The Jewish Medical Model

I. What is the Jewish medical model

A. No Jewish medical model?
It’s puzzling that the Jewish people should not have our own medical model being that Jews are disproportionately represented in the medical professions and have a strong affinity for helping others. This happens to be the case in all countries in which Jews reside and for all times since our expulsion and consequent exile from our homeland 2,000 years ago. In the tenth century Jews made very important contributions to Greek medicine and its Arabic derivative, Unani medicine. There are even history scholars who say that the founder of Unani medicine, Avicenna (called the “Aristotle of the east”), was in fact a Jew.
When asked, many Jews state that Jewish medicine is simply the ethical practice of medicine, and that spiritual medicine is the practice of medicine by a G-d fearing person. They find it strange when asked if the Torah has a medical system, and respond that Jews practiced Greek medicine during the temple periods in Israel.
It does seem odd that the people of the Book, the same people who enlighten the world concerning matters related to G-d (which means all matters) and who have introduced many of the concepts and ideas the world takes for granted and lives by, should not have its own body of medical knowledge. Being that all traditional medical systems are based on its parent’s culture, it seem very strange that the Jews would adopt the Hellenistic medical system with all its pagan idolatry. It is even stranger when you think that the Jews had a very impressive intellectual information edifice that dwarfed the Greeks.
The question remains, why would the Jews take another culture’s medical system? Furthermore, did the Greeks actually have a rational medical system prior to the destruction of the second temple? It seems quite coincidental that after the destruction of the second temple by the Romans and the fall of the last Nasi, R. Gamaliel (a physician) in the year 425 c.e , did the Romans finally produce a bone fide medical system attributed to Galen, who over a short life managed to produce over 40 volumes of medical texts ranging the full gamut of surgery, anatomy and physiology. There is a Jewish mesorah (tradition) that says that Galen is a fictional character created by the Romans to explain the monumental medical library that they “created.”

B. What is the Jewish medical model?

a. G-d brings all disease and cures all flesh
G-d is the ultimate healer and ultimately it is up to Him to produce a refuah. Our jobs as healers are only to create the how for the healing to take place. If there will be a cure and when is not our business. Our job is simply to do, to create a viable vessel for the refuah.
Of course we need to practice a viable medicine, we need to follow principles, but ultimately the healing is up to G-d. Even gravity follows G-d’s command. Objects fall to the ground not because of the “law of gravity,” but rather because G-d wants objects to fall to the ground. If He did not want matter to behave in this way it wouldn't.
Our Creator knows our bodies better than we do. He has provided us with the secrets of a healthy life and with the treatment of disease. Not only does He want us to daven to Him, beseeching His help, but He also wants us to follow the guidelines for physical medicine as outlined in the Torah.

b. Shefa Refuah is in the world
We need to plug into the healing energy of creation. Herbs heal because of this shefa (energy). The ‘spark’ inside the herbs are a spark of this shefa. This shefa is dynamic and under the guidance of G-d. Healers can become conduits for this shefa, passing it along to their patients. It can be used to diagnose via partzufic principles. It can be activated in a myriad of ways depending on the situation. Some techniques produce this healing energy more strongly than others, and some produce a more detailed or specialized form of it. Physical techniques and physical remedies can move and activate this shefa for use by the patient.

c. Living in harmony with the Torah and soul
For a Jew to be healthy he must be in harmony with his environment. This environment is not merely the air he breaths or the water he drinks. It is harmony with Life itself, the Torah. When a Jew follows the precepts of the Torah he enjoys immunity, health and vitality. It is taught in the Torah that if a person follows the Torah he will be free from the confines of the world. This also means free from the confines of disease. These are external diseases. Internally a person will also be free from anxiety and worry. What is there to worry when a person’s consciousness is filled with the glory of Hashem and the constant knowledge that all events are dictated by the Master of the World. Inner peace and immunity await you by following the way of G-d.

d. The body is animated by the powers of the soul
The body is dependent on the shefa coming from and through the soul. The limbs of the soul interact with the organs and limbs of the body, vivifying them. Any blockage will result in a decline of the bodies health and vitality. In the performance of mitzvahs the soul derives divine light, this light is then directed into the body sustaining it with nutritive vitality. The whole day can be one long mitzvah if the proper kavanah are followed. In the morning tell Hashem that everything you will be doing you are doing Leshama, for the sake of his name. In this way your whole day will be one long mitzvah.

e. The body is infinitely complex, but the creator is right here with us
The body is infinitely complex. It is hopeless to think we can understand all the complexities and wonders that make the body tick. This is why, as healers, we come to Hashem. It is only with his guidance that we can even hope to heal someone. With hassogos the information is coming from Hashem, therefore we know we can trust it and rely on it to provide treatment.
Hassogic diagnosis takes on many forms. One form of hassogic diagnosis that has has a mesorah of use is that of the parzufim. There are four main partzufim diagnostics:
1. the H-VHY on the limbs
2. the alph-bet on the forehead
3. pulse
4. soul talking
According to the ARI Hakodesh, speaking with the patients soul is the best method. Who better than the person’s own soul to know what is wrong and needs healing.
The Chinese say that, ultimately truth cannot be known. Jews would beg to differ. The torah is the ultimate truth. By using torah diagnostics we can be sure that the information we have is accurate and reliable and that it will produce the desired results. By looking through the lens of Torah Hashem filters what we see, producing for us a vision of clarity and truth.

C. Why do we need a Jewish medical model?
The world needs an accurate vitalistic medical model. All of the worlds vitalistic medical models are either atheistic or outright pagan. They are based on fallible, human experience, and not on the nature of reality as described by the master creator, Hashem. The code for this program is is to be found within the Torah, Hashem's gift to the world.
What does the Torah know about medicine and the world? Everything. The Torah is the blueprint of creation and G-d recreates the world every moment from nothing. All medicine, the very power of medicine itself is derived from the Torah. The time has come to bring all the information back home to the Jews. This is, in fact, the very method the Zohar describes as hastening the coming of Moshiach.

The Asian medical model Paradigm
How did the chinese develop their medical model? They took their theory and observations of the macro-world and made a yin/yang, qi paradigm to explain all of its complex phenomenon and developed a medical system based on the notion that the body is a microcosm of the macro-world. From this theoretical information they created a practical medical model that has been proven clinically useful. It’s a theoretical-information based system. It is not based on “hard science,” though some of it is, it is largely based on information theory. Due to the fact that the logic is coherent, when used within its own parameters it produces consistent results.
The Jewish medical model wants to take a similar approach in creating a Torah based medical system. By taking the information and knowledge of the Torah we too should be able to create a vitalistic medical model.
But is there a Jewish medicine? Is it more accurate to say that there is only a Jewish medical philosophy? A philosophy of healing based on Jewish sources but with the clinical treatment based on other more physical (and gentile) medical modalities.
It is interesting that all of the medical discoveries have been made through gentile sources. Yet a preponderance of the scientists and researches who advance these same fields have been Jews.
Part of the research of the Jewish medical model will be to investigate such phenomenon.
I encourage your feedback and comments on this ongoing research project. It is my hope that individuals that have something to share in this project will do so.

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