THE PRIESTS IN JUDAISM

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

Many religions today have priests. For example, the Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Anglicans, some Lutherans and Hindus are served by ordained priests. Islam has no sacerdotal priests. In Judaism, we had priests but not anymore. 

The biblical history of the priesthood is complicated. As Lawrence Boadt, a Biblical scholar, puts it, “the actual history of the priesthood (in the Hebrew Bible) is murky and leaves many problems yet to be solved” (1). So, the best that we can do is to draw a few general lines as we reconstruct the history of the priesthood in ancient Israel. 

Roland de Vaux, a French Bible scholar, who studied the social structures of the ancient Hebrews (2), points out that in the early periods of the Jewish history, there was not an organized priestly class. In fact, during the days of the Judges, 12^th-10^th centuries BCE, different individuals functioned as priests. For example, the prophet Samuel was one of them (I Sam. 2:18).  Similarly, Micah the Ephraimite, appointed his own son as priest (Judg.17: 5). Even king David’s children were working as priests (II Sam. 8;18). During the monarchy, especially during the reign of Josiah (640-609 BCE) and on, in the Book of Deuteronomy that was redacted around that time, a new group of people emerged as priests in the only temple that existed in the country, namely in Jerusalem.  They were the Levitical priests (ha-kohanim ha-leviyim), the presumed descendants of the tribe of Levi (Deut. 10:8) who offered the appropriate sacrifices on the altar and took care of the needs of the sanctuary. After the destruction of the First temple by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, and especially after the return of the exiles back to Israel, during the second temple, a new group appears to have gotten the upper hand as the main priests of the Jerusalem temple, and they were the Aaronides, the presumed descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. The prophet Ezekiel, ca.  593-571, makes this distinction clear (44:10ff). From then on, the Aaronides became the main priests and the Levites were denigrated to becoming their helpers , as it is made clear in the Book of Numbers (3: 5-10), the redaction of which most likely followed the time of Ezekiel. The title of Kohen was hereditary and went from father to son. A Kohen was not allowed to marry a divorcee, a prostitute or a widow. They were not permitted to have any contact with dead bodies. They were also not allowed to drink wine or strong drinks. The Aaronides held their function until the destruction of the second temple of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. After that the priesthood ceased to exist. 

During the Rabbinic period that followed, and even now in the present times, at Orthodox or Conservative synagogues, the priests, namely the descendants of the Aaronides and the Levites assumed a ceremonial role in the synagogues and in the Jewish religious life. For example, someone who claims to be a Kohen (now going by the name of Kohen, Kahn  or even Katz, for Kohen Tzedek, a righteous Kohen),  gets the honor of ascending the pulpit for the reading of the first portion of the Torah, and a Levi takes the second. Similarly, a Kohen is invited to come up to the pulpit to bless the congregation, covering his head with a prayer shawl. In cases  where a redemption of the first born (namely, a pidyon haben) is done, it is usually a Kohen who does the redeeming for a sum of money. Also, a Kohen is not allowed to attend a funeral at a cemetery. Outside of these, for all practical purposes, the priesthood has ceased to exist in Jewish life today. 

Reform Judaism, ever since the Pittsburgh platform of 1885, has eliminated all teachings regarding the “priestly purity” and consequently has abolished all distinctions among Jews. The role of the Kohen or Levi is now non existent in Reform Jewish practice. Today, we believe, that every Jew has the same obligations and responsibilities vis-a vis the Jewish community at large.

 

Notes:

Lawrence Boadt, Reading the Old Testament. Paulist Press, 1984, 278.

R. de VauX, Les Institutions de l’Ancient Testament. Les Editions du Cerf,   1967, 217ff.

OUR SEDER WITH SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

During Passover, it is traditional for Jews to hold a Seder (meaning ‘the order’), a ceremonial meal, on the first and traditionally on the second night of the holyday, to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt in biblical times. A special text, created by the Rabbis of old called Haggadah (“the telling [of the story]) is used before and after the meal.

The Seder is a family affair and is often held at home, even though some synagogues offer “congregational Seders.” The rabbinic text used during the Seder is called, Haggadah (namely, “The telling”), and recalls the past when “we were slaves in the Land of Egypt.” Then, according to the Bible, led by Moses, Jews escaped Egypt and arrived into the Sinai desert.  This year, because of Covid, the pattern changed drastically. Few people dared to leave their home to gather with other family members in order to celebrate freedom. So, many Jews resorted to zoom Seders, connecting with family and friends online.

