A story is told of the mother of the first Jewish President who receives a call inviting her to fly on Air Force One. She hangs up the phone, and her friend asks, “Who was that?” She replies, “You know my son the doctor? That was his brother.”
This joke is just one variation of the humor created around the reality of a deep Jewish connection with medicine and a long history of Jewish doctors. (I’m sure many of you immediately thought of Maimonides.)
Sherwin Nuland, an American surgeon and author, recounts in his book, Maimonides:
“Imprisoned in a tower in Madrid, disabled by syphilis and further weakened by an abscess in his scalp, the French King Francis I asked of his captor, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, that he send his finest Jewish physician to attempt a cure. At some point soon after the doctor arrived, Francis, in an attempt at light conversation, asked him if he was not yet tired of waiting for the Messiah to come. To his chagrin, he was told that his healer was not actually Jewish but a converso who had long been a baptized Christian. Irate, Francis dismissed him and arranged to be treated by a genuine Jew, brought all the way from Constantinople.” (p.3)
The story may be apocryphal, but it certainly fits with our long tradition of Jews being doctors. Nuland notes that during the Arabic period, approximately half of the Jewish doctors were also rabbis. He also found that, in the first half of the fourteenth century, only 5% of the population of Marseilles was Jewish, but they accounted for 43% of the city’s physicians. (p. 12, 14)
The trend continued into the modern era. In America, Jewish medical school candidates reportedly made up 60 percent of the applicant pool in 1934. Even as the numbers have been dropping precipitously (only 9% in 1988), Jews are still disproportionately represented in medicine. While Jews are 2% of the population, they make up over 14% of doctors. (For some comparisons, Protestants are 55% of the population and make up 49% of doctors. Hindus are 0.2% of the population, yet 5.3% of doctors.)
What’s so Jewish about being a doctor?
Two words. “V’rapo yerapei – One must definitely heal.” (Shemot 21:19)
The Talmud (Berachot 60b) comments that this verse gives permission for the doctor to heal. Why is permission needed? Rashi (Bava Kamma 85a) writes that one might have thought that if God caused a person to be ill, we should not attempt to undermine the divine decree. The verse therefore states that one is permitted to heal an ill patient. Other Sages (unsurprisingly many of those rabbis who were also doctors) offer a different view. There is a mitzvah to heal.
There is a religious tension in medicine. On the one hand God is in charge. If a person is sick, then maybe that’s the way it should be. On the other hand, we value life and do whatever we can to preserve it.
A decade ago, the Yeshiva University Museum hosted an exhibit on Jews and modern episode. A review noted how Jewish doctors had differing religious reactions to the role of medicine. Waldermar Haffkine (1860-1930), inventor of the world’s first vaccine for cholera and the Bubonic plague, fought to maintain a strong Orthodox identity in the face of a rapidly changing world. On display was a reflection of his noting “the faith which binds together the Jews has not been harmed by the advance of research, but, on the contrary, has been vindicated in its profoundest tenets.” A very different view was held by Joseph Goldberger (1874-1929), a five-time Nobel Prize-nominee. The exhibit notes that while raised Orthodox, Goldberger found it impossible for his scientific endeavors and Jewish tradition to coexist. Goldberger even went on to marry Mary Farrar, the grandniece of Jefferson Davis.
Some doctors bring a strong Jewish perspective to their practice of medicine. Think of the late Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski, noted psychiatrist and scion of a Chasidic dynasty, who merged the two worlds of science and faith. At the same time, it seems that, for many Jewish doctors, their Judaism isn’t part of their profession. A study on Jewish doctors and the role of their faith found that Jewish physicians were more likely than other religiously affiliated physicians to rarely or never attend religious services. They were also less likely to believe in God. Compared to Protestants and Catholic doctors, the Jewish doctors did not see religion influencing health very much nor do they discuss their faith and spirituality with their patients.
Jews and medicine are a typical expression of Judaism. It may be a spiritual calling, a necessary activity, a cultural expression of the past, or part of our history. (I heard the comedian Jackie Mason explain that Jews becoming doctors was a means of self-preservation and protection. Nobody would dare insult or harm the person who might save your life.)
Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, in Out of the Whirlwind (pp. 102-104), adds another dimension to “v’rapo yerapei.” It is not specific to medicine. It is the mandate to heal. Illness is one form of “evil” that people face. “V’rapo yerapei” teaches us not to make peace with evil. We cannot presume that we are helpless when facing illness – or any form of evil. Rather, we “should actively interfere with evil. Man is summoned by God to combat evil, to fight evil, and to try to eliminate it as much as possible.”
For the Rav, “v’rapo yerapei” is not just speaking to medical professionals. It is a call to humanity not to sit back and do nothing when confronted by evil or illness or loneliness or any other need. We’re all called to be doctors!
I find that, often, doctors’ sons become rabbis, and rabbis’ sons become doctors. (I am sure there’s a whole psychology behind it.) Earlier this week, a doctor who’s the son of a rabbi shared a great point with this rabbi who’s the son of a doctor. The etymology of “doctor” is from the Latin word for teacher. Well, rabbis are also teachers. Ipso facto, then I’m a doctor!
There may be so many Jewish doctors because the healing imperative is essential to our lives. We can each share health, wealth, knowledge, and kindness. There’s a reason God says, “Ani Hashem rof’echa – I am the Lord, your healer.” (Shemot 15:26) God is the ultimate Doctor. God is the source of all, Who shares with us. In our efforts of Imitatio Dei, to follow God’s example, we all need to be doctors, to share and benefit others in every way we can.
Good Shabbos! Good Shabbos! Am Yisrael Chai!
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