Community Magazine May 2013

IS THERE A MANDATE TO HEAL? In truth, there is a great deal of controversy in Jewish halachic literature as to the nature and parameters of the physician’s mandate to heal. While most authorities recognize a very broad mandate, there is a minority opinion that severely limits the scope of the authorization granted by the Torah to provide medical care. The clearest source for the right to heal is the Torah’s discussion of a case of a person who strikes his fellow, requiring the assailant to compensate the victim for his medical expenses: “ If one man strikes another and the victim does not die [which might make it a capital crime]…then [the aggressor] shall pay for his [lost] time [from work] and he shall cause [the victim] to be thoroughly healed.” (Shemot 21:18-19) Rashi interprets this passage as instructing us that “he shall pay the fee of the physician.” Clearly, if the aggressor is commanded to pay the doctor’s bills, then seeking medical treatment and providing medical treatment must be not only permissible, but also obligatory. WHAT RIGHT DO WE HAVE TO HEAL? Ibn Ezra, however, in his commentary to this verse, draws an intriguing distinction. He writes that the command to heal “is a sign that permission has been granted to physicians to heal blows and wounds that are externally visible. All internal illnesses, however, are in Gd’s hand to heal.” Why does Ibn Ezra take a limited view of the mandate to heal? Ibn Ezra’s case is not a hard one to make. The Torah itself instructs that if we obey the Torah’s commands, “then any of the diseases that I placed upon Egypt, I will not bring upon you, for I am Gd, your Healer ” (Shemot 15:26). This verse implies that Gd does not need man to cure the afflictions that He creates. Ibn Ezra argues that the meaning of this Torah passage is that because Gd acts as the (sole) healer of all illness, we will not need physicians. Ibn Ezra’s perspective forces us to ask the question, is it not a lack of faith that would lead us to seek medical care? What right does one have to “short circuit” Gd’s will and attempt his own meager cures? Does man have any right to heal at all, and if he does, are there any limitations on how it may be accomplished? Is every action done in the name of therapy justified, solely because a physician performs it? WHY DO WE GO TO DOCTORS? Because Judaism recognizes the enormity of these questions, Gd’s explicit permission is necessary to allow us to practice medicine, and the limits of medical practice are carefully circumscribed. Both the duty to save one’s fellowman and the restrictions that TheMandate to Heal: Why Go to a Doctor if Gd is Our Healer? DANIEL EISENBERG, M.D. We take it for granted that Judaism allows us to go to the doctor when we are ill. We pride ourselves on being a “rational” religion whose dictates usually mesh with common sense. When someone is seriously ill, we emphatically desecrate Shabbat to save his life because the Torah (Vayikra 18:5) clearly states, “and you shall live by them [the mitzvot],” which the sages of the Talmud explain to mean, “to live by them, and not die by them.” Indeed, medical issues occupy a great deal of space in the Talmud and throughout Jewish literature, dating back to the Torah. The long tradition of great physicians throughout Jewish history – many of whom were also great rabbis, the most famous being the Rambam – would appear to firmly establish the Torah’s positive attitude towards medicine and physicians. 70 Community Magazine