Ronnies’s doctor was not alarmed. His blood pressure was somewhat high, and the advice was straightforward: lose some weight, start walking regularly, reduce the salt, and return in a few months.
“Rabbi,” Ronnie asked me, “I understand that if I were actually sick, I would have to follow medical advice. But right now, I feel perfectly fine. Is looking after my health before there is a problem really a halachic obligation, or is it simply good advice?”
We usually think about health in halacha once illness has already arrived. The Rambam begins much earlier. Halacha recognizes that the choices made while a person is still well can also matter.
The Rambam’s Principle
The Rambam writes: “Maintaining a healthy and sound body is among the ways of Hashem,” because when a person is ill, it is difficult for him to understand and know his Creator (Hilchot De’ot 4:1). The Rambam does not describe health merely as useful or desirable. He places caring for the body within darkei Hashem – the way a person serves Hashem.
The reason is not that physical health is itself life’s ultimate purpose. Rather, the body is the kli, the instrument, through which so much of avodat Hashem takes place. We learn Torah, pray, perform hesed, support our families, and fulfill mitzvot through the physical abilities Hashem has given us.
The Rambam therefore discusses health not only when something goes wrong, but also while the person is still functioning normally.
Prevention Begins with Ordinary Habits
The Rambam proceeds to discuss eating, physical activity, sleep, and other daily habits. Regarding exercise, his language is particularly strong. He writes that someone who remains sedentary and does not exercise can bring illness upon himself even if he otherwise eats properly (Hilchot De’ot 4:14).
The underlying principle is clear: one should not wait for illness before taking reasonable steps to preserve health. The Sefer Chassidim similarly describes the wise physician as one who warns people so that they should not become ill in the first place (Sefer Chassidim 592). Chazal also teach that a person should pray that he not become ill, rather than waiting until illness has already developed (Shabbat 32a).
Why Prevention Is Harder
There is an important difference between treatment and prevention. Illness creates urgency. If someone suffers a heart attack, nobody wonders whether seeing a cardiologist is worth the inconvenience. If a doctor says that fasting is dangerous, the question becomes immediate.
Prevention usually feels very different. A thirty-minute walk does not feel urgent. Going to sleep on time produces no dramatic result. Making a routine appointment can always seemingly wait another week. And when prevention succeeds, often nothing happens. There is no emergency, no hospital admission, and no dramatic story to tell. That is precisely what makes prevention difficult. It requires a quieter form of hishtadlut: taking reasonable action before circumstances force us to act.
Responsibility Does Not Mean Control
This principle must also be understood carefully. People who exercise, eat responsibly, and follow medical advice can still become ill. Genetics, aging, infection, and many other factors lie beyond human control. Nor may we look backwards at another person’s illness and assume that we know why it occurred. The Rambam’s approach is about responsibility, not blame. Halacha does not ask us to guarantee an outcome. It asks us to make reasonable choices with the information and opportunities Hashem has placed before us.
Conclusion
Returning to Ronnie, the fact that nothing hurts is not a reason to ignore reasonable medical advice. In one sense, that is precisely the stage the Rambam is addressing – before illness has forced the issue.
The Torah’s concern for health does not begin only with pikuach nefesh. Caring appropriately for the body can itself be part of avodat Hashem. We cannot control tomorrow’s diagnosis. But while the choice is still ours, we can care responsibly for the body, through which Hashem enables us to live a life of Torah, hesed, and mitzvot.
Rabbi Yehuda Finchas is a worldwide expert, lecturer, and author on Medical Halacha. He heads the Torat Habayit Medical Halacha Institute. He is the author of Brain Death in Halacha and the Tower of Babel Syndrome and his latest book is Nutrition and Hydration in Halacha. To contact Rabbi Finchas, email [email protected].