- There is a biblical obligation on a patient to seek healing from a physician.
- The natural search for health and its maintenance is both a meritorious act and a commandment.
- The Torah commands us to watch diligently over our bodies and souls. A person is, therefore, obligated to concern himself with his own healing and the healing of his friend and neighbor.
- A sick person should not rely on a miracle but should conduct himself like all normal people and consult a physician when ill.
- A pious fool who refuses to allow a physician to help him but relies totally on God’s help is like a hungry man who refuses to eat bread and hopes that God will heal him from the illness of hunger.
- If a person is idle and does not seek human healing as is natural, he is guilty of shedding his own blood.
- A physician heals with Divine license and mandate using his knowledge of medicine, nutrition and regimens of health. Therefore, the patient is obligated to follow the physician’s instructions, no less so than the laws in the Code of Jewish Law.
- Although a patient should seek healing from a physician, he should not place his entire faith in physicians. A person should recognize that a physician is only the messenger of the true Healer of the sick and He gave him Divine license to serve as His messenger to heal the sick. A patient should, therefore, cleave to God and pray to Him with all his heart.
Professor Avraham Steinberg, M.D. is a Senior Pediatric Neurologist at Shaare Zedek and an authority on Jewish Medical Ethics. www.szmc.org.il
