Torah and Healing | Parshas Mishpatim

all right there was this physics class at a university and one of the students gets frustrated he says to the professor he says what's the point of learning these formulae these physics equations they have any practical bearing in life so we're forced to take these courses in order to graduate university so the physics professor turns to the student he says yes this course saves lives saves lives okay so he gets quiet and he sits for a while and he's thinking of stuff how does it save lives how does it save lives so finally the student can't take anyway he blurts out says how how does the physics course save lives professor says well for one it keeps idiots like you out of medical school okay you want to see where I'm going with this what what's the connection to the fire show something we take for granted we take for granted because it's just so normal and we can't even imagine it being any other way how do you know that it's a Jewish concept to seek healing if you are god forbid not well how do you know we take it for granted of course you're sick here you go you go to a doctor yeah how do you know comes from this week's parsha no that's how that's preventative medicine how do you know if somebody got sick already maybe it's God's will well I thought you said all it can't be no you're taking it for granted because you used to it because it's been this way 3,300 some years since Tyra was given the reality has been this way so no we're not like the Christian Scientists who say that you know if you get sick you just gotta pray we seek natural means to healing but how do we know that's a Jewish concept why cuz it makes sense to you no not because it makes sense to you because Taylor says so and the sources from this week's Pasha without payee and his healing yet I pay you shall carry through with you shall administer a healing its tongue in context you know mishpokhe tempers my father my civil laws talking about damages so somebody hurts somebody else so he has to provide for the healing meaning has to pay the the doctor's bills but from this we learn in fact let's quote the the lotion of Hazael the expression of our sages right now because it figures prominently in what we're studying today the gomorian Broca's staff Sam Mohammed Aleph and also in bava kamma as well says makan from here meaning from this pasa from this scriptural source should knit knit or Schussler affair lead a place that permission was granted to the healer to heal so in other words how do we know that it's okay for a doctor to heal somebody how do we know it's not called playing God how do we know you're allowed to intervene in such a thing because they're a play you're not pay you should traitor says you should administer a healing and makan from here from this source should knit nourish us literally wrappers permission was granted to the healer to heal okay in that light I want to bring up another saying of our sages which may seem to be will seem to be inexplicable it's inexplicable almost on its own but then in also when you put it in conjunction with what we just said a moment ago it's really the difficult to to sustain how that contradiction can actually be resolved there's a Gomorrah and condition DAF pay base or Morales that says toi've should be rife him the good doctors I don't know what it says about the bad back there's but the good doctors tame she believed him look at hanim go to hell the best of the doctors the good ones the good ones go to hell okay so first of all like I said on its own it's just a funny statement because why should somebody be worthy of such punishment just because they have a profession just because they have a certain profession it's not you know what does it say about their moral character doesn't mean they're a good person a bad person just telling you what the one job they have but even furthermore in context of what we just learned that the rapper you dot pay means that resuce makan from this verse we can't sugar juice neat know that permission was granted literary fill in a place so Toyota itself is saying it's okay not only okay but that this is something that you should go out and learn how to do and be able to heal people you know I should clarify the question is a little bit deeper than it seems because actually there's another Gemara there's another in Goa return headed in that far I in gimel I'm at Aleph that is based on a holy a whole different Russia based on a whole different passions a different plastic there's a passage about Havas Aveda returning a lost object so the gomorian Sanhedrin says that just like you are obligated to return an object that you found if you find somebody's lost object so - you are obligated to heal someone if you are able okay but that that Gomorrah only tells us that you should heal someone if you already know how to do it just like you couldn't return somebody's lost object unless you found it well there's a mitzvah to return lost objects it doesn't mean that the Mitzvah to go around looking for lost objects right so if you found it then you should return you of a Mitzvah the same thing that the good mother and son had did it is only saying if you know how to heal so then you know step up and do it how you know provide the healing for the guy but how do we know that it's actually okay to go learn how to heal in the first place we know it from from the from from from the pus ik in this week's parsha from the gomorian Broca's and bava kamma makan she didn't litter shoe slit I fill it out place which means not only that he has permission to to heal if he knows how but he has permission to go learn how to do it and indeed we know throughout history there were many good Jews fine upstanding Jews who were healers not just mean you know the proverbial Jewish joke about the other Jewish mother whether you know the son was a doctor I mean real good daily solemn in the Rambam parish um so we have to understand this how is it possible to say that Toyota says it's it's permissible to see killing it's permissible to administer healing it's permissible to learn how to heal uh but if you're one of the people if you're a healer takes your battery from we're gonna hand him the healers the doctors all go to hell it doesn't make sense doesn't make sense okay so I'm going to tell you a story the story takes place in Vienna Austria and that's important to know because Vienna was a town not a town a city cosmopolitan you know a world center specifically for academia a lot of universities and profound and even more specifically medical universities medical schools so there were great experts all the and I'm talking about the stories of us in the 1930s