This year, my wife and I had a dilemma. How will we hold the Seder? The Willows, where we live in Westborough, did not offer one. Most of the residents here are not-Jewish and, besides, they still do not encourage large gathering of people. We, therefore, decided to have one on the second night with our daughter, Debbi and our grandchildren, Avi and Talya, in their home in Milford, MA, about 15 minutes away from our apartment.  (Our son lives in California). But, what to do the first night? I thought, why not connect with our friends in Spain? In the past, on many occasions, Ines and I travelled to Barcelona during the summer, and I helped BetShalom, a small but vibrant Reform congregation, with some rabbinic work. This year, because of the virus, they were planning to hold a congregational Seder by zoom.

So, on the first night of Passover, March 27, 2021, we connected with Barcelona at 2 pm Boston time, and were happy to see that even our friends from Madrid, Spain as well as others from Portugal, had joined the Seder online at 7 pm, local time. In fact, the cantor who led the singing, David Alhadef, was from Portugal. We read the Haggadah, placed on computer screen, in Spanish and Portuguese, and sang all the traditional songs in Hebrew. Various people took turn in reading different passages and responsive readings. Even I chanted the “Ha Lanhma Anya” (“this bread of affliction”), almost at the start of the Seder, using a melody that I remembered from my childhood back in Turkey. At the end of the Seder, the group in Madrid held a congregational meal and the rest of us retreated to our own family dinners.

The entire experience, I felt, was surreal. I said to myself: Here we are a group of Jews, who are spread all over the world, connecting with each other for the celebration of a holiday that, at best, has dubious historical basis, but one that has been recalled through oral tradition from generation to generation for centuries. We are still reading and chanting the texts that have been part of our tradition for a very long time. So, year after year, when Jews get together in their homes or congregations, to tell the story of their ancestors’ liberation from bondage in Egypt, sometime around the 13^th century BCE, we can relive their experiences and prepare ourselves to face unknown challenges , like the Israelites apparently did when, according to legend, after leaving Egypt, they somehow crossed the desert to receive the Decalogue at the foot of Mt. Sinai as their constitutional chart. Then, they went on their way to establish themselves as a nation in the land of Israel for many years to come.

This year, through the miracle of technology, zoom made it possible for all Jews to enlarge the circle of families by connecting them online wherever they are, making our world even smaller but intimate. Now that Covid is about to end, we shall remember this interlude and build on it as we confront new challenges as individuals, families and nations.  

HOW MANY LEFT EGYPT?

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The festival of Passover recalls a major event in the history of the Jews during the biblical times. The main message of the holiday, which has resonated with our people over the centuries, is that we were slaves in Egypt, and then we became free. Jews have celebrated this special event for a long period of time, through a ritualized family meal, called the Seder, and using a traditional text named “Haggadah,” meaning “the telling (of the story).”

As the historian John Bright already pointed out, “there is no direct witness in Egyptian records to Israel’s presence in Egypt…(however), it is not the sort of tradition any people would invent” (History of Israel, 1981, 121). The details of the slavery in Egypt as well as the liberation from it are buried in many legends that have been transmitted through the ages from generation to generation. One of them is the number of people who actually left Egypt.

According to Ex.12: 37, about 600,000 men, plus women and children as well as a “mixed multitude” departed from Egypt. In the opinion of a medieval rabbinic commentator, Abraham Ibn Ezra (d.1167, Spain), this extra group were some Egyptians who joined them. It could also refer to other enslaved people in Egypt who escaped along the Israelites.

600,000 is a round number (the Hebrew text reads, “about 600,000”) and is not too far from other biblical sources that put it at 600,550 (Num.1:46), 600,000 (Num.11:21) or  at 601,730 (Num.26:51). Many people, therefore, estimated that the total number of Israelites who left Egypt, including women, children and others, would be about two and a half million.

