3 When Rabbi Eliezer the Great Fell Ill

3 When Rabbi Eliezer the Great Fell Ill When Rabbi Eliezer the Great fell ill, he said to Rabbi Akiva: Fierce wrath is in the world (Sanhedrin 101a), because there was no one then who could sweeten the judgment, for it required a redemption to sweeten the judgment, and none was found. For in truth, after the sweetening and the redemption, then specifically it is good to heal the sick person through medicines, because then specifically, after the redemption and the sweetening, there is permission for the doctor to heal. For behold, in truth, how can the doctor gird his loins to heal the sick person through medicines and drugs? Surely he does not know the drug needed to heal that sick person, for there are many drugs that are capable of healing the illness, but certainly the sick person cannot be healed except through a specific drug unique to his healing, as decreed above, as our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said (Avodah Zarah 55a), that they decree above that he be healed through a specific drug and through a specific person on a specific day. And if so, how can the doctor insert himself to heal? Surely he does not know the drug that was decreed above. But after the sweetening and the redemption, then he can heal, because what is needed—that he be healed specifically through a specific drug and a specific person—is because of the attribute of judgment; according to the attribute of judgment it is decreed that the illness be prolonged until that time and specific day, and therefore it is decreed that he cannot be healed except through those causes, namely a specific drug and a specific person, in order to prolong the illness until the specific day. For according to the time that the illness needs to be prolonged, so they decree the causes for his healing, so that he cannot be healed until those causes coincide: the specific drug and the specific person, in a way that he will have no healing except on the specific day. But when they make a redemption and sweeten the judgment, then the decree is nullified, then before they decree another judgment—for when this judgment is sweetened, then they decree another judgment—and in between, that is, after the sweetening of the first judgment before they decree another judgment, then the doctor can heal the sick person through drugs, because then there is no judgment, and then he can be healed through whatever drug there may be, because there is no need specifically for a specific drug and so forth, since there is no judgment as above. It turns out that it is impossible for a doctor to heal except through redemption, that they need to make a redemption first to sweeten the judgment, and then specifically there is permission for the doctor to heal as above. And this is “And he shall surely heal” (Exodus 21:19) [with the two words numerically equal to pidyon nefesh (redemption of the soul)], because the main healing is specifically through redemption, through which they sweeten the judgment. And this is what our Rabbis, of blessed memory, said ( Berachos 60a): From here the Torah gave permission to the doctor to heal—from here specifically, that is, after the redemption, then specifically there is permission for the doctor to heal, because before the redemption there is no permission for the doctor to heal, because he needs to be healed through a specific drug and so forth as above; only after the redemption and the sweetening, then there is permission for him to heal as above. Also the difference between the vowels of ve’rapo yerapay (translated above as: and he shall surely heal, in Hebrew it is the same word repeated with a slight variation, which) is that ve’rapo is with a cholam

(a dot above, sounding: yerapay is with a tzairai (two dot underneath the letter, sounding: ay), that is, cholam is the aspect of sweetening, as brought in the writings of the Ari, of blessed memory, that cholam is numerically three Havayos which sweeten three Elokims in the throat which are the brains of smallness, that descend to the throat and are sweetened through three Havayos , numerically

cholam Yerapay with tzairai , aspect of “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there?” (Jeremiah 8:22) that is, aspect of healings after the sweetening which is aspect of ve’rapo with cholam , then specifically they can be healed through healings which is aspect of yerapay with tzairai as above.