חלק ב — תורה 5

“Tik’u (Sound) the shofar at the moon’s renewal, when [the moon is] covered over on our festive day. For it is a statute for Israel, a mishpat unto the Lord of Yaakov.” 2 (Psalms 81:4-5)

The main thing is emunah (faith). Every person has to search within himself and strengthen himself in faith.

There are those who suffer from the most astounding afflictions, and the only reason they are ill is because of the fall of faith. This is as in “God will make your plagues astounding, great and relentless plagues, terrible and ne’emanim (faithful) illnesses” (Deuteronomy 28:59). Specifically ne’EMaNim, because they are generated by a blemish of EMuNah. The fall of faith brings to astounding afflictions, for which neither medicines, nor prayer, nor ancestral merit helps.

For all medicines are based on plants, and these grow only on account of faith. This is what our Sages, of blessed memory, taught (Taanit 8a) : The rains fall only in the merit of faith, as it is written (Psalms 85:12), “Truth springs forth from the earth; righteousness peers down from heaven.” When there is faith, rain falls, plants grow, and then there are medicines. But when faith is lacking, there is no rain, and then there is no healing.

In addition, the essential healing power of each plant depends on the natural order of the plant kingdom, as determined by place and time. The healing powers of certain plants are present only when they are cut before reaching a third of their maturity; after this, they have no power to heal. Other plants are potent only when they reach full growth and fall on their own. The same is true of all plants, each according to its own timetable. Likewise, there is an order determined by place. One location is suited for growing one kind of plant, while another location is suitable for growing different plants. Their healing powers entirely follow the order [of the plant kingdom] as determined by time and place.

And the order of the plant kingdom is contingent on faith, as in: Emunah—this is the Order of Seeds (Shabbat 31a). Faith maintains the temporal and spatial order of the plant kingdom, thus providing [the plants] with the power to cure. Therefore, on account of the fall of faith, medicines are of no avail.

Prayer is similarly a matter of faith, as it is written “and his hands were faith” (Exodus 17:12), which Onkelos renders: “[his hands were] spread out in prayer.”

And ancestral merit, too, is revealed only through faith, as in “The first blossoms have appeared in the land” (Song of Songs 2:12). “The first blossoms” are the Patriarchs, as it is brought in the holy Zohar (Introduction, p.1b). They appear and are revealed “in the land,” which alludes to faith, as it is written “dwell in the land and tend to faith” (Psalms 37:3) ; corresponding to “earth is the vessel for them all” (Tikkuney Zohar #70, p.132a).

Therefore, on account of the fall of faith, neither medicines, nor prayer, nor ancestral merit can avail him, because all these are linked to faith.

Neither is the sick person helped by the sound of his sighs and groans. There are times when such sounds help the sick person by arousing mercy for him. But on account of the fall of faith, this, too, does not help, since these groans and sighs are a voice without words. Voice corresponds to the Patriarchs, because the voice is comprised of fire, water and air (Tikkuney Zohar #69, 104b), which are the three Patriarchs. Yet they appear and are revealed only by means of faith, as in “earth is the vessel for them all.” Therefore, because of the fall of faith, these sounds are of no help to him.

This is precisely the reason that medicine is of no avail. Healing essentially entails bringing balance to the elements. There are four elements: fire, water, air and earth. It requires a great expert who, through {medical knowledge}, knows how to balance the elements contained in each of the different plants in order to produce the remedy this particular patient needs, given the particular element which is damaged and weakened in his case. {Emitting the voice, too, involves the balancing of the elements.} Therefore, when faith is blemished, which in turn brings blemish to the four elements—since all of them are revealed only through the earth element, which is “the vessel for them all”—he has no cure.