And this is where the problem lies:

1.     According to a biblical text, the Israelites arrived in Egypt with 70 people (Deut. 10:22), and lived in the land 430 years (Ex 12:40).  (By the way, Gen. 15:13 and 15:16 claim 400 years in 4 generations). The defenders of the biblical text point to another biblical verse that states that the Israelites were very prolific and multiplied greatly (Ex.1: 7; see Deut. 1: 10). But even with this exaggerated claim, it is hard to believe that 70 people can generate about two or three million within 400+ years.

2.     According to another biblical text, the Israelites in Egypt had only two mid-wives by the name of Shifra and Puah (Ex.1: 15-21). It is not clear if these were Hebrew mid-wives or Egyptian mid-wives to the Hebrews. The names, however, are Semitic and not Egyptian. Some medieval commentators, like Ibn Ezra, maintain that they were the overseers of the actual mid-wives in the country. The defenders of the biblical text say that the Hebrew wives in Egypt were “vigorous,” and did not wait for the mid-wives to arrive (Ex.1: 19). But, still, it is hard to believe that only two women , even with outside help, could possibly serve all the Israelites living in the country.

3.     Given the climatic conditions of the land, there is no way that the Sinai desert could have sustained such a large group of more than two million.

To solve the problem, many scholars proposed various solutions:

1.     Some argued that the Hebrew word “ELEF,” meaning “thousand” referring to the number of men who left Egypt (in Ex.12:37) should be understood as “clans.” That would bring the number down to a few thousands. Thus, for example, Mendenhall suggested, maybe 5000; Sarna argued in favor of 600 family units and Wenham proposed a total of 72,000 people.. Now, that makes more sense.

2.     Other scholars suggested that not all 12 Israelite tribes left Egypt, and perhaps not all of them together. Already M. Noth had indicated that “the tribes of Israel did not all settle on the soil of Palestine at the same time” (History, 1958, p. 72). Some even suggested that perhaps only 2 or 3 left, and the others escaped before or after the Exodus. In reality, the number 12 is post-Exodus and reflects the reality during the days of the Monarchy, later on.

 These details, however, did not make it into the Hebrew Bible or the Haggadah. Oral tradition embellished the history of the liberation, and human imagination added all sorts of stories to the almost miraculous event in order to highlight the major teaching of the holiday that celebrates the freedom from bondage in the distant past. In fact, according to the Haggadah, “in every generation each person must feel obligated to think that he/she had personally came out of Egypt.” No wonder why so many people still today rejoice in it and proclaim it to the entire world. 

A JEWISH VIEW OF ISLAM

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The present conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land has created the false impression that the tension between Jews and Muslims has been going on for centuries. That is not correct. Peaceful coexistence has occurred in many places. In fact, Islam (meaning “submission” to God’s will) recognizes that it owes a great deal to Judaism (and Christianity) in its formulation of its own faith.

I grew up in Turkey and had a good exposure to Islam. I have visited  and, in fact, attended many services at Mosques in many parts of the country and, later on, studied Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania.

Islam began when Mohammad, born in Mecca around 570 CE, claimed to have received his first revelation from God in 610. After he and his followers escaped Mecca (in 622) for a northern city called Yathrib, later known as Medina, Mohammad interacted with a number of Jewish tribes. At the beginning, relationships were good but as Jews began to refuse Mohammad’s claims to prophecy, things began to sour between them, and Mohammad started to come up with statements critical of Jews as well as Christians. Thus, for example, even though he had identified these two groups as the “people of the book” (namely the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament; see, Sura 3: 84), he later on told his followers, “Do not take the Jews and the Christians as allies; some of them are allies of one another” (Sura, 5:51). After Mohammad’s conquest of Mecca in 630, he began to come out with newer religious teachings. These eventually became the substance of the Koran, the sacred text in Arabic of the newly formed faith. He died in Mecca in 632 at the age of 62, and was followed by Abu-Bakr (632-634), Uthman (644-656), and Ali (656-661). Some Muslims, namely the Shiites, believed that Ali should have followed Muhammad as caliph (“successor”), and therefore split from the Sunni Muslims. Today, for example, while  most people in Iran are Shiite, the majority of Turks are Sunnis.  It is estimated that 90% of the Muslims are Sunnis and 10% are Shiite. There are a few differences between these two Muslim groups with regards to some religious practices but not concerning the main instructions of the Koran.

