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IN-DEPTH FEATURES
Part I
On a recent evening, four observant doctors gathered with
us after they had finished their work, for a roundtable
discussion in the offices of Arachim. All of them are
connected to the Teshuvoh movement. Some of them returned to
their roots and some of them work in outreach. Each one felt
at home in the offices of Arachim. Their work is in the field
of medicine, but their essence is men of faith. "From my
flesh I see G-d," and from the flesh of any man. They see
faith, experience it, and breathe it.
We sought the opportunity to gain insight into
emunah from their experiences and their fascinating
personal stories. We sought to delve into the depths of
questions surrounding faith and medicine as well: Can one
influence the results of an ultrasound by spiritual means?
What is the source of exaggerated arrogance often found
amongst doctors? Why should we go to a doctor, given that sin
is the cause of death? How well does the chareidi community
follow doctors' orders? What is the meaning of the Zohar that
states that matzoh is the "bread of healing?"
Rabbi Yisroel Friedman presented the questions. Chaim
Arbeli took notes.
Part One: Faith and Healing
As background for the first question, Rabbi Yisroel Friedman
told a fascinating recent story to the participants: With
your permission, I would like to open with a true story I
witnessed, and afterwards I would like to hear your
reactions. On motzei Shabbos, a Jew came to HaRav
Aharon Leib Shteinman's home and told him that he had a
brother who lived in New York who had undergone chemotherapy
for his illness, and it caused his inner organs to be
"consumed." In light of the medical diagnosis and prognosis,
they had already said with him the viduy confession in
preparation for death. The Rosh Yeshiva made a name change
for an ill person immediately, blessed him with a blessing
for a complete recovery, and began to pray for his
recovery.
Not long after this, the doctor who was treating his brother
came out of the treatment room and told the family: "I do not
understand what has happened here. Tell me, what exactly have
you done for the patient?"
The family told him that the only thing they did was the name
change, prayer, and a blessing. The doctor was a Jew, but
very distant from observance of Torah and mitzvos. When he
heard their story he responded that he had to travel to
Israel in order to understand this phenomenon.
The family now keeps two x-ray pictures of the patient, one
"before" and one "after," which provide scientific
verification to the story.
We know of many incidents such as this, concerning many
gedolei Yisroel, in which going to a great man had a
great effect. As men of science and medicine, how do you
relate to these stories?
We thought that after the first story the discussion would
begin — but we were mistaken! The doctors, one by one,
told personal stories and provided deeper material for the
question under discussion.
*
Dr. Shoraki: You told a story, allow me to tell a
story . . . (See box).
Dr. Hart: Before I answer the question, I would like
to say that I know of many stories such as these, and if we
tell them all now we will not finish before morning. I will
tell one story, though. I was in HaRav Chaim Kanievsky's home
and a Jewish mother came in, placed her infant on the table
in the library, and asked me to examine him. I examined him
and found that everything was okay.
After the examination the mother told me: "In the first
ultrasound made on my baby when he was a fetus, they detected
that his brain was not developing. In the second ultrasound
they said they could hardly identify his heart. After the
third one they said his kidneys were in very bad shape . . .
"
The doctors said that everything was hopeless, but the family
received a blessing from HaRav Chaim Kanievsky.
Mayanei Hayeshua Hospital would not accept the mother for
delivery of an infant with an undeveloped brain and
problematic heart and kidneys, and they sent her to Tel
Hashomer Hospital. The baby was born completely healthy, with
a normal brain, heart, and kidneys.
Let us return to the question: As men of medicine and
science, how do you relate to the stories?
Dr. Hart: As doctors, we have no tools to examine the
power contained in the Torah, including the power of the
gedolei Yisroel's blessings that transform nature.
There are proofs to this in the words of our Sages. This
works in reality, in nature!
There was a case of a girl who suffered from a tumor in the
brainstem which was detected in an MRI (Magnetic Resonance
Imaging) image. They sent her to be operated on in
Switzerland. HaRav Chaim Kanievsky gave her his blessing, and
when she arrived in Switzerland the tumor was gone.
