Refuah Sheleimah, Part I: License to Heal?

(17) Abraham then prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech and his wife and his slave girls, so that they bore children; (18) for ה' had closed fast every womb of the household of Abimelech because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham.

(22) Then Moses caused Israel to set out from the Sea of Reeds. They went on into the wilderness of Shur; they traveled three days in the wilderness and found no water. (23) They came to Marah, but they could not drink the water of Marah because it was bitter; that is why it was named Marah. (24) And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” (25) So he cried out to ה', and ה' showed him a piece of wood; he threw it into the water and the water became sweet. There [God] made for them a fixed rule; there they were put to the test. (26) [God] said, “If you will heed your God ה' diligently, doing what is upright in God’s sight, giving ear to God’s commandments and keeping all God’s laws, then I will not bring upon you any of the diseases that I brought upon the Egyptians, for I ה' am your healer.”

(18) When an inflammation appears on the skin of one’s body and it heals, (19) and a white swelling or a white discoloration streaked with red develops where the inflammation was, that person shall report to the priest....

(37) But if the scall has remained unchanged in color, and black hair has grown in it, the scall is healed; the person is pure. The priest shall pronounce that person pure.

(1) ה' spoke to Moses, saying: (2) This shall be the ritual for a leper at the time of being purified. When it has been reported to the priest, (3) the priest shall go outside the camp. If the priest sees that the leper has been healed of the scaly affection, (4) the priest shall order two live pure birds, cedar wood, crimson stuff, and hyssop to be brought for the one to be purified...

(48) If, however, the priest comes and sees that the plague has not spread in the house after the house was replastered, the priest shall pronounce the house pure, for the plague has healed.

(13) So Moses cried out to ה', saying, “O God, pray heal her!”

(27) ה' will strike you with the Egyptian inflammation, with hemorrhoids, boil-scars, and itch, from which you shall never recover....(35) ה' will afflict you at the knees and thighs with a severe inflammation, from which you shall never recover—from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

(18) When [two] parties quarrel and one strikes the other with stone or fist, and the victim does not die but has to take to bed: (19) if that victim then gets up and walks outdoors upon a staff, the assailant shall go unpunished—except for paying for the idleness and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

Abba Guryan of Tzadyan says in the name of Abba Gurya: A person may not teach his son the trades of a donkey driver, a camel driver, a pot maker, a sailor, a shepherd, or a storekeeper, as their trades are the trades of robbers. Rabbi Yehuda says in Abba Gurya’s name: Most donkey drivers are wicked, since they engage in deceit, and most camel drivers, are of fit character. Most sailors are pious. The best of doctors is to Gehenna, and even the fittest of butchers is a partner of Amalek.

'The best of doctors is to gehenna' - They do not fear disease. They eat the food of the healthy, and they do not act humbly before God. Sometimes they kill, and sometimes they are able to heal a poor person but do not do so.

As Rav Aḥa said: One who enters to let [one's own] blood says:"May it be Your will, O Lord my God, that this enterprise be for healing and that You should heal me.As You are a faithful God of healing and Your healing is truth." Because it is not the way of people to heal, but they have become accustomed.

Abaye said: One should not say this, as it was taught in the school of Rabbi Yishmael “And shall cause him to be thoroughly healed” (Exodus 21:19): from here we derive that permission is granted to a doctor to heal.

When one stands after having let blood, what does he say? Rav Aḥa said: He recites in gratitude: Blessed…Who heals without payment/freely.

"Because it is not the way of human beings to heal etc." - That is to say, it is not fitting for them to engage in cures, but rather to ask for divine mercy.

AND SHALL CAUSE HIM TO BE THOROUGHLY HEALED. This is a sign that permission has been granted to physicians to heal blows and wounds that are visible on the surface. However, it is in God’s hand to heal any illness which strikes inside of the body. It is thus written, For He maketh sore, and bindeth up (Job 5:18). Furthermore, Scripture tells us concerning King Asa, yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians (II Chron. 16:12). Now Scripture distinguished between them. It does not state, verafo yirpe (and he shall surely heal), which is in the kal. It rather reads, ve-rappo yerappe (and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed). The latter is in the pi’el. I will explain this very well later on in this portion.