The Healing Power of Torah

When a person has a fever, Rebbe Yochanan explains: “Go to a place where there is a bush, tie a strand of hair to said bush, and for three days (the length of most feverish illnesses), trim the bush a little each day and recite the following: ‘And the angel of God appeared to Moshe in a blazing fire in the midst of a bush.’”

Why use the burning bush text here? Let’s unpack this ritual:

The strand of hair, while odd, does make sense with modern science. Within a single strand of hair exists our DNA, meaning that our physical make-up is tethered to the bush in this ritual.

Why the trimming of the bush? Rav Acha bar Rava explains that as a person cuts away at the bush, he should say: “Bush, bush! God did not choose you because you are higher than all of the other trees, but rather because you are lower than all of the other trees.”

Anyone who has ever been sick knows this. In the process of recovery and healing, we experience humility. When we’re ill, we recognize the immense wisdom of the bracha Asher Yatzar, the Divine gift of everything working smoothly. We are fragile, finite, entirely dependent on God’s will and the miracle of healing.

The act of cutting away at the bush is the physical representation of our emotional acceptance that nothing is eternal but God. And yet with pruning, a bush can thrive. A person can go through the cuts, struggles and fevers of life and come out more vibrant and full than she otherwise would be.

With pruning, a bush can thrive. A person can go through the cuts, struggles and fevers of life and come out more vibrant and full than she otherwise would be.

But the message of this ritual is most profoundly conveyed in the reference to Parshat Shemot’s text itself: By all logic, the fire should have consumed the bush. So too with a fever in the body. And so, Rebbe Yochanan advises us to use the burning bush as a prayer– that God should save the body from destructive heat just as He preserved the bush from the blazing fire.

Healing is as miraculous and worth celebrating as the burning bush. As someone with a toddler who had a fever this past week during the covid surge, I affirm this with gratitude (not covid-related, and Ella is recovering, Baruch Hashem!)

Halachically, a person who was sick and has been healed recites birkat hagomel, a ritual upon healing, but Rebbe Yochanan’s burning bush ritual is live, happening in the midst of sickness, before healing. It holds our hand as we are ill and on the road to recovery. Rebbe Yochanan was known to offer his hand to others when they were ill: “Give me your hand,” he would say, and he would lift his fellows out of their illness and suffering.

As we face illness today that has again impacted daily life and our sense of security, we can gain chizuk and hope from Rebbe Yochanan’s ritual. We can read the text of our parsha as a prayer to God. Our sanctuary is emptier than usual, upstairs is not filled with kids, and the words of kiddush I will say in a moment will not lead to the schmoozing we ordinarily savor. And yet we are still here together, davening, learning Torah, and sharing love and commitment. We have not and will not be consumed. With this on our hearts, I invite you to close your eyes and join me in a prayer:

“Hashem, remember us down to the details of our DNA, which You gave us. Protect us and all of Your creations. We recognize we are fragile and that all life is in Your hands. Give us Your hand. Lift us up as Rebbe Yochanan was known to do for his fellows. We may feel cut down, as though over the past two years we grow only to be cut down. Turn those cuts into the very pruning that will lead to our flourishing ahead. In the midst of the fire, You have already made the impossible possible: the wisdom to create vaccines, boosters, and therapies; the community and medical guidance that have steered us and grounded us.

“Right now, we hold in our hearts all who are ill, all who are isolated, all who are afraid, all who are frustrated. We ask that You hold us too, such that the blazing fire does not consume, but rather proves to be the beginning of our story of redemption. ‘And the angel of God appeared to Moshe in a blazing fire in the midst of a bush.’”

Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn is a member of the spiritual leadership at B’nai David-Judea Congregation in Los Angeles, and she is a Board Certified Chaplain with Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains.