Health and Healing

Rabbi Melanie Aron

July 11, 2003

Joe Isaacson, a Temple member and physician, shared his homespun wisdom with me, when I talked to him at services, a week ago Saturday. He said: Health- when its good, you never think about it. And when its bad, you never think about anything else.

Judaism tries to counterbalance this very human tendency in a variety of ways.

When we are well Judaism tries to cultivate in us an appreciation of our good health.

In our daily prayers each morning, we contemplate the wonder of our physical bodies, the miracle of the whole working well given all its constituent parts. Prayer makes us slow down, makes us pause in gratitude that our very complicated bodies continue to thrive.

Judaism also includes explicit commandments about safeguarding our own good health. Deuteronomy Chapter 4 verse 6 nishmartem meod lenafshoteychem has long been understood as the mitzvah of caring for our bodies.

We recall the story of Hillel, who, when asked where he was headed as he walked to the bathhouse, announced that he was going off to perform a divine commandment.

The rabbis sometimes liken our bodies to a gift. If you don't take care of a precious gift, you are acting rudely towards the one who gave it to you.

Though the rabbis speak of God as being beyond any form, yet they also retain a sense of our bodies as creations in the image of God. Therefore the respect we show for God must be reflected in our respect also for the human form.

One rabbi compared this to the attention given to the statues of the Emperor in his time. These statues were cleaned and cared for regularly. "How much more should I" he said, "who am created in the divine image and likeness, take care of my body!"

For the past 30 years, rabbinic authorities have used the commandment nishmartem meod lenafshoteychem to unhealthy practices including smoking.

Finally praying as a community for healing and strength for those who are ill, makes us more conscious of wellness as something we cannot take for granted.

What about when we are ill? How does Judaism counterbalance the very natural tendency when we are not well to think of nothing else?

First Judaism reminds us that the first sign of health is the ability to think about someone else. Judaism measures illness, not just by physical symptoms. but also by our ability to overcome the self-centeredness of illness.

Secondly, the ill person is still an individual in Jewish law with all the rights and responsibilities of the well. That is why we come and blow the shofar at convalescent homes, as the residents are like ourselves Jewish adults, obligated lshmoa kol shofar, to hear the sound of the shofar.

My father has spoken about his efforts to get his medical students and interns when making rounds, to see their patients as individuals. It is not a stage 2 tumor in room 212 but a human soul who is facing a challenge in their lives.

Abraham Joshua Heschel speaks about the body, not as a human machine, in need of repair, but as the residence of the holy. He notes that the holy disappears when there is no reverence for the personhood of the patient.

Finally, the fact that mitzvot continue to make demands on us even when we are ill, helps us to focus on something besides our disease. The ill still celebrate Shabbat and acts of gemilut chasadim are still incumbent upon you when you are not well. As the rabbis teach, "even the poorest of the poor are still commanded to contribute something to tzedakah".

I have witnessed occasions when those who are even exceedingly ill make very meaningful contributions to the lives of their caregivers.

This evening we are celebrating with a member of the congregation who has been through a long journey from health to sickness and back to health again....