Tefillah - 071 Doctors, Pills, Segulos and Hashem

“Heal Us, Hashem – And Then We Will Be Healed”

רפאינו ה' ונרפא – “Heal us, Hashem, and then we will be healed.”

Why is it necessary for us to add on these words “And we will be healed”? If Hashem heals us, obviously, we are being healed.

Let us try to understand why Chazal added on these words to Shemoneh Esrei.

Physical and Spiritual Forms of Healing

The Sages said that permission was given by Hashem to doctors to heal. The Gemara (Pesachim 25a) says that it is permissible to heal through any means of healing, except for any method of healing that involves the three cardinal sins of forbidden relations, murder, or idol worship.

However, there are also certain spiritual forces which Hashem created that have healing properties, such as various segulos (charms); there are many sefarim written today, Baruch Hashem, which contain this information and have gathered it all together.

A higher spiritual method of getting healed is when a person prays for another person who is ill; the Gemara says that if one prays for another person, he will be answered first.

Recognizing Hashem In The Healing Process

There are two kinds of free will we have. The basic kind of free will is that we choose between good and evil, between a mitzvah and sin.  We also have a deeper kind of free will: what kind of spirituality we have. Even within spiritual matters, a person has to choose the more truthful approach.  This does not only concern the various herbal treatments that are used in the world of medicine. It is even referring to spiritual kinds of healing, that there are different options to take – and that we need to choose the more truthful approach. Chazal told us about various segulos, and they also told us about higher methods of getting healed – through the power of giving tzedakah, as well as davening for another person to be healed.

The purpose of Creation is always the same: to recognize (in both our intellect and heart) the Creator within everything. In whatever situation we find ourselves in, we always have one goal – to clearly recognize how Hashem is present. Man has the inner ability called “eyes of the intellect” to discern how the Creator is always present in a situation. We have the choice, in every situation, of what kind of recognition we will come to.

Therefore, when we need to get healed from illness, we can choose to recognize the various methods of healing that exist in the world and let this be the focus – or, we can choose to recognize how Hashem is the Healer behind it all.

If a person gets healed from a forbidden form of healing, such as using idol worship, he has abused the power to be healed. Hashem wants the person to be healed, but He did not want the person to use one of the three cardinal sins to achieve this. The idea we see from this – the fact that one is not allowed to use any of the three cardinal sins to get healed – is that healing is about recognizing Hashem in the healing process.

Depending On The Doctors

Hashem placed wisdom in doctors – both in Jewish doctors and in gentile doctors – to heal. All of the wisdom that doctors have is enabled by Hashem. The Gemara says that “the best doctors will go to Gehinnom” – this is when a doctor doesn’t realize that his power to heal comes from Hashem.

When a person goes to a doctor and he believes that it is the doctor who is healing him, this is a degree of idol worship!

Of course, a person needs to go to the doctor. But a person must be aware that getting healed by a doctor can either cause him to see Hashem more from such a situation - or it can cause him believe that it is human doctors who heal him, which is really similar to the idea of – idol worship.

When a person goes to a doctor, he is in danger of being dependent on the doctor, and not on Hashem. A person has to feel that it is Hashem who lets anything heal him.

Taking Pills\Medication

When a person takes a pill that millions of people take for relief, he must stop and reflect for a second: “How is this pill able to heal me? It is because Hashem lets the pill heal me”. Hashem is the only “Trustworthy Doctor”. Hashem enabled various herbs to be the source of all kinds of treatments, but they are all being enabled by Hashem. If Hashem would will it, this popular pill used by the entire world will not heal at all.

If a person takes a pill and he doesn’t reflect that it is Hashem who heals him, then he really believes and feels very strongly that it is this mere pill which heals him. Healing can only come from Hashem. Hashem placed His power to heal into Creation, so we are able to use these treatments as a tool to bring about this healing, but we must recognize Who enables it to work.

