adamant that the cures in the book were idolatrous and fraudulent.

The Talmud Yerushalmi’s version of the teaching refers to it as a tablet of cures (Pesachim 64A). The Pnei Moshe and Korban Ha’eida commentaries both explain that remedies based on astrology were engraved on the tablet, and it was a great sin for people to follow it. This is similar to the Rambam’s explanation.

When Chizkiyahu was deathly ill, he prayed for Hashem to remember that he had done what was good in God’s eyes. Both Rashi in Pesachim and Radak in Melachim say that this refers to hiding the book of cures. It’s interesting that they single out this action. Perhaps Chizkiyahu’s effort to turn the Jews to Hashem as the source of healing merited his own recovery.

Even more interesting, Chizkiyahu knew that hiding the book would indirectly cause some people to die. He reasoned that the book of instant cures was causing more spiritual harm than it was worth. Although this was most controversial, the Sages agreed with his decision. Did his miraculous salvation after turning to God – when the book of cures was no longer available – validate his decision?

According to Rashi, Ramban, and Radak, it was meritorious to suppress authentic medicinal cures because the people had put their faith in medicine over God. In our day, the cultish faith in modern science and medicine is on steroids (pun intended). This mindset is equated in the Gemara with actual idolatry, and warranted a swing to the opposite extreme – banishing the book of cures – to set people straight.

According to the Rambam, the book of cures was fraudulent, and therefore its banishment was no loss to the sick. If anything, removing this “misinformation” could only benefit them! It seems strange that Chizkiyahu’s decision to hide a book of false, idolatrous, presumably harmful medicines would be controversial. Perhaps the Sages needed to approve this obviously righteous act because Chizkiyahu might have ended the people’s dependence on the fake science without burying an important historical record.

Either way, the Jews of Jerusalem, with a Beis Hamikdash and true prophets in their midst, were so attached to fake science and cultish behavior that it took the brave action of a Moshiach-worthy king to put an end to it.

Stop and reflect on this as you compare to present times. Read the previous paragraph again, and just reflect on it.

Even if the science was authentic – even if it contained the wisdom of King Solomon – it was still appropriate for the book to be hidden, because the people relied on the science too much. When people give power and faith to science over God, it is idolatrous, and it is better for the science to be suppressed.

Compare to present times and reflect on that as well.

A reader recently emailed me the following remarkable comment: “I noticed a special fact today while reading the Torah. In the Greek translation (Septuaginta) I read that Pharaoh called his magicians to perform miracles. The word for magician in Greek is “Pharmacon” as you surely know [I didn’t]. These are the Pharmacists of today. They could only make some plagues worse but not take them away. How topical…So this biblical story from Egypt now gets a whole new perspective.”

If modern pharmacology does not have its actual roots in idolatry, the slavish worship of white coats, degrees, and establishment “experts” is clearly idolatrous. There is overwhelming evidence that the system is rife with corruption and that much of what is taken for granted as “scientific fact” is more akin to faith in cult leaders. Those who scorn religious faith have created a substitute that demands complete faith and ritual obedience.

Natural interventions are intended to be a camouflage for God’s intervention, not a substitute. This is even when the science behind them is indisputable, all the more so when it is shrouded in deceit, greed, politics, and conflicts of interest. Those who gamble their wellbeing and their lives on such science are certainly turning away from God and committing a great sin.

We pray three times a day in the Shemoneh Esrei for God to heal us, referring to Him as the רופא נאמן, the faithful healer. There are many doctors, but only God is the true healer, only God can be relied upon. If we must turn to doctors at times, we must do so with the understanding that they are nothing more than a camouflage for God’s healing. Their place in society deserves no special reverence, no more than anyone else who does a job and relies on God for the outcome to be successful. Doctors and medicine exist to provide a cover for God’s intervention, not to replace it.

We are blessed to live in a time when the idolatry of medical worship is being destroyed before our eyes and its priests exposed as frauds. Let us live according to the Torah, turn to God, banish the fear, and enjoy life.

