5. Understanding Illness

Allostasis and Disease

The three physiological systems that most characteris­tically reflect the interplay between body and soul—the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system—contribute significantly to the general well-being of the individual. The inter-dependent functioning of these systems is described in modern medicine as the neuro-endocrine-immune mechanism. This physiological team helps the body adapt to potentially stressful challenges, a process referred to as allostasis.

Allostasis achieves psychological and physiological stability through change and adaptation. Proper maintenance of allostasis depends on a careful balance of multiple mechanisms. Dysfunction of these mechanisms results in disease.[1]

A common phenomenon is that under acute stress, impending infections may be held at bay, but resistance may collapse when the pressure is relieved. Thus, we see that the whole process of allostasis demands the highest degree of equilibrium and sensitivity to the present state of mind/body.

Stress, a major cause of disease, is still enigmatic and resistant to scientific definition. What is known is that psychological effects of the mind on health are exerted via influences on the immune system. Extended states of stress may well suppress and weaken the immune system to the extent that it becomes unable to properly perform its function to fend off disease.

Of all the physiological systems, the nervous system is most directly associated with the mind itself. Thus, when we say that the mind exerts influence on the immune system, we mean that the nervous system communicates in some way to the immune system. This communication is now known to be bi-directional, and that when stress affects the immune system, the immune system communicates back to the nervous system.

Modern research suggests that the nervous system communicates with the immune system via the endocrine system. A full cycle of communication is thus achieved, from the nervous system to the endocrine system to the immune system and back to the nervous system.

A Kabbalistic model lends insight into this complex physical mechanism.

When we examine the correspondences of the ten sefirot and the various physiological systems of the body (as explained above in Chapter 3), we find that da’at, netzach, and hod correspond to the nervous, endocrine, and immune systems, respectively.

	da’at posterior of brain nervous system
hod left leg immune system		netzach right leg endocrine system

We noted above that allostasis demands the highest degree of equilibrium and sensitivity to the present state of mind/body. Sensitivity is the property of da’at, the posterior region of the brain. Equilibrium is controlled by da’at,[2] although its major expression in the body is the balance between netzach and hod, the loins and the two legs upon which the body stands.[3]

The arrangement in the above chart forms a triangle. This is no accident. Indeed, these three sefirot—da’at, netzach, and hod—form the higher triangle of the Star of David (Magen David), while chesed, gevurah, and yesod form the lower triangle (with tiferet in the middle).[4]

In Kabbalah, each of the sefirot is identified with an archetypal soul. The two companion sefirot of netzach and hod are identified with the souls of the holy brothers Moses and Aaron, of whom it is said, “Behold, how goodly and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together.”[5] The origin of these two souls is in the sefirah of da’at, the power to be together. Thus, the secret of the higher triangle of the Star of David is, in fact, the “birth” of the souls of Moses and Aaron from their common origin.[6]

Acting together, the two brothers, Moses and Aaron, were God’s emissaries to take us out of the Egyptian exile. As we saw earlier, disease relates to the spiritual state of exile. Liberation from Egypt is liberation from disease.

After the splitting of the Red Sea, and the song of thanksgiving that Moses and the Jewish people sang to God, God promised:

If you will diligently listen

to the voice of God, your God,

and will do that which is right in His sight,

and will give ear to His commandments,

and keep all His statutes,

I will not place on you any of the diseases

that I have brought upon the Egyptians;

for I am God, your healer.[7]

At the time of the giving of the Torah to Israel at Mt. Sinai, the culmination of the Exodus from Egypt, we were not only healed of all our ailments, but also liberated from the Angel of Death. Had we not sinned, we would have never more been sick, and never would have died. However, as voiced in the above-quoted verse, our sins brought back upon us the plague of disease and death.

After the Exodus, Moses became the Divine conduit through which God gave the Torah to Israel. Aaron became the High Priest of Israel, representing the apex of our service of God. Thus, Moses and Aaron became the two archetypal healers of Israel: Moses through the power of the Torah and Aaron through the power of the Priestly Blessing. By connecting ourselves to the Torah and devoting our lives to the service of God, we draw down Divine healing power into our souls.

