Judaism

This central concept of reverence for life finds further emphasis in the liturgy for the Jewish High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), which reads, “In the book of life . . . may we and all Your people . . . be inscribed for a good and peaceful life” (Greenberg and Levine 1978: 181). One reads in the Midrash to the Hebrew Bible (a homiletic explication of the biblical text) the model of God visiting and comforting Abraham when the patriarch was healing from his circumcision (Genesis 17: 26-18: 1, BT Sotah 14a), demonstrating that the process of healing is a relational, cooperative endeavor, including possibly the presence of the Holy One, but surely, human contact. Last, in the final book of the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses) is found perhaps the most commanding verse authorizing a medical ethic and the religious charge to pursue healing and life: “I call heaven and earth to witness before you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life that you may live” (Deuteronomy 30: 19). These textual references represent but a fraction of Jewish sacred scripture which serves as the foundation for a Jewish ethos of health and healing, yet each captures the common thrust: that life is cherished, and that the mitzvah (divinely commanded obligation) to heal is a principal cornerstone of Jewish behavior and understanding. One might note the large number of Jews engaged in the healing professions-as physicians, researchers, instructors, and therapists-both presently and historically, to realize the powerful influence which this ethic holds on the Jewish community. Furthermore, the Talmud teaches that it is forbidden to live in a community which lacks a physician, further compelling Jews to engage in the healing arts (BT Sanhedrin 17a). As much as Judaism commands the obligation to heal, it concomitantly commands the Jew to seek healing (Bleich 1981: 1-9). Yet, Jews and Judaism are not monolithic. There is a great variety and breadth to the Jewish world and its community, with sub-streams of Jewry today spanning from the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox sects at one extreme to Progressive and even secular Jewish streams at the opposite pole. Primarily, adherents within these Jewish subgroups are distinguished in their respective practice and relationship to halacha (Jewish law), and less so in core ethics or beliefs. Some of these differences will be evident in postures toward health and medical circumstances. For the purposes of this chapter, a normative understanding and common practice are described, while noting important variations or minority examples.