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https://chananyaweissman.com/

Medical Intervention in the Torah – Part 1

This week’s double parsha, Tazria-Metzora, provides an excellent introduction into the Torah’s perspective on doctors. It should disturb us, but not surprise us, that the Torah’s perspective is quite different from what is generally accepted today. This leaves two options for those who desire at least the pretense of following the Torah: contort the Torah to support our desired outcome (what most people do), or recalibrate our perspective (what winners do).

Those with suspected cases of tzora’as are commanded to consult not a dermatologist, but a Kohen. The treatment for this skin disease is spiritual rehabilitation. Not only that, it is forbidden to cut out or deface the affected skin to circumvent the purification process (Devarim 24:8). One who violates this prohibition may well sabotage his chances of ever becoming pure (see Rambam Hilchos Tum’as Tzara’as Chapter 10).

The naysayers are already gearing up to argue that this is an exceptional case, and we cannot compare it to natural illnesses. The naysayers had best be still. While it is true that tzora’as is a spiritual-based illness from start to finish, it is also true that every illness has a spiritual cause. In fact, everything has a spiritual cause and effect. The fact that the Torah permits – and even, to a certain extent – obligates us to pursue physical treatments for other illnesses does not negate the fact that the root cause of both the illness and the healing is spiritual.

Chazal teach that in the olden days people did not normally become sick. When their time in this world was up, they would suddenly drop dead without warning. Yaakov asked Hashem to make people ill for two or three days before they died, in order that they should be able to settle their affairs. Hashem was pleased by this request, and started with Yaakov himself. Until the time of King Chizkiyahu, people did not become seriously ill and then recover (Bereishis Rabba 65:9).

The Maharzu notes the apparent discrepancy with Elisha, who lived earlier, becoming ill on three separate occasions, and explains that recovery from illness did not become an established norm until Chizkiyahu’s time.

The Yefeh To’ar similarly explains that the illnesses of Avimelech and his household centuries earlier were special divine decrees to chastise them. However, people did not become ill in the ordinary course of affairs until much later. He further explains that the medical intervention referenced in the Torah in Shemos 21:19, “ורפא ירפא”, refers to injuries, not illnesses affecting the entire body. This view is echoed by the Ibn Ezra on that pasuk.

This distinction is critical for understanding the Torah’s perspective on medical intervention. Illnesses are portrayed throughout Tanach as the direct effect of a spiritual cause, which can therefore only be healed through spiritual intervention. There is not a single case in Tanach of a doctor curing an illness. At best their services were complementary, but they had no power to heal without divine assistance, which the patient was expected to seek. Failure to seek God in a time of illness is a sin, which compounds the original spiritual cause of the illness itself (see Divrei Hayamim II 16:12).

The doctor’s position in the Torah is quite marginal, which stands in stark contrast to the vaunted position of doctors in later times to this day. The role of a doctor in the Torah is to facilitate healing from injuries, offer guidance on healthy living, tend to the sick, and provide proven remedies for illnesses when possible.

The Kli Yakar on Parshat Metzora 14:4 writes as follows:

לפי ששמירת הבריאות אינו צריך סם רק שהרופא מלמדו להועיל שיהיה נשמר מן הדברים המזיקים שלא יבא לידי חולי…אבל מי שכבר נפל אל החולי אז הוא צריך לסמים

To guard one’s health there is no need for a drug, only that the doctor should teach him positive measures so that he can protect himself from the things that cause harm, in order that he should not become ill…but one who has already fallen ill, then he has a need for drugs.

The “drugs” referenced here and in other sources are almost invariably natural remedies, with some unusual exceptions found in the Gemara. Although we have become used to artificial drugs in recent generations, and I am not suggesting we eliminate modern drugs, we should nevertheless recognize that this method of treating illness is a radical departure from everything the human race knew and learned from time immemorial. In light of this, it is absolute madness to rush headlong into any artificial treatment that has not been thoroughly proven, unless in truly extreme circumstances.

The Kli Yakar makes a point that is desperately needed in our time: A healthy person has no need for drugs, only for guidance on maintaining a healthy lifestyle. The notion of injecting a perfectly healthy person with an artificial drug – all of which have side effects and can cause severe harm – to prevent a potential illness would have been unthinkable.

