Can Faith and Medicine Coexist? A Torah View on Doctors, Healing, and Divine Trust

The Talmudic Sages explain the verse “and he shall surely heal” (Exodus 21:19) as the source that grants permission to the doctor to heal.

Without this verse, we may have assumed that seeking healing from a doctor was entirely forbidden and for this reason, our Sages needed a special derivation from a seemingly extra word in the Torah, to teach us that it is indeed permitted for a doctor to facilitate healing.

The Ramban says: “What place does one who serves God have in the house of a doctor?” A person should place their full trust in the Holy One, Blessed be He, who is the true Healer of all ailments. Indeed, our Sages permitted one to go to a doctor, but only because it is God's will to run His world according to the laws of nature, and to test us: even as we engage with the natural order, will we still maintain our faith?

Thus, the doctor is nothing but a messenger sent by God, a tool through which God chooses to send healing. This approach is intended for those who have not yet reached the spiritual level where they can rely on God alone, without attributing any independent power to human beings or medicine. For those of supreme spiritual stature — the “men of perfect trust”, healing may occur without any doctor or remedy.

When Medicine Becomes a Form of Idolatry

Today, sadly, the entire medical system has become a form of modern-day idolatry. The dependence of patients on doctors and medications is disturbingly similar to the idol worship of ancient times.

What is idolatry? The Rambam writes that the early idolaters did not deny God. They believed in a Supreme Power who created the world and they understood it would be irrational to believe the universe existed on its own. Especially those who lived close to the time of creation, such as Pharaoh and the other nations in the time of the Patriarchs, clearly recognized that the world had a Creator.

Even Nebuchadnezzar proclaimed words of faith and Divine providence that nearly surpassed the Psalms of King David, as the Talmud in Sanhedrin (92b) notes. [Granted, Nebuchadnezzar likely said those words without truly feeling them, given his wickedness and lusts, unlike David, whose praise resulted from a deep inner faith.]

Where was their error? Their mistake was that they believed that God had abandoned the earth and handed it over to intermediaries. Some believed in the sun as a powerful force, others in the moon, and so on. Idolatry means placing faith in an intermediary and detaching oneself from direct connection with the true, ultimate Source: God Himself.

Today, if a person believes that they are entirely dependent on doctors and medication, that without them they are lost and have no hope, and that God plays no role in their healing, that person is not far from being an idol worshipper.

When God Comes After the Doctor

It is heartbreaking to witness how many people, in the face of illness or injury, turn first to the doctor. Only after exhausting medical options do they turn to God, or to a rabbi for a blessing or prayer.

A Free Prayer?

A story is told of a man whose family member fell ill. He approached the saintly “Saba of Novardok” and asked that the yeshiva pray on behalf of the sick person.

The rabbi asked whether he might be able to support the yeshiva — knowing how the Saba had built his institutions under the eyes of the communists, at great self-sacrifice, and that he was in dire need of financial help.

The man replied that his current financial situation didn’t allow him to give. The rabbi nodded and shifted the conversation. Gently, he asked which doctors the man had visited, and how much he had spent on treatments.

The man replied that he had gone to all the best doctors and spent a great sum of money. Now, having lost hope in medicine, he was turning to God.

The rabbi responded: “Let me understand, you say you spent a fortune on doctors, sparing no expense for their advice and medications. And now that you are coming to ask for a prayer — a request directed to the Master of the Universe, whose healing has no limits — and you want it for free? You are not even willing to give a small amount to help the students who will cry out to God on your behalf with tears and sincerity?”

This true story delivers a powerful rebuke and invites us to examine our own faith in God, to realize how far we still are from truly recognizing Him as the ultimate Source of healing.

Everything Is a Miracle

The Ramban writes (at the end of Parashat Bo): “A person has no share in the Torah of Moses our teacher until he believes that all of our experiences are miraculous — there is no such thing as nature or the ordinary course of the world. Not for the collective and not for the individual. Rather, if one acts righteously, they are rewarded; if one acts wickedly, they are punished accordingly.”

This is the faith that the Torah demands — not only belief in God’s existence, but the deep recognition that He is present in every detail of our lives. Doctors are tools, but healing comes from the Healer of all flesh.