and the interwar years so particularly in that era all the cutting-edge medicine was in Vienna people would come to Vienna out of front from the whole Europe because there were the biggest experts the top specialists in their fields the people who were teaching the subject to all the to the other doctors they were all in Vienna okay now in Vienna during this time in the 30s there was the rabba of short cough which is from erosion which is from the maggot the the Baal Shem Tov's successor the maggot and I've dived there through his son the Moloch Rebbe of ROM so he had a a nicole is revolutionary miss well Freedman revolutionary sort of Friedman was named after the mouse champ - his name was Heathrow and he had an a Nicole yes Royal Charter cover who in turn had a son named dive bear who is named after the Margot and he said all obviously is being named after the Baal Shem Tov I'm just giving you the the lineage here of the dynasty the story takes place during the leadership of rebus roll the great grandson I believe of the Russian Air who they called the short cover of there are a few different dynasties that come from Russian but this is the the short to cover love in in Vienna at any rate what happened is there was this modern guy I mean assimilated not not a closet and not the wall not not from not a religious guy he got sick and he ended up in Vienna because that was you know the the cutting edge place that's where you go if you know if the local doctors didn't know how to heal you go to you go to Vienna so this he was a businessman a wealthy guy he can afford you know whatever treatment he needed but he had to go to Vienna to get it because that's where the that's where the experts were so this businessman he goes to Vienna and he goes to all the biggest experts in Vienna and they all tell him there's nothing we can do we don't have a treatment for that okay they basically tell him you're on your own so he was he was obviously was broken and no one's even offering him any type of treatment somehow I don't know the background but he was friendly with which is unusually what like I said it was not across city was not even religious somehow he was friendly with rabb-ul charter covers son Dave there who eventually became his father success and became the drug to cover-up I believe he passed away by the way just a few years after his father at any rate so this this businessman spoke to a bear and he told him to go to my father and get a broker so it was not a thing that he would normally do he was not into getting brokers look at like I said he wasn't across he wasn't the cost of he was not even religious but he went to the tether of the chart to cover of and he and he got his he got a broker and the broker came with instructions the the enough told him they in here in Vienna in town there's this doctor and you should go to him he gave him the name you should go to him and you know it should be good should be held followed up who is this doctor he's some GP you know a general practitioner like a family doctor you know runny noses and you know flus and colds you look good I'm a pediatrician like yeah like just a regular guy had a little practice hanging a hung up a shingle and that's he was just he he was a family doctor so the the businessman has he's been through the biggest experts he's been to the the top names in in the generation and now he's being sent to this rinky-dink I mean to put it frankly this rinky-dink you know a little family doctor and but he goes and the doctor give him some type of course of treatment and he was healed he was healed okay so obviously he was very very happy but he was also confused I mean at first you don't ask any questions because you're just grateful but then he was confused so he came back to the church cover of and he asked I mean say thank you expressed his gratitude but then he said by the way I don't understand this I went to all the biggest experts in the world who are all here you know in Vienna and they couldn't help me they wouldn't even try to help me and you sent me to your little doctor and not only he tried to help me Margaret sent me helped me right so what's up with that how does that how does how does that how does that work so you throw the truck over of says makaan shanita rushers literally Rapace quotes the Gemara from here the permission was granted to the healer to heal the guy didn't really understand how that's an answer to his question so he turned to divert to the Sun it kind of looked like so the Sun explained it he translated it spelled it out he says me con from here they were in the room the doctor covers room where where he learned and where he would you know spend time in his own Aveda but also that was the room where people would come in you did this to visit him to have the private audiences to ask for spiritual guidance and also to ask for blessing just like this businessman had come and asked for blessing from the front row to cover of so his son of Dover says Nick on from here meaning from this place from this room knit another shoes permission is granted literary filler outpaced to the healer to heal you you you think that the specialists are able to heal because they're specialists because a doctor is so smart because he's he's the top in his field no no there has to be a ruse there has to be a special permission granted for Hashem's healing to come through that doctor and where does that come from it comes from here from this place where you got a broker and once you had that Baraka then it wasn't that important which doctor it was it could be the top specialist in this field it could be a regular GP it's just a conduit it's just a delivery system that's the whole idea of healing that a doctor is a divinely appointed emissary and therefore by the way let me add you have to listen to your doctor because they're a divinely appointed emissary you know the Rebbe is llevaba cherub is eager skittish thousands tens of thousands of ladders which were were published has many ladders that deal with healing I mean through the whole gamut every type of issue in life is dealt with and that I was egress but you see a lot of letters where people write in they're looking for for healing and it ever says over and over again go to a doctor and listen to your doctor so the fact that it doctors are divinely appointed emissary the fact that he is Hashem chosen conduit for the healing to enter the world means that he has a certain power it's not his power it's not his own power doesn't come from him comes through him as a divine agent so therefore you have to listen to him and it's not that the doctor has to be so smart and it's not that he has to be so skilled