Maavor Yabok Chapter 3
A sick person should not look for a reason to his illness to be accidental such as food or drink, and even if evil men caused him to act corruptly, he should say that his sins caused this, as it is written, “Shall evil befall a city, And the Lord hath not done it?” (Amos 3:6); “Thine own wickedness shall correct thee,” (Jeremiah 2:19); “And hast consumed us by means of our iniquities.” (Is. 64:6);’ “Your breath is a fire that shall devour you.” (Is. 33:11) And every person who attributes his experiences to accident is drawn to the strength of impurity from the north that is called accident, and from this opening goes forth the strength of agitation, G-d forbid, and these rove in the night, and are therefore night pollution.
{Here, Berechiah presents a basic rabbinic concept that illness is the result of sin. As the Hasidic teaching goes, “Nothing happens by accident.” The first question we can confront is, How does this fit our own theology? Before rejecting it outright I ask that you take a look at the classic text, Getting Well Again, by Simmonton. This book pioneered the use of visualization in dealing with and fighting cancer (remember the technique of visualizing a pac-man devouring bad cancer cells?) Simmonton spends the first few chapters laying out the argument that in order for the patient to take responsibility for curing his/her illness, the person must first take responsibility for causing the illness. Is this not like the acceptance of sin as a cause for suffering? Although I have always found this a difficult therapeutic concept to handle, no less to put into practice, it is an intriguing one. And so, if we reject traditional rabbinic theology as to the cause of illness (like Kushner who says illness is accidental but God helps us in getting better) are we then being simplistic in our attitude, no less failing to see God as the true source of all. After all, is sickness always a negative experience? If not, could it not be an instructive tool given to us by God? Any comments, any thoughts on this complicated but important subject?}
If a sick person has made a vow, visitors must be careful about absolving him from it, and those visiting need to be warned about this because the absolving of vows does not remove the ministering angels, and perhaps there are men who try to rectify the effect of vows that have been made but by doing so they may nullify words of Torah or Mitzvah, in order to visit the sick, as it is written, “Happy is he that considereth the poor.” (Is. 41:20)
{Truthfully, I had great difficult translating or understanding the above paragraph. If any one has a better translation please send it in. The rabbinic tradition takes the making of vows very seriously. I think that Berechiah is giving instruction as to how the visitor must be careful not to be brought into the sick person’s desire to either be absolved from a vow he/she made or in making new ones during the illness in the hopes that this act will make the person better. In other words, the visitor must be careful in his/her speech, as well as being dragged into the magical beliefs of the ill and dying. I heard of a woman at Sloan-Kettering who became orthodox in the hopes that her “conversion” would appease God to cure her. This is not a “healthy” use of religion. Any other thoughts?}
And it is worthy to inform the sick person that just as he knows that on a good day he needs to make his deeds righteous before the mercies of heaven, behold how good and how pleasant it is to make righteous the judgment of the sufferings that come upon him on a bad day, as it is written in Bereshit Rabbah 9:8, “Regarding the verse, “Behold it is very good” this is the quality of sufferings, as it is written, “And reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” (Proverbs 6:23) and, “Though I have trained and strengthened their arms.” (Hosea 7:15). And those tzaddikim who have conducted themselves in this way, they are without a doubt called, “Alive”, and upon them it is written, “Thou openest Thy hand, and satisfiest every living thing with favour.” (Ps. 145:16), according there is a cause that their neshamah cleaves unto the heavenly will at that time, and it is written, “But his flesh grieveth for him, And his soul mourneth over him.” (Job 14:22), teaching that for a person should not mourn over his sufferings but rather accept them as a result of sins, and then rejoice that his sufferings came for the sake of heaven, “his flesh will not grieve” in life or in death, and from heaven he will find mercy and will not feel sorry, and as those who die for the sake of the Lord, their soul leave like a hair being drawn gently from milk.
{Here, we see a beautiful explication of the positive attitude the tradition suggests that a person use in facing the “bad” experiences in life. In truth, no experience is “bad” for even the most trying of sufferings, when accepted as teachings from the Divine, will make a person a better person, more righteous.}
And every person that dies on his bed is able to fulfill himself thus to lie upon the unification of the Holy One Blessed be He and His Shechinah, and specifically intending by his prayers and mitzvoth, and specifically by the parashat Shema Israel, and a (b’sim shalom) a fragrant incense of peace to the unification of the heavenly, and by a prostration to present his nefesh in completeness of the Unification and the Copulation {of the male and female aspects of the Divine. Notice there is a description here of the deathbed and what to do at the time of death. There are specific unification meditations to be contemplated or chanted, the Shema is recited, incense is lit, and there is a prostration.}. At the time of his death on the Unification of His Name, he will offer a completeness of spiritual life, and there will be a great appearance of light related to all the workings of the Unifications that he made during his life time {Notice, a light is mentioned. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel told by those who have had near death experiences? It is also suggested that the Unifications made during one’s lifetime are to be used at the time of death. This is a deep spiritual teaching that all of the prayers, meditations, and contemplations said during one’s lifetime are in truth preparations for this final moment. You can see a similarity here with the Buddhist teachings on the Bardo, for those of you into that tradition}, and according to Yosef Caro who wrote many times of the future time when there will be a fire upon the sanctification of My name, and it is hinted here a meaning for the time of death, that he departs with a good name upon him, and the Hasid will rejoice in glory. {This then is a description of the good death according to this tradition. Can this be incorporated into our work in the Chevrah Kadisha?}
*Unifications or Yehudim were special contemplations on the letters of God’s names using various spellings of the letters and various vowel combinations. As Kaplan writes,
“In Kabbalah meditation, the simplest contemplative device is the Tetragrammaton itself, and this is discussed even in non-Kabbalistic works. More complex forms are also used, and this method seems to have reached its zenith under the influence of Rabbi Shalom Sharabi (1702-1777). Very closely related to this is the method of Yehudim (Unifications), which plays an important role in the system of the Ari. Here one does not contemplate a physical picture, but rather a mental image, usually consisting of various combinations of the divine name. ”(p.11-12)
The belief was that each Yehud sets in motion energy movements in the Divine affecting the life of the person using these Unifications. You can read more about these in Aryeh Kaplan’s book, Meditation and Kabbalah. Isaac Luria (the Ari) was well-known for these contemplations. His student Chaiim Vital wrote many of them in his kabbalistic texts. The 18th century mystic Shalom Sharabi wrote an entire siddur using the Yehudim. This is very practical and powerful Kabbalah awakening the Divine energies that lie within the Divine, Ayn Sof.
** The usage of incense and prostrations are very interesting. I hope more will be said about these later in the book. By the way, ketoret or incense, can be purchased in liquid form (since the destruction of the Temple, they cannot be lit), can be purchased on line. I use them as part of my daily davening when I recite the verses from the siddur on the Tamid offerings. By the way, Berechiah has an entire section on this entitled, Atar Anan HaKetoret.)