FAITH AND HEALING

April 5, 2003







Rabbi Edward Paul Cohn
Temple Sinai
New Orleans, Louisiana




Last week I attended the Central Conference of American Rabbis annual convention in Washington, D.C. You have to understand, that since virtually all of the rabbis attend the same school, though different campuses, a rabbi's convention is also a college reunion. Among the subjects prominent on the minds of most of my colleagues, who, by the way, really have aged to a remarkable degree! I, on the other hand, have been lucky to remain virtually the same fellow I was at ordination almost thirty years ago! But, my point was this: the rabbis seemed consumed with issues of their personal health. I can't tell you how many regimens of eating and exercise I was treated to in the course of just three days at that conference! You'd think, for people showing their age with such visible evidence, that they might be more reticent to brag about their diets, but no such luck!

We all want to live longer and we do want to do what whatever is necessary to try to live not only long lives, but healthy ones as well! It seems that almost every week some governmental agency or medical journal is announcing exciting new discoveries of miserable things to eat or to do in order to ensure our longevity. Health clubs abound, and so do health food stores, as everyone is intent on finding a way to grab a hold of one of life's richest and most highly-prized blessings-the golden gift of physical and mental health.

Do you think for a moment that our ancestors were not similarly preoccupied? Our Torah portion this morning more than assures the fact that our people have been keenly and emphatically concerned about issues of health and physical welfare throughout the ages. It was a sacred concern among the ancient Israelites. Physical cleanliness and health were considered important in order to achieve spiritual well-being. There was no doubt in the minds of these ancestors of ours that there was an unmistakable link between physical and spiritual health.

Because of that understanding and intellectual point of departure, our Jewish tradition and our Scripture as well as all of Jewish literature were never in the least bit hesitant or shy about directly addressing matters of personal health and hygiene.

And so we have read this morning of the laws concerning the purification of women who have given birth, including the distinction between those who gave birth to a male as opposed to those giving birth to a female. Of course, the major focus of the Sedra concerns the treatment and diagnosis of leprosy and the manner in which such people were to be isolated from the totality of the camp. The point is, medicine and religion have historically been interconnected within Jewish tradition. The priests were not solely religious and spiritual functionaries, but they were empowered to oversee community hygiene and were responsible for maintaining the physical well-being of the people.

Our Judaism's attitudes towards medicine have always been positive. There is a sense, as we note in today's Haftarah reading in the story of Naman's healing, that the spiritual definitely plays a determinative role in the healing of the physical ailment. This understanding is highlighted in all of the Talmud and succeeding Rabbinic literature as well as in the philosophic treatises of geniuses like Maimonides and Yehudah Ha'levi. These are just two of our philosophic ancestors who eagerly and convincingly underscore the important correlation between cleanliness and health, spiritual well-being and physical vitality.

The Jew in the pew today, however, on first hearing these words of Torah and learning of the concerns of our people with, shall we label it "theological dermatology," tend to respond with less than ardent interest in the subject! "Spare me this stuff!" many sophisticated and cynical Jews will say. Dear friends, as fate will have it, were I to visit these same individuals only days later in the hospital, I promise you it would be a far different story.

Rabbi, Rabbi, come in. Would you like to look at my scar?  Here's my appendix in the bottle.  I'm finally regular. The test results are in and my white blood count is up.

You see, when we are sick and experience weakness, you and I are newly open to understanding our need for something more than medical statistics and scientific jargon. And that's precisely where our faith can make a significant difference! You know so well, or at least I hope you do, that our thoughts and our spiritual energy can create a context for healing and courage.

Dr. Ellen J. Langer, writing some years back in Psychology Today, made this observation as a physician:

Even if a tumor has not yet had any effect on any bodily function or how you feel physically, rarely will you think of yourself as healthy after having a malignancy diagnosed. At the same time, there are almost certainly people walking around with undiagnosed cancer who consider themselves healthy and may remain so. Yet many doctors have noticed that following a diagnosis of cancer, some patients seem to go into a decline that has little to do with the actual course of the disease. They appear, in a sense, to "turn their faces to the wall" and begin to die. But they needn't. By reinterpreting the context, they might avoid the unnecessary failure attributable to fear alone.

Now that is a significant statement. Our religious faith, our prayers, our Judaism, and its enlightened understanding of the partnership between faith and medicine have much to teach us about ministering to the sick. Time does not allow for a full discussion of the subject this morning, but I want to make these observations in the very briefest fashion. Take this away with you as a certainty.

Remember what Naman learned. This man, this Syrian general, arrives in Israel and comes to Elisha's house. But strangely, Elisha does not bother to see him himself. Through a messenger, the prophet advises Naman to go immediately to the Jordan River and to bathe in it seven times. What happens then?

Naman at first is angry: "I thought that this prophet would pray to his God, wave his hand over me, and I would be cured!" Are there not better rivers, Naman wondered, back home in Syria? The general's servants plead with him to follow Elisha's suggestion, even though it seems such a simple thing to do. Reluctantly, Naman follows the prescription. Wonder of wonders! After bathing in the Jordan the seventh time, Naman's skin becomes healthy as a newborn babe's, and the Syrian military leader gives praise to God and offers a reward to Elisha. But the prophet refuses payment. Now that's quite a story.

Let's hold that account in our minds as a precious example of our fortuitously it can come to pass, not only for those in biblical times, but for us today and tomorrow, that our faith and our trust in God may see us through to a better day.

Amen.