The blessings of gedolei Yisroel have power. I heard
from HaRav Chaim Kanievsky that when medical examinations are
not made, the blessings can take effect more readily. In
cases where the blessing did not take effect, it was because
the one receiving the blessing was not worthy. These were his
words. (By the way, one should also know the simple fact that
many ultrasound examinations are in error).
The blessings are similar to antibiotics. I give an
antibiotic, but I do not know how it works. The fact is that
it works for one patient, while for another it does not.
Blessings seem to me to be the same, HaKodosh Boruch
Hu gave them power to work and they work. This is the
reality. You ask me how a secular doctor looks at this? He
has a problem when he compares the two x-rays pictures; he
has to find an answer.
Dr. Kapach: This question is a trap, because the
minute you ask me to answer the question as a doctor you have
placed me in a trap. You are asking about supernatural
processes and you are requesting me to answer in natural
terms. You are taking away all the tools and then you ask for
an explanation. What can I say? Without the tools of
emunah I can only answer that maybe it was a mistake,
maybe the story was not exact, maybe the doctor was not an
expert. There are always excuses . . . in a natural way it
could not be that a tumor such as that which was described
could disappear. In a natural way, evidence from an
ultrasound does not disappear. Therefore, with natural tools
we have no true, fundamental answer to your question.
Dr. Straw answered the question by providing a comprehensive
picture of the point of contact between medicine and
emunah, also by means of a personal story (see
box). His inevitable conclusion was that the doctor does
nothing, he only "plays the role of a doctor, and HaKodosh
Boruch Hu does everything!"
The tzaddik, the "schnorrer" R' Dovid Leib
zt'l used to give advice that was not at all medical
and it helped people to be cured from their illnesses. Maybe
you should also do so? According to what you say, you are
only "playing" doctor, why not play with R' Dovid Leib's
tools?
Dr. Straw: Because HaKodosh Boruch Hu obligates
us to make our hishtadlus efforts with the science of
medicine. HaKodosh Boruch Hu gave us a certain tool,
and we need to use that tool in its framework to try and
reveal the illness and to treat it. In the framework of
hishtadlus I must prescribe the scientifically
accepted medicine, but I must also recognize that only
HaKodosh Boruch Hu decides whether the medicine will
work or not. If He wishes, there could be severe side effects
from taking two grams of flour, as the story I told
demonstrates.
Dr. Hart: The proof of the doctor's obligation to heal
with conventional means comes from the gedolei
Yisroel! They are the ones who are the most careful to
follow their own doctors' instructions. Other people have a
tendency to disregard them, but the gedolei Yisroel
are exceedingly careful with the instructions. Therefore, it
is not possible to say that because everything comes from
HaKodosh Boruch Hu there is no need for
hishtadlus in the natural way.
Dr. Kapach: If we lived in a period with a very high
spiritual level and were exempt from hishtadlus we
could do so, but as long as we are living in today's day and
age we are obligated to do hishtadlus.
If a person with a very high level of emunah came
to you, would you advise him to pass up on treatment?
Dr. Kapach: No.
But we are speaking about someone who really
believes!
Dr. Kapach: So why did he come to me? Because his wife
would not let him rely on his power of emunah? They
tell the story of a man who went to the doctor and received a
prescription. He went to the pharmacy and filled the
prescription, but when he arrived at his home he threw the
medicine into the garbage. "The doctor needs a livelihood,"
he explained, "so I went to him. The pharmacist needs to make
a living, so I bought from him. Now, I also need to live!"
Obviously this story is a joke. There are some who take it
literally, though. If a man would be on the level of Rabbi
Chanina ben Dosa I would agree he is exempt from making
hishtadlus. But hishtadlus is necessary for us.
If you are not on the level of Rabbi Shimon bar
Yochai—take the antibiotics! And someone who thinks he
is on the level of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai needs to be sent
to a different type of hospital.
Do you deal with the supernatural in the course of
treatment?
Dr. Kapach: I take into consideration the influence of
spiritual causes—emunah—and I can say to
the patient to read Tehillim before and after taking
the medicine.
Have you noticed that people with emunah heal
quicker?