We see Moses’ role as healer after the sin of the Golden Calf, the archetypal sin of the Jewish people, equivalent, in Kabbalah, to the primordial sin of Adam and Eve. When God threatens to annihilate the nation of Israel, Moses pleads for pardon. The word in Hebrew for “pardon” (mechilah) is related to “disease” (machalah). In other words, Moses prayed that God heal the diseased spirit of the people:

And Moses beseeched God, his God, and said:

Why, O God, do you direct Your wrath

against Your people…”[8]

Here, the word “beseeched” (vayechal), a synonym for prayer, is also related to the word for “sickness” (machalah). The sages learn from this etymological equivalence that Moses prayed so hard to God to forgive the sin of the people that he became physically sick with fever.[9] From this we may infer that in sickness itself lies the inherent ability to undergo self-transformation from illness to well-being, all through the power of prayer. We will examine the healing power of prayer in detail in Chapter 8.

The Transforming Power of Disease

The relationship of “pardon” (mechilah) to “disease” (machalah) noted above is but one example of what Hebrew, and its sister language Aramaic, can teach us about disease and healing. We see, for instance, that the two-letter Hebrew sub-root (ch-l) of “sick” (choleh) possesses variant meanings, among which are apparent opposites. Indeed, this root can mean either “weak” or “strong.”

In the Book of Judges, when Samson reveals to Delilah the secret of his strength, he tells that if he were to shave his hair, he would become “weak” (v’chaliti):

He told her all his heart, and said to her:

“A razor has never come upon my head,

for I have been a nazirite unto God from my mother’s womb.

If I be shaven, then my strength will go from me,

and I shall become weak, and be like any other man.”[1]

Hassidic thought derives from this verse that the very concept of sickness is relative in nature. What for any other human being might be a state of good health and well-being, for Samson was a state of illness. For Samson, to lose his strength and “be like any other man” was, relative to him, to lose his male status—to become, physically, as one of the weaker sex. (In a similar vein, what we consider to be woman’s natural, healthy, menstrual cycle is seen in the Torah to be an innate state of “illness,” which resulted from Eve’s eating of the forbidden fruit[2] and which will be healed with the coming of the Messiah. Indeed, the fact that women are becoming stronger and stronger in body and soul is a sign that we are approaching the Messianic Era.)

In contrast, the word chayil, cognate to “sick” (choleh), means “strength,” as the Psalms state with regard to the righteous:

They go from strength to strength.

Every one of them shall appear before God in Zion.[3]

Similarly, a “soldier” is a chayal; a “woman of valor” is an eshet chayil.

Another pair of opposites from the same root (primarily in its Aramaic usage) is chala, in the sense of “bitter” or “tart”[4] and chala, in the sense of “sweet.”[5]

The relation between bitterness and disease is apparent from the fact that the name of the organ that according to the sages[6] is the major seat of disease—the gall bladder (marah)—comes from the word meaning “bitter” (mar). The Talmud states that the 83 illnesses that afflict mankind are dependent on the gall bladder; indeed, the numerical value of the Hebrew word for “disease” (machalah) is 83.[7]

The bile of the gall bladder was termed by the ancients the yellow or green “humor” in the body. In Kabbalah, it is associated in particular with the body’s natural desire to pursue physical pleasure. Bile is further referred to as “the lower waters” of creation, in contrast to “the higher waters,” that is, spiritual and Divine pleasure. When the two waters are separated and distanced from one another, the lower waters become bitter (in the negative sense of becoming totally engrossed in physical pleasure, to the extent of becoming addicted to the vanities of this world), and illness ensues.

Even when imprisoned in the clutches of physical pleasure and estranged from its spiritual source, the inner consciousness of the lower waters still cries out bitterly to God: “We also desire to be in the presence of God, to experience Divine pleasure as do the higher waters!”[8]

Thus, Hassidic thought maintains that disease and its remedy depend upon the rectification or redirection of the “pleasure principle,” the transformation of the bitter—the counterfeit sweetness of physical pleasures—to the truly sweet pleasure in the Divine. This sweet pleasure is the experience of the ultimate Divine unity underlying all reality, both physical and spiritual.

Based upon these two phenomena—the etymological relationship of “weakness” to “strength” and “bitterness” to “sweetness,” all in conjunction with the word for “sickness”—we are taught in Hassidism that “sickness” is actually an intermediate state of being between “life” and “death.” “Life” is a state of holiness (for that which is truly holy lives forever), whereas “death” is a state of profanity (the origin of all impurity; impurity issues from contact with death). The word for “profane” (chilul) is the strongest grammatical form of the sub-root of “sick” (ch-l). It means “to pierce” or to create a “vacuum” (chalal, which also means “corpse”). The profane pierces, as it were, the holy.