Islam promotes five major teachings: 1. It is monotheistic, and declares the unity of God and promotes Mohammad as God’s messenger; 2. It requires 5 different prayer services during the day, facing Mecca; 3. It demands that 2.5% of one’s savings be given to the poor and the needy; 4. It asks that followers fast and exercise self-control during the daylight hours of the holy month of Ramadan, the 9^th month of the Muslim calendar; and, finally, 5. It encourages Muslims to undertake a  pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in a lifetime, if one is able.

During the medieval times, in spite of the fact that both Jews and Christians were considered dhimmis, namely, second class citizens in the Muslim world, Jews, especially, were able to create kind of a “golden age” for a period of time in Andalucía, Spain, where they spoke and wrote in Arabic, and gave rise to great philosophers and poets, like Ibn Ezra, Judah Halevi and Maimonides. However, because of deteriorating circumstances and the Reconquista of Spain by the Christians, Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, who then spread through North Africa and all over Europe, including the Ottoman Empire.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam share a number of teachings:

1.     They are all monotheists, but Muslims do not accept Jesus as divine.

2.     Islam recognizes the biblical prophets, both Jewish and Christians, but these two groups do not accept Mohammad as a prophet.

3.     All three religions consider Jerusalem a holy city.

4.     Both Jews and Muslims require circumcision of males, even though Jews do it on the 8^th day after birth and Muslims shortly before puberty. Christians do not require this procedure.

5.     During worship services, most Jews and all Muslims cover their heads, whereas among Christians  nuns do that. Also, in the Catholic Church, the Syrian Orthodox church and in Anglicanism, clerics wear a zucchetto, like a skullcap. 

6.     Both Jews and Muslims stay away from eating pork, and follow certain required rules of diet. Christians have no restrictions regarding food, except during Lent (no meat).

7.     Jews or Muslims do not allow sculptures or human images in their respective houses of worship, even though Christians do.

In our time, especially in the USA, there is a strong movement towards  establishing respectful relationship among the clergy of the main three faiths, especially in religious associations of all the professionals. And, that is the way it ought to be.

 (Comments are welcome)

THE NAMES OF GOD IN THE HEBREW BIBLE

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

In the Hebrew Bible, we find different names for God. (Later on, Rabbis came up with new terms):

a.     EL

 This is the generic term for any divinity in the ancient Near East, often appearing in Akkadian as as ilu. In the Bible, this name is at times found in compound names, such as El Elyon (Gen. 14:18, “El, the Most High “), El Roi (Gen.16:13, “El who looks upon me”), El Betel (Gen 31: 13, “El of Bethel”), El Shaddai (Gen. 17:1, “El almighty”), El Berit (Judg. 9: 46, “El of the Covenant”), or even attached to personal names, like Yehezkel (“El strengthens”).

 ELOHIM

This term contains a Hebrew plural ending, im, and often refers to the gods of other nations (e.g., Ex.12:12). However, it also appears as the name of the Israelite God. Often, it is accompanied by a singular verb, like : “When God (Elohim) was about to create…(Gen. 1:1), but at times it is followed by a plural ending, such as “When God (Elohim) made me wander…( Gen.20: 13), perhaps as a vestige of the old, polytheistic, usage.

c.     ELOHA    

T      This is a singular evocative form of Elohim, and simply means God, like in Deut. 32: 15 (“He     forsook  the God –Eloha-who made him”) or 32:17 (“They sacrificed to demons, no gods, lo     eloha”).

d.     SHADDAY

     The original meaning of this term is not clear. In the Septuagint (Greek      translation of the Bible) and the Vulgate (Latin translation of the Bible), it is   rendered as “Almighty.”  Most likely, the word is related to the Akkadian   shadu, meaning “mountain.” Others, derive it from shadayyin, divinities  mentioned  in old Aramaic texts. Often, this term appears alone, referring to  the Israelite God (Num. 24:4 or Ps. 91:1), but at times we find it in combination with the name EL, such as El Shadday (Gen. 17:1) or attached to human names, like Zurishaddai (Nu. 1:6).

e.     YHVH

     Often transliterated as Yahweh, this tetragrammaton appears more than 600   times in the Hebrew Bible as the personal name of God. It also has a  shortened form as YAH (Ex. 15:3) or YAHU, in personal names, like Uziyahu (Is.6:1). Often, it appears as YY. Its root is likely related to the  Hebrew verb HAYAH, meaning to be, to exist. The term is also found in      sources outside of Israel, such as in 9/8 th cent. BCE Phoenician storage  jars, in northern Sinai, in the form of “YHVH and his Asherah,” or in association  with other groups, like “YHVH of Samaria.” In the synagogue,  the term is pronounced as ADONAY, by applying the vowels of the Hebrew word, “My Master.” In reality, we do not know how this name was  pronounced in Biblical times. The term “Jehovah” appears for the first    time in 1530 in the English Bible by William Tyndale.

