“May it be Your will Hashem, that this heals me because I know You are the real doctor.”
Rabbi David Ashear
A person suffering from a headache can take a Tylenol to ease the pain. If someone has a toothache, he can go to the dentist to solve the problem. If a person’s eyes are bothering him, he gets treated by an ophthalmologist. But what if, Heaven forbid, someone lost his eyesight? To whom does he turn for help?
The pasuk in Tehillim (146:8) says that Hashem gives sight to the blind. Before the Jewish people received the Torah at Mount Sinai, Hashem restored the eyesight of all blind members of the nation. Similarly, Chazal relate that when Rabbi Matya ben Harash lost his vision, Hashem sent the angel Raphael to restore it.
Hacham Yitzhak Yosef tells that one morning around Pesach time in 1975, his father, Hacham Ovadia Yosef, zt”l, woke up unable to see properly. The little he was able to see was black and white. Hacham Ovadia described it as though a foreign object blocked his eyes. As time went on, his condition grew worse to the point where he was no longer able to read. He experienced immense pain whenever his eyes were exposed to a ray of light. He had to deliver his classes in the dark. Hacham Yitzhak said that he had never seen his father pray without a minyan until that time, when he decided to start praying Arbit in solitude so he could extend the tefillah. He would stand in a corner and pour his heart out to Hashem, praying with sobering that cannot be described. He also went to Tzefat for several days, and he spent several hours each day while he was there praying at the gravesite of Rav Yosef Karo. Miraculously, his eyesight was restored. Although he still had to wear dark glasses he was able to see, read, and write normally.
Even if the doctors believe nothing can be done, it does not deter us from praying, because we know that Hashem is “the Creator of healing” and He can create a cure from nothing.
If someone’s chest hurts he can see a cardiologist. But if someone’s heart is broken, whom can he go to? Hashem is described (Tehillim 147:3) as the healer of the brokenhearted. If a person experiences emotional pain and cannot overcome his depression, he can approach the greatest Healer of all and beg for help. Hashem cures emotional distress – conditions that no doctor or other professional can heal. In addition, He brings these cures in miraculous fashion.
The Sages teach, “Hashem prepares the cure from the wound itself.” And we thus pray each day in the Amidah, “Cure us, Hashem and we will be cured.” The Zohar explains that when the healing comes from Hashem, it is permanent and everlasting; there are no relapses. The Shulchan Aruch (230) rules that when a person visits a physician for treatment or takes medicine, he should say, “May it be Your will Hashem, that this heals me because I know You are the real doctor.” We need to realize that ultimately our health is restored by Hashem.
The Bnei Yissachar writes that if an ill patient who has been unsuccessfully seeking treatment is asked, “How is it going? And he responds “Baruch Hashem, I know Hashem is the Healer, and He can cure me in an instant,” this is a great segulah for restoring health.
May we recognize that all healing and salvation comes only from Hashem, and fully believe with complete faith that it is never too late, and we can always be helped.