Kabbalah and Medicine
Remission and Healing In
many cases, the symptoms of Lupus may disappear either temporally or
permanently. This phenomenon, referred to as remission, is not necessarily
the result of medication. In
Hebrew, the word for "remission" is hafugah. It is interesting to
note that the numerical value of the two letter sub-root of hafugah--pag--is
83. According to the sages, 83 is the total number of diseases that
afflict mankind. Also, in his Code of Law, Maimonides (who, in addition to
being one of the greatest of the medieval sages was also one of the
greatest physicians of his time) arranges all the laws of the Torah into
83 sections, implying that the Torah provides the cure to all physical as
well as spiritual diseases. The
numerical equivalence between the number of diseases that afflict mankind
and the concept of remission teaches us that in every disease there is the
latent potential of going into remission. Every disease can appear and
disappear, which, in the terminology of Kabbalah, means that every disease
can vary between the "revealed world" where it is active and the "concealed
world" where it is passive or dormant. In
Kabbalah, the "link" or "turning point" between the "revealed world"
(corresponding to the sefirah of malchut) and the "concealed
world" (corresponding to the sefirah of binah) is hod.
The "revealed world" (malchut) ascends to hod while the "concealed
world" (binah) descends to hod. When rectified, hod
is the power of the soul that causes negative phenomena to disappear while
simultaneously causing positive phenomena to appear. The
very recognition that at any moment disease may disappear greatly
reinforces the hod-characteristic described above of "walking
simply with God" (which in itself is the rectified power of hod
just described as being able to cause remission). Why be concerned or
worried about disease? Who says it’s there in the first place? And even
if it is, it can go as easily as it came, all by the wish of God. It’s
best to just walk simply in God’s ways.
Healing Process Among
the key methods of Kabbalah to heal body and soul is the active engagement
in meditation. Proper meditation will enable a person to forget himself,
creating the sense of self-nullification or bitul, which will help
either totally rid the body of disease or at least produce a state of
remission. Other
suggestions that will work to rectify the power of hod in a person
include the support system of family and friends. Their encouragement has
been shown to make dramatic improvements in the conditions of patients
with Lupus. As we mentioned earlier, this type of bedside manner is the
healing of the mouth--the power of words of encouragement as well as
positive thinking. Finally,
the understanding of the disease will further its recovery. Particularly,
when one gains a Kabbalistic perspective (binah) on his disease,
that understanding will positively affect the immune system (hod),
enabling it to overcome the disease; for "binah extends until hod." A new chapter is both uploaded to the web and sent out every week via the Inner Dimension (free) weekly Torah message email list. Click here to subscribe now!
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The Healing of Body and Soul 