Granted, the technology did not yet exist, but the Torah’s perspective on medical intervention is reactive, not proactive. Even reactive intervention needed to be explicitly permitted by the Torah (Bava Kama 85A). We have a hands-off policy until otherwise demonstrated, and leave it to God to bring healing without drugs getting in the way, which they so often do. (See https://www.sefaria.org.il/sheets/26290?lang=bi, where some of the previous sources and others on the subject can be found.)

The claim that the Torah obligates the healthy masses to inject themselves and their children with artificial drugs as a proactive medical treatment is an incredible stretch. The Torah’s default position is that proactive medical interventions, with the risks they necessarily entail, are forbidden until proven otherwise. Even reactive interventions must be proven through transparent, thorough, unbiased studies, and have benefits that clearly outweigh the risks. Speculation, even by those with plaques on their walls, is no substitute for this.

In light of this, how can anyone declare that healthy people must undergo experimental gene treatments, especially with all the doubts and obfuscation surrounding the illness they are intended to alleviate – not even prevent – and with safer alternative treatments available? I defy them to provide clear Torah sources that even permit this, let alone obligate this for everyone or anyone. The general instruction to “guard our lives” is hardly a halachic argument, let alone one that favors this radical position. On the contrary, it is a clear warning to refrain from dubious medical treatments on healthy people that offer minimal, highly speculative benefits at best.

(In part 2 I will discuss Chizkiyahu’s illness, the book of cures that he hid away, and the implications for our views on doctors and medical intervention.)

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https://chananyaweissman.com/

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The Galus Money Trap

One of the most common reasons/excuses Jews choose to remain in galus is monetary considerations. Many are unwilling to compromise on the material standard of living they have become accustomed to. They obsessively compare Israel to galus in every materialistic sense, inevitably find it inferior in some area, and triumphantly declare that Israel isn’t for them. It is a sad commentary on the spiritual assimilation of many Orthodox Jews

Others believe that living in Israel all but assures financial ruin. They know someone who made aliya, couldn’t make a living, and was forced to return to galus. Surely if they made the same reckless move, they would join the millions of destitute Jews in Israel who are starving in the streets. They just can’t make it in Israel, and there’s no point in trying. Echoing the spies who had this notion long before them, “It is a land that consumes its inhabitants.”

As Chazal teach us, a falsehood that persists must have an element of truth to it, and this is no exception. Unless someone has a rare level of faith and commitment, it would be irresponsible to make aliya without exploring parnassa opportunities in advance. Our idealistic actions must be properly grounded in reality.

The problem is when “pragmatism” becomes such a dominant force that idealism is rendered hypothetical.

Torah-observant Jews must confront the following questions:

1) What is the monetary value of finally leaving galus and returning to our homeland? What price should we be willing to pay, if the privilege of fulfilling this dream was a commodity we needed to purchase?

2) What amount of material upgrade is worth leaving Eretz Yisrael to dwell in a foreign land? We are not talking about the extreme case of someone who literally cannot survive in Israel, but those who can live more comfortably outside the land. How much money should be enough to justifiably entice a Jew to leave Israel?

3) In theory, if every Jew could live much more comfortably in galus, or received an overwhelming offer to leave the land, could we allow our collective stake in Eretz Yisrael to essentially be bought out? If not, why not? If there is a critical mass that must refuse such a financial enticement, how many people is that, and how are we to decide who must remain as a token Jewish presence?

4) Shouldn’t the many impoverished Jews in galus – including those with expensive lifestyles who still cannot make ends meet – make aliya? Shouldn’t the many Jews who use monetary considerations as a reason/excuse to remain in galus commit to aliya if they were offered a lucrative job in Israel? At what point can we fairly say there isn’t anything to lose by trying, or that the risk is minimal enough that idealism should push the needle?

5) How do Torah-observant Jews reconcile their “pragmatism” with the fundamental principle that parnassa comes from Hashem? On what basis do they believe that their ability to earn a living – and, by direct extension, God’s ability to provide the parnassa He has decreed for them – depends entirely on their remaining in galus indefinitely?

6) Is it not conceivable that the material comforts of galus are a test, even a lure of the yetzer hara to deter Jews from returning home? How can it be that many Jews consider the miraculous return of millions of Jews to Israel in two generations as “the work of Satan”, yet consider the Holocaust the plan of Hashem, and the material comforts of galus as a gift from heaven? Is this not a mental illness?

