We are in chapter four the of the Hovot HaLevavot, discussing the 7 areas of Bitachon, and specifically a person’s Bitachon when it comes to himself. He spoke about money, and now revisits the concept of health once again, where he says, in his classic way:
When it comes to our health, we have to rely on Hashem, do our hishtadlut, only do things that are healthy, and stay away from things are unhealthy. And our intent must always be כמו שצוה הבורא
To do what G-d commanded.
He reiterates here what he said earlier about parnasa. We see the same is true for our health.
He quotes a pasuk ורפא -ירפא He should go to the doctor.
The way the Hovot HaLevavot explains this pasuk is a Hiddush, in that a simple reading of this pasuk in Parashat Mishpatim teaches us that when someone damages another person, he has to pay the victim’s medical bills. There, it means you have to pay their medical expenses.
Here, the Hovot HaLevavot explains ירפא ורפא as a mitzvah: When something is wrong, you have to go to the doctor.
One must go through all the motions: exercise, eat right, take cholesterol medication if necessary, or do whatever else you have to, but at the same time know that
מבלי שיבטח על הסיבת - you aren’t relying on that.
This is always the tightrope of Bitachon. You take the pill because G-d told you to, and therefore it’s a mitzvah. But you’re not relying on it. It can’t do anything without
אלא ברשות הבורא permission of G-d.
The Tylenol helps your headache only with G-d’s permission it’s not automatic.
Rabbi Moshe Kuessous a’h, was a great rabbi and a giant of a man. He was the Menahel of Yeshivat Shaare Torah for many years. One of his sons-in- law told a story at his eulogy that I have said before because it really brings out this point:
When Rabbi Kuessous was very sick, he couldn’t sleep, so his doctor prescribed sleeping pills for him. He took one and slept well, but he was very disturbed that it was a pill that put him to sleep. “Isn’t it G-d’s will that puts us to sleep?”, he thought. Should a pill be that automatic? Of course, it’s not automatic. It’s really G-d that gave the pill permission to work, however, the Rabbi felt that it should be G-d’s will that does it, without the pill. But that’s how G-d works; He covers the miracle with the pill.
We can’t rely on the medicine. We are all familiar with the endless lists of negative side effects that come with taking medicines. B”h they don’t usually happen. However, we still need Bitachon that we won’t have the negative side effects. We want the Advil to help but want our livers to remain healthy as well.
When we go through any medical process we always have to have Bitachon and realize that G-d can heal us without any medicine. As the pasuk in tehilim says
ישלח דברו וירפים
He sends His words and that brings healing ...
We say that every day in our Pesuki D’Zimra.
The Hovot HaLevavot goes on to point out that G-d can even heal us with something that would seemingly have the opposite effect. He gives examples:
The bitter water that was healed in the times Elisha using something bitter;
And when Moshe Rabbenu used a bitter tree to sweeten the bitter water in the desert.
There’s no sense to healing.
He continues with the story of Assah. Assah was a great king, but when he relied on the doctors and not on G-d, he was rebuked for that.
If you’re on the Bitachon program, going to doctors and taking medicine is an exercise in Bitachon.
Don’t just take that “magic” pill and say, “That’s it! My headache will be gone!” Put some Bitachon into it. Say, “Hashem, please let my headache go away.” and then take the pill.