Dr. Kapach: I do not need to see this. There have been
investigations that revealed that people with greater
emunah have more effective immune systems —
maybe not in high percentages such as 100 percent but their
recovery was better because their body is healthier. It is
impossible to deny the connection between the body and the
spirit.
End of Part I
Dr. Shoraki began the discussion with a personal story. He
chose his words carefully and put into each one of them an
ocean of feeling. His gestures were exhilarated and his face
was beaming.
A few years ago his wife was sent during pregnancy for an
ultrasound checkup, performed by an expert in the field. The
expert informed them that the baby's kidneys were "not okay."
This was very difficult news for them because they had
already passed through a difficult period of expectations and
disappointments. They were sent for a series of examinations,
and at the end they were told to make one more test, after
which the doctors would decide what to do.
His wife refused to take the test and Dr. Shoraki, who was
then secular, admired her simple faith but found it difficult
to accept. In his pain, he turned to Rav Machluf Pachima, who
knew him from when he was a small boy and who guided him in
the process of returning to his roots.
The Rav told him they must not take the test. Dr. Shoraki
claimed it was very hard for him to accept this and asked to
understand why not.
"I am a doctor," he explained, "and it seems to me that if
HaKodosh Boruch Hu has given us the possibility of
making the test then we have to use it. Why isn't refusing to
take the test considered as if we are disregarding the wisdom
HaKodosh Boruch Hu gave us?" Dr. Shoraki, who was then
at the first stages of returning, was perplexed.
The Rav listened and said: "What you are saying is logical,
but do not take the test."
Dr. Shoraki asked again for the reason, and the Rav asked
him: "If you hear the reason, will you give up the test?"
"Yes," he answered.
The Rav stated an idea, recalled Dr. Shoraki, "and from the
moment I heard it, it has been worth a fortune to me."
"You are in a closed room," the Rav began his parable, "and
this room has many doors. You want to leave the room and you
try all the doors. The first door is locked. So too the
second and the third. You go on trying all the doors until
you come to the last door. The last option.
"Please! Don't mix in! Leave the last door for HaKodosh
Boruch Hu! Let Him open it for you!"
"You need a lot of strength in order to hold back from trying
to open the last door," admits Dr. Shoraki, "but that is what
we did. If you are stubborn enough to insist on opening that
door yourself you prevent, as it were, HaKodosh Boruch
Hu from entering. It was difficult to accept this —
even very difficult. Because I was a doctor it was much
harder. If I were not a doctor it would have been easier. I
felt as if I were tying my hands with handcuffs. I thought
that someone would have to be unreasonable to act in such a
way."
They did not do the test, as the Rav advised, and the doctors
who were treating his wife were angry. "Why did we do all the
tests if you are going to stop at the last step?" they
asked.
"You are not reasonable people," the doctors offered their
opinion in a field that was not really their profession.
Despite the pressure from the doctors, they remained firm in
their decision and did not even do any simple sonograms.
They arrived at the hospital before the delivery. Dr. Shoraki
called an important Rov from the hospital, who told him he
should pray to HaKodosh Boruch Hu: "Recite perek
Yosheiv beseiser elyon, in Tehillim without
interruption."
After the operation they called him inside the delivery room.
"I came in and I soon heard the newborn screaming. For a
number of moments everyone held their breath. A newborn
usually cries, but he was screaming in an unusual voice; it
sounded as if he were angry . . . "
Rav Vallis interrupted and asked: "What was the anger all
about?"
Dr. Hart: "Are you wondering why he was angry? He was
screaming: `Gevald!' They bothered me in the middle of
learning a sugya with the angel."
Dr. Kapach: "The answer is perhaps not in the realm of
physiology. Maybe the newborn's anger was `saying' to the
doctors: `You wanted to injure me and prevent me from being
born?' Today we know scientifically that the fetus absorbs
and feels what the mother feels, what its surroundings
broadcast."
Less than an hour after the birth the doctors sent Dr.
Shoraki with the infant for an ultrasound examination because
of his problematic medical records. He came to the
examination and told them about the problem in the kidneys
that had been revealed in a previous ultrasound. A new
examination was made and no problem was found. They asked him
if he wants a more thorough series of tests and he answered:
"No, no, no."