Orthodox Jews in galus know the Torah perspective to these questions, but they bury it under a grave of rationalizations and deflections. Here it is:

The monetary value of leaving galus is inestimable. No amount of material upgrade is worth remaining in galus, nor leaving Eretz Yisrael for a more comfortable life. Those who are literally forced out of the land by truly extenuating circumstances should leave with the greatest of anguish and the intense desire to return at the earliest opportunity. This is our law and our tradition.

The notion of allowing ourselves to be bought out of our land for any price is anathema. Throughout history we have bought out interlopers who occupied our land (out of necessity, for lack of ability or courage to expel them). The idea of letting foreigners bribe us to willingly abandon our land is incompatible with Judaism. Every individual Jew who allows material enticements – not absolute necessities – to keep him in exile has sold part of his soul and weakened the entire nation. For what? A bigger home? A fancier car? Cheaper groceries? The Jews in the desert remembered the fish and vegetables they enjoyed as slaves in Egypt, and wished to return. Do we shake our heads at their pettiness, then close the Chumash and emulate it?

As long as a Jew can so much as get by in Israel, he should be unwilling to stay in galus for any price. And getting by doesn’t mean living a life of excess in the most expensive parts of the country. It means settling the land and finding a way to make it work.

Amazingly enough, and contrary to the common jokes and snide remarks, moving to Israel may even be the best way of preserving one’s wealth.

Rav Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal makes an astounding observation in Eim Habanim Semeicha Chapter 3, Section 48. He discusses the Midrashic teaching that Yaacov made himself “like a bridge” to transfer his possessions across the river to save them from falling into the hands of Eisav. Rav Teichtal derives that it is precisely because Yaacov was like a bridge – with only one foot in galus and one foot firmly rooted in Israel – that he merited to save his money. All the years that Yaacov was compelled to dwell in galus, he had one foot out the door. If not for this – if Yaacov had two feet firmly planted in galus – his money would have fallen to Eisav.

Rav Teichtal explains that this is a lesson for the descendants of Yaacov up to our times. Those who turn their thoughts and their hearts away from Israel ultimately lose their money to the goyim. Instead of using this money to redeem the land and rebuild it, it goes to Eisav. However, those who have one foot out the door, eager to leave galus, have the merit of Eretz Yisrael over their possessions as if they were already there. It is the best financial decision they could ever make!

Remaining in galus does not protect a Jew’s wealth – it is a primary reason for him to lose it!

Rav Teichtal sums it up with the following stinging comment from the sefer Pardes Yosef: “As long as a Jew does not return to his land, and does not sit under his vine and fig tree, his wealth and his business are utterly worthless.”

I would add the following teaching from Sanhedrin 112A. The Gemara is discussing an ir hanidachas, a city in which the majority of the residents were lured to avoda zara. The entire city must be burned to the ground, including the property and possessions of any righteous people who lived in the city.

Rabbi Shimon asks why the Torah said the property of the tzaddikim should be destroyed. After all, they did not participate in the avoda zara. For all we know, they might have even protested it!

Rabbi Shimon answers as follows: “What caused them to live in the midst of the city? Their money. Therefore, their money is lost.”

This is a stinging message not just for those who choose to live in a “sin city” for monetary reasons, but for those who choose to remain in galus for monetary reasons. Jews who live where they do not belong for the sake of money, at the expense of their spiritual wellbeing and purpose as Jews, acquire a “reverse segula” to lose the money anyway.

I am not a prophet, and I cannot guarantee that everyone who moves to Israel will prosper in the immediate future. That is not the way of the world. Nor do I recommend for people to move without making reasonable plans and preparations (though, the way things are going in much of the world, that might soon be advisable). However, the Torah perspective on the money trap of galus is clear.

Every Jew in galus should have one foot out the door, and strive to lift the other.

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Rabbi Chananya Weissman’s sefer Go Up Like a Wall is available for free at https://chananyaweissman.com/book.php?id=8.  Hard copies are available on Amazon for the minimum price they allowed, and also available in Israel at no cost.