In the Ten Commandments, the law states that we should not swear falsely or take God’s name in vain (Ex.20:70. Based on this teaching, some people believe that it is sinful to write God’s name in full and that we should write G-D or L--D instead. There is no justification for that because G-D or L--D does not refer to God’s real name in the Bible. In fact, I would argue, God does not even need a personal name. If God represents the totality of Being, the simple term “God” in English (Deus in Latin, Dieu in French, Dio in Italian, Dios in Spanish, Gott in German, Theos in Greek, Allah in Arabic and Turkish, etc.) should do just fine.

For more details, see the recent Responsum by David Golinkin on “Must God’s Name be Written in English as G-D, 02/22021.

(Comments are welcome)

DID THE SEA REALLY PART?

 

Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D

The parting of the sea is a major episode in the Hebrew Bible. According to the story, as the Israelites left Egypt in haste, they went through a watercourse that was miraculously split, and the people crossed over in dry land.

Now, we all know that seas do not split. So, what is behind this narrative? How was it explained?

The story appears in the Book of Exodus, and is referred to in many parts of the Hebrew Bible, but there are a number of problems associated with it. First, the sea is not “the Red Sea.” In Hebrew, it is called YAM SUF (The sea of suf). However, the word SUF means “reeds,” not Red. So, the Israelites did not cross the Red Sea, they crossed the “Reed Sea.” The second problem is that we do not know where this sea of reeds is located? Is it the Gulf of Aqaba? Or, is it found in one of the small lakes/marshes close to the Lake Sarbonis? We do not know.

Finally, we have at least three different descriptions of the miraculous event:

1.     According to one source in Exodus 15 (biblical scholars call it the J source, namely, the texts that refer to God as YHVH), God is the main character and there is no mention of the splitting of the sea. God simply drives back the sea itself with a strong east wind, and the Egyptians sink to the bottom of the sea.

2.     According to another source, usually assigned to the P source (namely, the texts written by priests), Moses is the main character, and the sea is always called “the sea,” not the “Red/reed sea.” Here at the command of God, Moses held his arm over the sea, and it parted (Ex.14: 21-23).

3.     In yet another source, this one also called the P source (i.e. a different priestly text), God threw the Egyptians into panic and locked the wheels of their chariots (Ex. 14: 24-25).

Over the centuries, many commentators have tried to explain this so-called miraculous event by offering, at times, fancy explanations. For example, according to the Wisdom of Solomon (1^st cent. BCE), the deliverance was the work of personified wisdom (Chap.10). The Jewish historian Josephus (1st cent. CE), stated that Moses chose the route by means of clever calculations (Ant.II, 16). For the Greek-Jewish philosopher, Philo of Alexandria (1^st cent. CE), the entire episode is an allegory (Legum, Alleg. 2). The Rabbis, too, imagined various scenarios: For some, the sea did not part until the Israelites first stepped in the waters (BT Sotah 36b), or until the waters reached up to their noses (Sh’mot Rabba 21). In the medieval times, the conjectures continued: For Rashbam (11 cent. northern France), the winds dried up and coagulated the rivers (on Ex.14:21). For Maimonides (d. 1204) on the other hand, all miracles, including the parting of the sea, were built into the structure of the universe and do not represent God’s intrusion into nature (Eight Chapters, 8). Some even argued that a volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini produced a tidal wave that parted the sea.

Fancy explanations still appear in contemporary literature: In 2004, Naum Volzinger, a senior researcher at St. Petersburg’s Institute of Oceanography, and his colleague, Alexei Androsov of Hamburg, argued that the parting of the sea was caused by strong winds. Similarly, in 2010, according to Carl Drews, a mechanical engineer, the “sea” is to be located in the Lake Tanis, in the Eastern Nile Delta region, just south of the Mediterranean Sea. The parting was caused by strong winds that created wind pushes, moving the waters away.

