מי שברך Thinking of Sickness Within Our Community

For a Woman:

May the one who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon bless [First Name, daughter of Mother's Name], for which [name of person asking for the prayer] vows to give charity for her sake. As reward for this, may the Holy One, Blessed Be God, be filled with mercy for her, to heal her and to strengthen her and to enliven her, and quickly send her a complete healing from heaven to all her limbs and organs, among the other sick of Israel, a healing of the spirit and a healing of the body. On Shabbat: On Shabbat we do not cry out, and healing will soon come. Now, speedily, and in a time soon to come, and let us say, Amen.

Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has bestowed every goodness upon me.

Amen! May the One who has bestowed goodness on you continue to bestow goodness upon you forever!

Blessed are You, Lord our G-d, Ruler of the Universe, who created the human being with wisdom, and created in them many openings and spaces. It is revealed and known before your holy throne that if one of them is opened or closed, it would be impossible to exist and to stand before you. Blessed are you, G-d, who heals all flesh and does wonders.

My God, the soul that you put in me is pure. You created it, you formed it, you blew it into me and you guard it within me. You will take it from me, and return it to me in the distant future. All the time that the soul is within me, I am grateful to you, Lord my God and the God of my ancestors. Master of all deeds, lord of all souls. Blessed are you, Lord, who returns souls to dead bodies.

Heal us, O Lord, and we shall be healed, save us and we shall be saved, for You are our praise. Bring complete healing to all our wounds,

(Prayer to add for a sick person: May it be Your will in front of You, O Lord, my God and the God of my forefathers, that You quickly send a complete recovery from the Heavens - a recovery of the soul and a recovery of the body - to the the sick person, insert name, the son/daughter of insert mother's name, among the other sick ones of Israel.)

for You are God and Ruler, the faithful and merciful healer. Blessed are You, O Lord, Who heals the sick of his people Israel.

Happy is one that considereth the poor; the LORD will deliver thrm in the day of evil. The LORD preserve them, and keep them alive, let them be called happy in the land; and deliver not Thou them unto the greed of their enemies. The LORD support them upon the bed of illness; mayest Thou turn all their lying down in their sickness. As for me, I said: 'O LORD, be gracious unto me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against Thee.'

A hero's spirit will sustain their sickness [(and it will not prevail over them)]; but a broken spirit, who will bear it?

(12) And in the thirty and ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet; his disease was exceeding great; yet in his disease he sought not to the LORD, but to the physicians. (13) And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.

(1) ועבדתם את ה' אלוהיכם, “and you will serve the Lord your G’d.” Seeing that the Gentiles believe that if they serve their various deities this in turn will assure them of success in their lives on earth, the Torah added the words: “but you will serve the Lord your G’d” as a contrast at this point. It is simply a reminder that it is not appropriate for the Israelites to serve any other deity which cannot grant them their desires anyway. The Torah adds: “for God blessed your bread and your water.”
והסירותי מחלה מקרבך, “and I will remove illness from amongst you.” There are certain sicknesses which result from the intake of certain foods, illnesses not visible on the surface of one’s body. There are other external illnesses which are due to changes in climate, etc. This is why the Torah assures the Jewish people that when they serve the Lord G’d will bless their food and water so that their bodies will be able to resist the sickness which may normally result from the consumption of food and drink containing invisible but harmful ingredients. This means that the righteous person will not have to have recourse to a physician. This is the meaning of Chronicles II 16,12: “but even though he (King Assa) was ill, he did not turn to the Lord but to physicians.” (This was sinful and the reason he was not cured.) The word מחלה, “sickness,” includes such deficiencies as sterility, propensity to not carry out an embryo for its full term, etc. Actually, the verse should have written the word והסיר, “and God will remove (in the third person) instead of והסירותי, “I will remove.” After all the previous reference to G‘d in that verse such as וברך, “and God will bless,” is in the third person. However, the correct interpretation of the whole verse is: “for the Lord will remove all manner of disease from our midst if we serve God by addressing ourselves to God's exclusive attribute, the tetragrammaton”

(1) In those days Hezekiah fell dangerously ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, “Thus said the LORD: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die; you will not get well.” (2) Thereupon Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. He said, (3) “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You sincerely and wholeheartedly, and have done what is pleasing to You.” And Hezekiah wept profusely. (4) Before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: (5) “Go back and say to Hezekiah, the ruler of My people: Thus said the LORD, the God of your father David: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. I am going to heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the House of the LORD. (6) And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will also rescue you and this city from the hands of the king of Assyria. I will protect this city for My sake and for the sake of My servant David.”— (7) Then Isaiah said, “Get a cake of figs.” And they got one, and they applied it to the rash, and he recovered.— (8) Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What is the sign that the LORD will heal me and that I shall go up to the House of the LORD on the third day?” (9) Isaiah replied, “This is the sign for you from the LORD that the LORD will do the thing that God has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or recede ten steps?” (10) Hezekiah said, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for the shadow to recede ten steps.” (11) So the prophet Isaiah called to the LORD, and God made the shadow which had descended on the dial of Ahaz recede ten steps.