When he returned to the department they made a comparison
between the two results and . . .
"Soon we will be making the chalakah for this child.
He is almost three years old."
With your permission I would like to touch on the subject of
science and medicine, and to demonstrate scientifically who
is the One who treats a patient. Is it the doctors and the
antibiotics, or does HaKodosh Boruch Hu cause the
antibiotics to work?
In a meeting of cardiologists at the Tel Hashomer hospital, I
was asked to present a research article that was published in
a respectable periodical — one of the most prestigious
in the field of medicine. The subject of the research was the
effectiveness of a medicine called Procor for patients who
suffered from irregular heartbeat. The article presented a
comparison between the results of those who took the medicine
and those who took a placebo.
When I read the article I was astounded by a basic piece of
data, which I will soon explain. I presented the results of
the article to the participants, all of whom were experts and
professors who were themselves researchers. I detailed this
astounding result to them, and I was surprised by their
reaction.
They did not relate to it at all, despite the fact that it
was a blatant point, surprising and impressive. After a few
minutes I mentioned the point again and just about asked
explicitly: "How could this be?"
Only one doctor responded that it could be a mistake. I
looked at everyone's eyes and I could see they were avoiding
the question.
Let me explain the surprising data, and the lesson I learned
from it:
Throughout the history of medicine, researchers have always
made comparisons between real medicines and placebos
(harmless substances given in place of the medicine, when
both the patient and the administrating doctor think he is
taking the real medicine or at least do not know that he is
not). Every time a medicine is researched, they record the
complaints the patients have as "negative side effects."
Afterwards they analyze the data and summarize the percentage
of those who suffered from any particular side effect.
Despite the fact that the placebo is really only two grams of
flour, there are those who report negative side effects from
taking it — usually about four to seven percent of the
participants. These side effects include pains, nausea,
vomiting, and the like.
How do they analyze the negative side effects of the real
medicine? Everyone knows that the placebo can cause nausea
and the like but it will not cause a major ailment, for
example swelling in the legs. Let us say twenty percent of
those who took the medicine have swelling of the legs, this
would be a clear indication that it is a negative side effect
of the medicine.
We do not know of negative side effects in some of the new
medicines, since they have not been studied for a long time.
But the research paper I was presenting was dealing with an
old medicine that millions of people have used for thirty
years! One of the negative side effects of this medicine is
the formation of severe scars in the lungs that can cause
shortness of breath. This is a very serious negative side
effect that causes significant changes in the lung's
membranes.
In the history of medicine no one has ever taken a placebo
and been stricken with this negative side effect. We eat
flour every day and it does not cause this side effect. No
researcher has ever cited a negative side effect of this
magnitude from a placebo.
And yet this research paper reported that three percent of
those who took the placebo were stricken with this serious
side effect!
How could this be? How could people be stricken with a
serious aliment as a result of taking a placebo? And it was a
relatively high amount of three percent! (Amongst those who
took the real medicine, four percent were stricken with the
side effect.)
In the article they reported the dry facts without relating
to the surprising data. The doctors before whom I presented
the article did not react as well. In the periodical from
which I quoted they always print letters from their readers
who comment on articles they have published — but
nothing was printed on this. If I were one of the editors of
that periodical I would not have publicized this research,
because it does not make any sense!
I ask myself as a man of science: What caused those patients
who took the placebo to have such a severe side effect? As a
normal person I have to ask this question!
I tried to solve the riddle myself in the following way:
Since the doctor knows about the negative side effect of the
real medicine, he is therefore sensitive to follow-up and
check the patient to see if this side effect is
developing.
Therefore, perhaps we could say that the patients had the
negative side effect not because of the placebo but rather
because the doctor was looking for it and he knew this was a
possible side effect from taking the medicine, and that is
why it was discovered in a relatively high percentage.
However, this explanation is untenable because throughout
history, amongst the millions that took placebos, there has
never been such a severe side effect!
