{"id":64367,"date":"2019-10-15T09:53:13","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T06:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64367"},"modified":"2023-05-09T12:45:41","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T09:45:41","slug":"the-curious-book-of-remedies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-curious-book-of-remedies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curious Book Of Remedies"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[898,868,925,627],"acf":{"old_id":"64367","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33692,"related_cahpter":"329","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Which raises the question of human initiative vs. relying upon God?","content":"

In the Mishna on Pesahim 55b-56a, the Rabbis discuss Hezekiah\u2019s success and mistakes. They approve of Hezekiah’s war on idolatry: his humiliation of his father’s hearse and his disposal of Moses’s serpent. But the debate regarding his hiding of the Book of Remedies will open a fascinating discussion regarding questions of faith versus self-reliance. What is the Book of Remedies, and if, as it sounds, it is a compendium of cures, a medical almanac, why would anyone destroy it?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rashi (Pesahim 55b-56a) explains that the “Book of Remedies” supplied a swift medicinal solution to any ailment, and in doing so, it eliminated the need to rely upon God. Sickness is a prime opportunity to reach out to the divine, and this book was simply providing a shortcut to health, without appealing to God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Maimonides was flabbergasted at this interpretation: <\/span><\/p>\n

How nonsensical is this argument, and how deluded! It ascribes a degree of foolishness to Hezekiah… According to their confused and idiotic reasoning, if a person is hungry and turns to bread and consumes it, thus becoming healed from that great “sickness” of hunger, shall we say that he has lost his faith in God? Only fools would say that! For just as I thank God when I eat for that which He provided me to relieve my hunger and to sustain and preserve me, so too will I thank Him for providing me with a remedy which heals sickness\u201d (Commentary on the Mishna, Pesahim, ch. 4).<\/span><\/p>\n

Maimonides is suggesting that medicine is no more an affront to God than human nutrition. God has granted humans the intelligence to cure disease using medicine just as He has given us food to relieve hunger. The conclusion of the <\/span>mishna<\/span><\/em> quoted above states that the sages disapproved of Hezekiah’s rerouting of the Shiloah spring, “because he should have relied upon God” (Rashi). But again, is this line of thinking realistically acceptable? Should Hezekiah have left his city defenseless as the Assyrians prepared for war?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This returns us to our central question: When is it legitimate to exercise human initiative, and when is it more appropriate to rely upon God?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We leave Hezekiah with these challenging reflections. The question that looms over Hezekiah’s reign is the balance between human initiative and reliance on God. Hezekiah is a man of great faith and commitment who leaves a powerful legacy as one of the greatest of the Judahite kings, and precisely a king of his stature needs to advance his nation on rational political lines. Where indeed is the correct balance between human effort and faith?<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, II Kings: In a Whirlwind, Maggid Books, 2019, Tests of Faith\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63310,"id":63310,"title":"Alex Israel - 2_kings_cover","filename":"Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hairy-prophet\/alex-israel-2_kings_cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-2_kings_cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63117,"date":"2019-09-23 13:43:41","modified":"2019-09-23 13:53:01","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1711,"height":1821,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-282x300.jpg","medium-width":282,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-768x817.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":817,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-962x1024.jpg","large-width":962,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1443,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1711,"2048x2048-height":1821,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-1128x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1128,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-395x420.jpg","home_baner-width":395,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: II Kings - 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