On going in to be bloodlet one should say: 'May it be Your will, O Lord, my God, that this operation may be a cure for me, and may You heal me, for You are a faithful healing God, and Your healing is certain, since it is not the way of people to heal, but this is a habit with them.' Abaye said: A person should not speak thus, since it was taught in the school of R. Ishmael: [It is written], God shall cause them to be thoroughly healed. From this we learn that permission has been given to the physician to heal.

The Gemara continues to address the issue of suffering and affliction: Rabbi Yoḥanan’s student, Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba, fell ill. Rabbi Yoḥanan entered to visit him, and said to him: Is your suffering dear to you? Do you desire to be ill and afflicted? Rabbi Ḥiyya said to him: I welcome neither this suffering nor its reward, as one who welcomes this suffering with love is rewarded. Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: Give me your hand. Rabbi Ḥiyya bar Abba gave him his hand, and Rabbi Yoḥanan stood him up and restored him to health. Similarly, Rabbi Yoḥanan fell ill. Rabbi Ḥanina entered to visit him, and said to him: Is your suffering dear to you? Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: I welcome neither this suffering nor its reward. Rabbi Ḥanina said to him: Give me your hand. He gave him his hand, and Rabbi Ḥanina stood him up and restored him to health. The Gemara asks: Why did Rabbi Yoḥanan wait for Rabbi Ḥanina to restore him to health? If he was able to heal his student, let Rabbi Yoḥanan stand himself up. The Gemara answers, they say: A prisoner cannot generally free themselves from prison, but depend on others to release them from their shackles.

The Gemara relates that Rabbi Elazar, another of Rabbi Yoḥanan’s students, fell ill. Rabbi Yoḥanan entered to visit him, and saw that he was lying in a dark room. Rabbi Yoḥanan exposed his arm, and light radiated from his flesh, filling the house. He saw that Rabbi Elazar was crying, and said to him: Why are you crying? Thinking that his crying was over the suffering that he endured throughout his life, Rabbi Yoḥanan attempted to comfort him: If you are weeping because you did not study as much Torah as you would have liked, we learned: One who brings a substantial sacrifice and one who brings a meager sacrifice have equal merit, as long as one directs their heart toward Heaven. If you are weeping because you lack sustenance and are unable to earn a livelihood, as Rabbi Elazar was, indeed, quite poor, not every person merits to eat off of two tables, one of wealth and one of Torah, so you need not bemoan the fact that you are not wealthy. If you are crying over children who have died, this is the bone of my tenth son, and suffering of that kind afflicts great people, and they are afflictions of love. Rabbi Elazar said to Rabbi Yoḥanan: I am not crying over my misfortune, but rather, over this beauty of yours that will decompose in the earth, as Rabbi Yoḥanan’s beauty caused him to consider human mortality. Rabbi Yoḥanan said to him: Over this, it is certainly appropriate to weep. Both cried over the fleeting nature of beauty in the world and death that eventually overcomes all.

(16) R. Se'urim, the brother of Raba, was sitting at the bedside of Raba when the latter was breathing his last agonies. The latter said to the former: "Let the master urge him (the angel of death) not to cause me any pain." Whereupon the former replied: "Is, then, the master himself not a friend of his?" To which Raba responded: "Since my fate was already referred to him, he will not care for me any more." R. Se'urim then said to the dying man: "I would like that the soul of the master should appear before me [in a dream]." [When it was so], R. Se'urim asked him: "Had the master felt any pain? [at the time of the separation of the soul from the body]." "As much pain as if pinched with the lancet," came the answer. Raba was sitting at the bedside of R. Nachman when he was breathing his last agonies, and the latter said: "Let the master urge him (the angel of death) not to cause me any pain." And he said to him: "Is not the master a prominent person? [to tell him so himself]." To which R. Nachman replied: "Who is esteemed, or worthy, or who can contend [at such a moment] ?" He then said to the dying man : "Let the master's soul appear before me [in a dream]." When it appeared before him, he asked him: "Had the master any pain?" And he answered: "It was as easy as to remove a hair from milk; and yet, if the Holy One, praised be God ! would command me to return to the world I was in, I would pray permission not to do it, because the [supposed] fear [of the angel of death] is too great." R. Elazar was eating T'rumah (heave-offering) when the death angel appeared before him, and he said to the angel : "You see that I am now eating T'rumah, is it not sacred ?" The angel withdrew ; meanwhile the appropriate moment passed by. He presented himself to R. Shesheth in the market. The former said to him: "Do you wish to take me when I am in the market, as if I were an animal ? Come to my house." When he presented himself to R. Assi in the market, the latter said to him: "Extend my time thirty days, so as to enable me to review my studies, as ye say: 'Happy is he who comes here with his studies in his hand.' " On the thirtieth day he appeared again, and R. Assi said to him: "Why such punctuality?" And he answered him: "You interfere with R. Nathan, and no regency must interfere with another, even as much as a hair. (R. Nathan cannot become the head of the college so long as you are alive.)" However, R. Chisda could not be overpowered [by the angel of death], for he kept on studying all the time, so the death angel climbed up and hid himself in a cedar in front of the house of study. When the cedar broke down, R. Chisda interrupted his study for a moment, and was immediately overpowered. R. Chiya was inaccessible [to the angel of death]. One day he transformed himself into a mendicant, and knocked on the door and asked for a slice of bread. When R. Chiya handed him what he asked for, the angel said to him: "Does not the master have mercy on a poor man? Why not have mercy on this man?" He revealed himself to R. Chiya, and as proof, he showed him the fire-rod. R. Chiya then delivered himself to him.