Another possibility is the psychological influence. The
doctor warns the patient about the list of possible negative
side effects ahead of time (on the assumption that he is
taking the real medicine). If so, it is possible that
psychological factors created physical changes in the
patient's body because he was worried about this ailment.
Let us examine another research finding that negates this
possibility. Research was once publicized regarding a
medicine called Phoslo, which showed it was beneficial for
bone density. After a year they publicized the case of three
patients who had taken Phoslo and suffered from hard ulcers
in the esophagus. People complained and asked why they did
not publicize and warn of the existence of this negative side
effect a year ago, in the original research article?
The answer given by the researcher was (in part): "I could
not warn the medical community about this negative side
effect because at the time of the investigation we discovered
that those who took the placebo also had hard ulcers in the
esophagus."
This is astounding!
This means that people who could not possibly have known that
a possible side effect of Phoslo is hard ulcers in the
esophagus, took the placebo and were stricken with this
ailment! This incident negates the possibility of
psychological factors being responsible for the side effects,
because with Phoslo both the doctors and the patients knew
nothing about such a possibility!
Was there ever a case where someone who took a placebo and
was stricken with such a serious ailment in the history of
medicine?
There never was! We know that placebos can cause nausea or
the like—but could they case a serious illness? This is
impossible!
A third possibility is that the placebos were actually the
true medicine. In every investigation about the effectiveness
of a medicine the doctor receives the medicine in a package
and he does not know if it is the real medicine or the
placebo. Therefore, maybe the pharmaceutical company made a
mistake and in the investigation everyone received the real
medicine and that is why they had the negative side
effects.
However, this is not tenable since the heartbeat rhythms
improved amongst those that took the real medicine and not
among those who took the placebo. This would indicate that a
portion of the patients really did receive the placebo.
What is the solution to this paradox? The answer is simple:
HaKodosh Boruch Hu allows us to "play" the role of a
doctor, and that is how He built His world. However, you have
to know that it is not Procor that causes scars in the lungs,
and it is not Phoslo that causes the ulcer in the esophagus.
HaKodosh Boruch Hu does it all!
Dr. Shmuel Shoraki
He studied medicine in France, specializing in emergency
care, skin surgery and hematology. Dr. Shoraki became
familiar with Arachim sixteen years ago as a result of a
conference in France, and moved to Eretz Yisroel in
Tishrei, 5759 (1999).
Dr. Shoraki has received favorable newspaper coverage for his
treatment to save diabetics' feet from amputation. He
receives about a hundred people every day in his clinic in
Bnei Brak for treatment and advice.
Dr. Meshulam Hart
A specialist in childhood diseases, allergies of adults and
children (immunology, the science of the immune system and
allergies), he studied medicine in the University of Tel Aviv
in the first graduating class.
Dr. Hart is one of the most experienced activists in the
field of outreach, and has been active in Arachim, among
other organizations. He serves and has served as the doctor
of gedolei Yisroel ztvk'l vylct'a.
Dr. Hart has published the pamphlet entitled VeRapoh
Yerapei, which contains responsa from HaRav Chaim
Kanievsky on medicine issues.
Dr. Shlomo Chaim Straw
He studied medicine in Colombia, and specialized in Israel in
internal medicine and cardiology. He is acquainted with
Arachim for sixteen years as a result of a conference in
Ashkelon.
Dr. Straw has a special method of treatment utilizing
hypnosis/relaxation techniques for illnesses or for long
periods of difficult tests. (For example, for the problem of
ringing in the ears, he has developed a special treatment
with Dr. Shemesh of the Noise Institute in Tel Hashomer).
Dr. Shlomo Kapach
He studied medicine in Hadassah, Jerusalem, and specializes
in internal disease with an emphasis on cardiology and
diabetes. Eighteen years ago he published a textbook in the
subject of the pathological EKG entitled Electrocardiology-
Principles and Concepts, and has authored a book on the
subject of faith and science (Evolution—The Theory
of Development in a Scientific Perspective), which
refutes the atheistic theory from a scientific vantage point.
He has been acquainted with Arachim since 5755 (1995), when
he joined the participants of an Arachim Seminar in Arad.
Dr. Kapach serves as a lecturer in Arachim.
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