Segulos, Kivrei Tzaddikim, and Getting Berachos

Even more so, besides for using physical methods of healing, even when a person uses spiritual methods of getting healed, such as using segulos - like going to a kever (grave) of a tzaddik – what does he feel? Is he turning to the tzaddik for help? Does he think that his solution depends on the segulah?

Whether it’s a segulah or a tzaddik, or even if a person feels that it is the Torah which is healing him – and indeed Chazal say that learning Torah can heal a person - but he doesn’t think that it is ultimately Hashem who is behind it – he has spent his whole life immersed in spirituality, but he never got to the purpose of life, which is to come to recognize Hashem!

A person might learn Torah and keep mitzvos all his life, and he might believe in the power of tzaddikim very strongly, but he can still miss the whole point of life, if he doesn’t come to realize how Hashem is behind everything!

Of course, it is better to be spiritual than to be totally materialistic. But just because a person lives a spiritual kind of life doesn’t mean that he lives with Hashem in his life. A person needs to live with the beginning words of sefer Mesillas Yesharim and always be cognizant of it: that our purpose on this world is to be close to Hashem. This goal must constantly be in front of our eyes.[1]

A person might be immersed his whole life in Torah and in holiness; he runs to tzaddikim for blessings and he goes to the Kosel all the time - yet he never clarifies to himself what it means to have a firm emunah in Hashem…

Where To Run To When You Are Afraid

Reb Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin said: How can a person really know what soul level he is at? The way one can know this is when he is seized with a fear. When he becomes afraid, what are his first thoughts? Wherever he “runs away” to in his thoughts shows what his true spiritual level is.

Thus, when a person finds out he’s sick, what are his first thoughts? Let’s say the doctor informs a person that, chas v’shalom, he has a fatal illness, and there is no natural way for him to get healed, according to three expert doctors. If a person has even a little bit of emunah, he will immediately become filled with emunah that only Hashem can save him. But let’s say a person is informed that he is very sick, and that he can recover with time, as long as he undergoes treatment. What are his first thoughts? Does he quickly go running around to doctors? Or does he remember that only Hashem can heal him?

This is a concept which applies to all of life as well, not just with regards to healing: When we become afraid, what are one’s thoughts? This is the true question a person needs to ask himself if he seeks truth, and he does not want to run away to imagination for relief. Most people can’t get in touch with their first thoughts, because by the time they try to remember what their initial thought was, ten more thoughts have already passed through their mind since the first thought. But a person who searches for the truth tries to discern what his first thoughts are when he becomes afraid, so that he can make sure he is having the correct reaction.

Hashem says, “I am Hashem your Doctor.” This must be the first thought if we are ever told that we are sick. Of course, we need to make effort to get healed. But our first reaction must be to realize, with clarity, that everything is ultimately up to Hashem.

This is very relevant when it comes to our matters of health. When a person is informed he is sick, if his immediate reaction is to run to the doctors and he tries every segulah and tzaddik (he becomes so desperate that he even runs to those may be a ‘possible’ tzaddik…) – he is doing a lot of running around, but he’s running away from Hashem!

This idea should be thought about before a person gets sick, as well as afterwards, rachmana litzlan (May Hashem have mercy). The first reaction should not be to run to a tzaddik for a beracha (blessing). Run to Hashem! Realize that only He can heal you! After that you can go to a tzaddik for a beracha, because you realize that he is only Hashem’s messenger to help you. But it can only work if you first ran to summoning forth your emunah in Hashem.

Hashem heals us through His messengers, which are His doctors. A doctor is merely a garment of Hashem’s power to heal. Healing doesn’t come from the doctor himself. It is coming from Hashem’s light that He allows to pass into the doctor and heal you.

If this is the way a person goes about getting healed, he has made the inner clarification about life – to realize the subtle depth of life, that Hashem is behind everything.

May we merit to dwell in Hashem’s light.[2]