In reality, all of these explanations are just speculations, trying to justify the biblical text that is highly elusive. Besides, in the Hebrew Bible, the story is introduced as a divine miracle. The entire episode is legendary, and highlights the fact that the Israelites must have left Egypt under difficult circumstances and yet survived. We do not know when it happened, where it happened or how it happened, but we can surmise that the purpose of the story was to praise God and Moses for the Israelites’ glorious escape from servitude, which left an indelible mark on the historical views of the ancient tribes. The Exodus finally became the rationale for the injunction of not to wrong the resident aliens (Lev. 19:34).

(For more details, please see my article, “Did the Israelites Escape Through the Sea”? in my book, Did Moses Really Have Horns (2009), pp. 70-81).

DISEASE IS NOT DIVINE PUNISHMENT

 Rabbi Rifat Sonsino, Ph.D.

When I was a teenager back in Turkey, if I had a cold or was not feeling well, my Hebrew teacher would often say: “You must have done something wrong!” That infuriated me, and I would tell him, “No, I did not do anything bad.”

There is an old assumption in our western world that equates illness with sin. As Philip I. Lieberman recently wrote, “Religious people throughout history often saw plagues as the manifestation of divine will, as a punishment for sin” (In Milwaukee Independent, July 12, 2020). Thus, for example, back in 2014, John Hagee, the televangelist, claimed that the Ebola outbreak was God’s punishment for President Obama’s policies regarding Israel. Even in our time, in spite of the fact that the Pope has recently denied it, there are a number of people in the world who think that the Corona Virus represents divine displeasure.

The classical texts of the western world support this assumption, which goes back to the ancient Near Eastern literature. In “The Babylonian Theodicy,” we read, “he that bears his God’s yoke, never lacks food.” (ANET, p. 603). It is also found in many parts of the Hebrew Bible. For example, in Genesis suffering was introduced as one of the consequences of human sin, namely eating of the apple against God’s command (Gen.3:17-19). The main argument of the friends of Job is that suffering is caused by human sin. On the other hand, according to the Book of Psalms, God forgives all iniquities and heals all the diseases (103:3). Similarly, according to the author of the Book of Exodus if Israelites listen to God and do what is right, He will not put any of the Egyptian diseases upon them (Ex.15: 26). In the New Testament, divine retributive justice is behind the statement of John when Jesus says, “Do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you (5:14).” It is also found in the Quran: when people disbelieved Noah, “We opened the gates of heaven with pouring rain and  caused the earth to burst with gushing springs” (Surah, 54).  The connection between sin and illness is highlighted even in the talmudic literature which states, “there is no death without sin” (Shab.55a) and that zaraat (a type of skin eruption) is punishment for gossip (Lev. Rabba 16:1-6).

How is this theological idea justified? The belief is that the almighty and merciful God rewards the faithful and punishes the wicked. So, if suffering occurs, it must be because of an unknown infraction of the commandments.

In our time, we need to disassociate sin from divine punishment. We are not talking about abuses that have physical consequences, such as overeating causing medical problems for human beings or that smokers often end up with lung cancer.. Most of us would support this idea. I am more concerned about severe illnesses that affect people for reasons that we do not know. How inhuman it would be for us to tell a cancer patient or a person who suffers from Alzheimer’s that his/her illness was caused because of a breach of divine law? A person who suddenly falls and breaks his neck is not suffering because he disobeyed divine commandments. Accidents happen. God, as the energy of the universe, is manifested through the laws of nature, and when we fail nature or nature fails, illness arrives. We are all vulnerable, not because we have sinned against God, but because we were in the wrong time and place, or simply because our bodies succumbed to a disease, often for unknown reason.

To be cured, we need to turn to competent doctors and not to faith healers. In Maimonides’ (d. 1205) view, a person who despises the aid of a physician and relies solely on God’s help is “a pious fool” (Intro to Sefer Hakatzeret). According to Jewish law, the Torah has granted physicians permission to heal and this is considered a Mitzvah, a divine commandment (Shulhan Aruh, Yore Deah, 336/2).

Patients need our empathies during the time of their suffering. They don’t need to feel guilty for something they have or have not done.