In describing the consequences of inflicting personal injury on another, the Torah instructs the damager to ensure that the injured is thoroughly healed — verappo yerappe. These final words constitute not just a local solution to an interpersonal skirmish, but a philosophical mandate with broad resonance.

The Talmud offers the following insight on the above verse: “The school of Rabbi Yishmael says: When the verse states, ‘And shall cause him to be thoroughly healed [verappo yerappe]’, it is derived from here that permission is granted to a doctor to heal” (Bava Kama 85a).

Nechama Leibowitz, the 20th-century Torah scholar, quotes this passage, and asks: What is the implied question? Why, in the absence of this teaching, might we have thought that doctors do not have permission to heal? 

The answer is provided throughout the medieval commentaries, including Rashi’s gloss on this piece from the Talmud. He explains: “We don’t say, ‘God made you sick, God will heal you.’” As human beings, even if we are believers, we are empowered to take matters into our own hands and improve health whenever we can. 

Despite this confident assertion, the Talmud isn’t always enthusiastic about the role of doctors. “The best of doctors is destined for hell,” says the Talmud in Kiddushin (82a). Commenting on that passage, Rashi offers several explanations, asserting that God is the ultimate healer. “For (the doctor) does not fear sickness and feeds the patient medicines rather than instructing the patient to repent.” 

Illness is scary and, as part of the human condition, it is beyond our control. Any human efforts to heal must be undertaken with humility. At the same time, human life is subject to the laws of nature. People get sick, or are injured, and it is our responsibility to ensure that they are cared for properly. 

Ultimately, the teaching of the school of Rabbi Yishmael is preserved throughout Jewish tradition in discussions of the importance of providing medical help to those in need.

As the world continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, it is easy to develop a sense of fatalism; so many people are sick and the virus continues to spread. The words of this verse are a blessing and a charge; as Jews, we have a mandate to heal when we can and the blessing of sometimes having the power to do so.