Parasha Beshalach
SAN DIEGO — This week’s parasha, Beshalach, includes an impactful pasuk, “And He said, If you hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and you do what is proper in His eyes, and you listen closely to His commandments and observe all His statutes, all the sicknesses that I have visited upon Egypt I will not visit upon you, for I, the Lord, heal you.” Rashi says: “Simply put, I am the Lord your physician, who teaches you Torah and mitzvot so that you will be spared illness, much as a physician would instruct his patient not to eat certain things because they may lead to his getting sick…” Rashi’s perhaps more accurate translation of the end of this pasuk is not “I am the Lord that heals you…,” But rather, “I am the Lord thy physician.” We are not simply Hashem’s “people” but his “patients” as well.
Further, the Malbim tells us “A physician, like a master, ‘demands obedience,’ but only for the purpose of securing the patient’s welfare.”
Hashem, we see in Beshalach, prescribes for us a lifestyle of Torah and mitzvot to help guard us from “illness,” including spiritual and physical suffering. The Ibn Ezra sees God’s transformation of the bitter waters in the parasha, as an example of His healing powers and of the healing that comes to those who are in a covenantal relationship with Him.
In the Mi Shebeirach prayer we say for those who are ill or recovering from an illness or accident when the Torah is read, we ask Hashem for blessing, compassion, restoration, and strength. We say, “HaKadosh Baruch Hu will send him/her, speedily, a complete healing —healing of the soul and healing of the body —along with all the ill, among the people of Israel and all humankind, soon, speedily, without delay, and let us say Amen.”
When we ask, “May the Source of Strength who blessed the ones before us, help us to find the courage to make our lives a blessing,” we are drawn into a covenantal, spiritual, observant relationship with Hashem. We are reminded of Hashem’s compassion, his physician-healer role in our lives, his desire to see us made whole, and we acclaim Him as our source of health and illness…and let us say, Amen.
*
Michael Mantell, Ph.D writes a d’var Torah each week for Young Israel of San Diego, where he and his family worship.