The intermediate state between the holy and the profane is the realm of the “mundane” (chol or chulin, from the sub-root of “sick,” ch-l). In Kabbalah, it is referred to as “the translucent shell” (kelipat nogah), the inter­mediate between transparency (i.e., holiness, kedushah) and opacity (i.e., the three totally impure shells, kelipot hatemeiot); that is, between clear revelation of the Divine nature of reality and concealment/non-recognition of the Divine.

Thus, sickness may serve as a bridge in two directions: from life to death or from death to life. To recover from sickness is to be reborn, alive once more. It is to recognize that one actually became sick in order to return stronger and healthier than ever before.

Sometimes, one becomes sick in order to connect to and thereby elevate fallen souls. This is the case with regard to the Messiah who, before his coming (that is, his revelation to mankind), suffers both spiritually and physically in order to raise the people of Israel and all of humanity from the realm of the opaque (the three impure shells), thereby redeeming them. In the words of Isaiah:

[The Messiah] is a man of pain,

acquainted with illness.…

Truly, he has borne our illness

and he has suffered our pain.[9]

As taught in Hassidism, each of us possesses a spark of the Messiah. An essential part of the Divine providence at play in a person becoming sick is that he or she comes to identify with all suffering souls, and, in supplication to God, wishes to recover and be redeemed together with them all.

The coming of the Messiah will end the exile of Edom, which began two thousand years ago when the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem and scattered the Jewish people throughout the world. At that time, the inherent bitterness of disease will become sweetened. In the first period of the messianic age, illness will disappear, although death, at very old age, will remain.[10] Eventually, when “the impure spirit” will vanish from the face of the earth,[11] death as well will be “swallowed up forever.”[12]

As we saw earlier, the existence of disease is strongly connected in the Torah to that of exile. People in exile have been banished from their homeland, from their source of life. This estrangement, whether on the spiritual or physical plane, is equivalent to disease. In general, disease is the estrangement of the soul from the body; in the terminology of Kabbalah, the estrangement of the light from the vessels.

In the primordial world of chaos, the inner lights of reality were disassociated and distanced from their vessels, which thereby broke, became sick, and ultimately died. All of our Divine service is aimed to repair this primordial world.

The Zohar goes so far as to say that the Shechinah—God’s Presence in creation, His infinite, immanent light that “fills all worlds”—is “sick” in exile together with the Jewish people. Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi explains this at length in the Tanya:[13]

The statement of the Tikunim is well-known: “the Shechinah suffers [literally: ‘is sick’] in exile.”

The Shechinah’s sickness is like a bodily disease: the cause of illness or health lies in the spread and flow of the life-force vested in the blood which flows from the heart to all the limbs; and the blood with the spirit of life in it circulates in all the limbs, through the blood vessels in them, and returns to the heart.

When the circulation and flow of this spirit of life is consistently as it should be, in its proper order as arranged for it by the blessed Fountainhead of Life, the individual man is perfectly healthy. For all the limbs are bound together and receive their proper vitality from the heart through this circulation. But if there is any disorder in whatever place, restraining, hindering, or reducing the circulation of the blood with the spirit of life vested in it, then this bond—which by means of that circulation binds all limbs of the body to the heart—is broken or diminished, and the individual will fall ill and sick (May God have mercy).

Precisely so, metaphorically speaking, all the souls of Israel are regarded as the limbs of the Shechinah, which is called the “heart,” as it is written: “the Rock of my heart”; and as it is written: “and I shall dwell amongst them.” That is, the term Shechinah denotes the light of God that dwells in the Worlds of Crea­tion, Formation, and Action [Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah] in order to animate them.

This life-force is drawn [into the world only] after first having been enclothed in the souls of Israel. This is so because none of the created beings are in any approximation to the blessed Creator; for all before Him are as naught. Thus, it is impossible for them to receive life-force from His blessed light and effluence and be created ex nihilo, living and subsist­ing, other than through the souls [of Israel] that arose in His thought and preceded the creation of the worlds by His speech. And so did our sages, of blessed memory, say: “With whom did the Holy One, blessed be He, take counsel? [With the righteous souls of Israel],” as is explained elsewhere.

All life-force and the effluence that flows from the upper to the lower worlds is from them [i.e., the life-force, vested in the blood, first enclothes itself in the souls of Israel, the limbs that receive their life-force from the Divine heart, the Shechinah, and by means of the souls, the life-force flows downward and upward throughout the worlds], as is stated in Sefer Yetzirah: “their beginning is wedged in their end, and their end is wedged in their beginning.” In the writings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria, of blessed memory, this is referred to as “direct light” (or yashar) and “reflected light” (or chozer), as it is written: “and the living beings ran forward and backward [ratzo vashov].”