Hashem is smart Hashem is skilled Hashem is the doctor but he's sending it through this person it's it's along the same line it's not to get off-topic but you know how you make a how you make a living your work doesn't generate par no so your work is just a vessel it's just plausible deniability really Hashem is still feed feeding us month just like he did in the wilderness but he has to hide it so he asked that plausible deniability has to have an alibi so has to look like it came through natural means meaning non-miraculous means so you have to go work or you have to have an investment you have to have a business whatever it is so that when a sham delivers the the manna from heaven we could have you know he could have plausible deniability you can say oh it wasn't a miracle it was it was through through work and there's a reason why Hashem wants the world to be set up like that and that there's not the time for that discussion the point is that's how he wants in the same with healing of course Hashem could miraculously heal people with no effort whatsoever on the part of the person but he wants it to be a a natural natural effort but just remember the natural effort doesn't produce the healing it's just a cover story for the healing and that's where you got to listen to your doctor because not you've acted Hashem is delivering healing through that doctor but I'll tell you another I'll tell you another important practical takeaway from this just like it's very important to listen to your doctor it's very important not to listen to your doctor I know I'm contradicting myself okay well I'll explain them though it's not such a contradiction in fact it's very very consistent there's a story about the Rebbe ma - the fourth rabba of Chabad his wife Roberta near Africa you know you're the big certificate schools are there they named after her so debits and rifka became seriously ill at one point and the doctor came in fact not just regular doctor the very special doctor was the professor haben Thal from from the from the from v taps Vitebsk was that was where the university was in in white Russia that time and Haven thought saw saw rabbits in Africa and he said she's not she's not gonna get better she's not god forbid and it's mr sadýk who was her father-in-law the third grab of Chabad that some ascetic so he was her father-in-law he turned to the doctor and he said excuse me but who asked you who asked you since when is that your job he says ressure snit 'no literally applies permission was granted to a healer to heal permission was not granted to a healer to give up on somebody so you don't know your job no your job your job is Hashem gave you the the the the merit of being the agent through which healing enters the world but he didn't give you the right to say somebody can't be held god forbid so that's when you shouldn't listen to your doctor if a doctor says uh we don't have any we don't we don't have any way to heal you okay no problem we'll get a second opinion or a third opinion no problem that's not a doctor's job so you got to know don't listen to the doctor when they say there's no healing it's not their right not their job they don't have any special ability to say that because they want to medical school but that's not why they can heal really that's just the plausible plausible deniability why it's not a miracle and they heal you but of course we know like they say Hashem here's the patient and the doctor collects the fee so it's really all Hashem curing the patient okay so based on this we can now understand how to reconcile the fact that being a doctor is permissible learning how to become a doctor is permissible in fact we need we need people to become doctors and yet the gomorian condition says save super day from the Gehenna the best of doctors are going to be punished in in purgatory and hell how do we reconcile it toy of Shiva - the only the good doctors only the doctors who think of themselves as good because it's not about a good doctor it's just a delivery system the doctors just the conduit you think it's because you're good you're not that good you're not that good it's a sham Hashem is that good and and on a deeper level same idea but a little bit a little bit deeper types you better a from what does that mean every day I do Davin's three times a day uh Schmidt asked a prayer of eighteen blessings one of those felis one of those brokers in the Schmo Nestor they are the eighteen blessings is refer we asked for healing there could be a guy though who says to a sham listen I'll say what it says in the scissor because that's what it's printed in the city but when I when I have to say the bracha for for I don't really mean it because a sham I don't need to trouble you about this and don't worry I sure I got this one I don't know why because I myself am a doctor right like the guy who's going to the business meeting in Manhattan easy as he stands to make a million bucks and he can't find a parking spot so I starts crying out to him Hashem please I need the Packers about I'm gonna be late for the meeting if I'm late then then I'm gonna blow the whole deal and open up a parking spot for me and I'm gonna give myself I'm gonna give ten percent from from the million bucks that I make nothing doing he drives around the block again Hashem please we were late for the meeting about our parking spot I'm getting I'm getting of hamish 1/5 20 percent from the deal nothing doing open the spot doesn't open up finally says Hashem please please open up a spot man I'm gonna get fifty percent from the deal I'm gonna give two sadaqa and all of a sudden the spot opens up I shall never mind a spot just opened up right so this is the guy who says Hashem don't don't worry that that brava of healing I don't need to trouble you for that one because I got this one cuz I myself am a doctor that's called time sugar - what's toy Pass love vase test is 9 love is six vases two nine six two is 1712 sub-array if it means the doctor who only really means seventeen out of the 18 blessings Sushma yesterday because he says one of them don't worry I'll take care of it so here's the lesson for all of us that when you merit to be a shams representative when you merit to be an agent for good whether you're a healer or whether it's teaching somebody or whether it's providing the material support by giving them sadaqa or just giving somebody the time of day and evening and smiling at them and restoring their dignity all these things that we do for each other remember you're not that good Hashem is that good and we're just really really fortunate that here and there we get to be his representatives and that those good things get to come through us