זקנים באים בימים, “old advanced in years.” We do not find a single reference to old age in the Torah anywhere before this point. Avraham was the first human being described as having “aged.” The Midrash attributes the fact that the Torah here refers to Avraham’s age as due to his having said to G-d: “with all respect, G-d, when father and son walk together and come to a town where neither of them is known, how will they know to honour the father, seeing that they both appear as equally youthful? If You were to “crown” elderly people with a visible sign of their being old, they will know to whom to pay their respects first.” G-d answered Avraham that he had presented a valid argument and that therefore he would be the first human being upon whom this distinction would be bestowed. Along similar lines, the Midrash points out that before Yitzchok, no one was afflicted with physical handicaps, (such as Yitzchok’s blindness) Yitzchok was afflicted with such a handicap at his own request, having said to G-d: “if a human being dies without ever having endured physical handicaps and pain, the attribute of Justice will present a strong case against them by saying that they had never had to suffer any pain for any of the sins they had committed while alive. These pains would have been deemed as punishment so that upon death they could proceed to the regions of eternal bliss in the celestial regions without further delay. G-d agreed with him, and made him the first human being to be thus afflicted. We have not read about anyone falling sick before Yaakov requested that sickness become part of life on earth. Yaakov argued that unless sickness precedes death, a person would not have an opportunity to allocate their estate to their various beneficiaries. G-d agreed with him, and thus he became the first person of whom sickness preceding his death is reported in the Torah in Genesis 48,1. The two or tree days that his sickness lasted, gave him an opportunity to arrange his affairs. This is the reason why the Torah informed us that Joseph was given notice that his father was sick. Otherwise, seeing that he had 11 other sons around him in Goshen, why did special notice have to be sent to the capital where Joseph resided? To sum up: Avraham introduced the concept of old age; Yitzchok introduced the concept of people becoming afflicted with serious physical handicaps. Yaakov introduced the concept of sickness due to approaching death.

Until Jacob, there was no illness leading up to death; rather, one would die suddenly. Jacob came and prayed for mercy, and illness was brought to the world, allowing one to prepare for their death, as it is stated: “And one said to Joseph: Behold, your father is sick” (Genesis 48:1), which is the first time that sickness preceding death is mentioned in the Bible. Until Elisha, one did not fall ill and then heal, as everyone who fell ill would die. Elisha came and prayed for mercy and he was healed, as it is written: “Now Elisha fell ill with his illness from which he was to die” (II Kings 13:14). By inference, one can derive that he had previously fallen ill with other illnesses from which he did not die.

כי אני, ה' רופאך, “for I, the Lord, am your physician.” The Torah here speaks of preventive medicine. It tells us that G–d, i.e. God's Torah, teaches us how to forestall sickness. Physicians are in the habit of telling their patients what to eat and what not to eat so that that they will not become victims of certain common diseases. This is why the verse commences with the warning to pay heed to what your Physician tells you before you become a victim to these diseases. We are to consider the performance of the Torah’s commandments as preventive medicine. Our author also quotes Isaiah 17,11 as support for his interpretation. The prophet wrote: נד קציר ביום נחלה וכאב אנוש, “on the day that you plant you see it grow.” He also quotes proverbs 4,22, where the author concludes his advice in verse 20 by stating: ולכל בשרו מרפא, “and healing for all one's flesh.” (Attributed to Rabbi Joseph Kara). The words: כל המחלה in our verse above is interpreted as having the same meaning as the same word in Samuel II 12,2: ולרש אין כל, “and the poor man does not have anything,” and as in Psalms 78,38: ולא יעיר כל חמתו, “and God did not give full vent to God's fury,” i.e. “any of the different kinds of disease I will not inflict upon you.”

וישמע אלוקים אל קול הנער, “G’d listened to the voice (cries) of the lad.” Rashi derives from this wording that the prayer of the sick person themselves concerning their recovery is more likely to be heard than all the prayers of other people on their behalf. This is so although we have a principle according to which a person whose hands and feet have been tied is unable to free themselves, i.e. the stricken need outside assistance. We know that Chizkiyah whose sickness had been declared by the prophet to be terminal, was healed after he personally appealed to G’d on behalf of himself.

At the time that G-d comforts us, may it be speedily in our days, G-d will remember all of the sorrows that we suffered and we will be comforted twice as much.