Thus, according to these words and this truth—which it is not possible to explain properly in writ­ing—it follows that the Shechinah is referred to as the “heart,” and the souls as “limbs.” This teaches us that when all souls are attached and bound together, the circulation and flow of the life-force and of the effluence circulates properly, and “their end is wedged in their beginning,” binding and joining them all to “God [who] is One,” to be attached to Him, blessed be He. And thus it is written: “you are standing this day, all of you, before God, your God....”

And thereby will be understood the saying of our sages, of blessed memory, that the destruction of the Second Temple and the fall of Israel into exile, and the withdrawal of the Shechinah and its descent to Edom, into a state of exile, as it were—all this was because of the sin of causeless hatred and a division of hearts, may the Merciful One save us. And that is why [the Shechinah] is referred to as “sick,” meta­phorically speaking. As to the phrases, “He raises the fallen, and heals the sick”—in plural form, this alludes to all the limbs, etc.

As explained earlier (see Chapter 2), the blood relates to the sefirah of binah, the mother-principle—“the mother gives her child the red [i.e., the blood].” The final and most extended exile, the exile referred to in the passage of Tanya cited above, is the exile of Edom, from the word “red” (adom) and “blood” (dam).

In Hassidic thought[14] it is explained that the consum­mate rectification of the mother principle in the soul is accomplished through unbounded love for one’s fellow Jew. Here, one experiences the entire Jewish people together, in love and fellowship, under the protective wings of the Divine “mother.” Loving all Jews as oneself connects the limbs of the Divine “body”; the love itself is the life-giving blood that unites all of the body’s limbs. The word for “blood” (dam) is associated with the word for “man” (adam), which connotes in the Bible the Jewish people as a whole.[15] Only by undeserved love (ahavat chinam) for all of Israel do we rectify the cause of exile, causeless hatred (sinat chinam).

The sages teach[16] that all exiles of the Jewish people, including the last, the exile of Edom, reflect the first, archetypal exile, the exile of Egypt. In Kabbalah, Egypt also corresponds, in the realm of impurity, to the womb of the mother. The Exodus from Egypt is the birth of the people of Israel from this impure womb.

The Talmud describes the moment of birth as follows:[17]

Rabbi Simlai expounded: “What does an embryo resemble in its mother’s womb? A folded slate, its hands resting on its two sides, its two elbows on its two knees, and its two heels on its two buttocks. Its head rests between its knees; its mouth is closed and its navel is open, and it eats what its mother eats and drinks what its mother drinks, and does not excrete lest it kill its mother. Once it exits [the womb] to the outside world, that which was closed opens and that which was open closes, and were this not to oc­cur, it would not be able to live for even a moment….”

As the sages point out here, the transition from life in the womb to life in the outside world depends upon a quick and precisely-timed reversal of physiological states and functions. This is true not only with regard to the digestive system per se (the mouth and the navel), but also with regard to many of the physiological systems, which indeed are interdependent, most significantly with regard to the circulatory system and the respiratory system.[18]

The dramatic changes that take place in the body at the moment of birth are in fact among the greatest miracles in God’s creation of the universe and living beings.

As is well known to modern medicine, the most critical of the changes that take place at the moment of birth relate in particular to the circulatory system.[19] As redemption from exile is likened to the moment of birth, we may conclude that redemption depends upon a healthy circulatory system.

The malfunctioning of the blood results in the weakening of the immune system. In the terminology of Kabbalah: “binah extends until hod,” as will be explained.

The Torah draws a further comparison to the spiritually diseased state of exile and its connection to the property of hod, an immune system property, in the story of Jacob’s struggle with the angel of Esau (called the ish).[20] Although Jacob won the struggle, he was injured on his left thigh. Though God healed him (by the soothing light of the sun[21]), the injury, or the power by which the angel of Esau was able to injure him, left a deep impression on Jacob’s soul and, ultimately, was responsible for sending Jacob and his children into exile. Jacob’s injured thigh signifies the nature of the exile of the Jewish people. As a result of this event, the Torah forbids us to eat of the sciatic nerve, this itself symbolizing disease and exile.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, it is the left leg or thigh that is identified with hod. Inasmuch as this is where Jacob was injured by Esau’s angel, we are taught in Kabbalah that in general, this limb is the one most vulnerable to injury.

This relates as well to the body’s system that corre­sponds to the sefirah of hod—the immune system. This is the system most susceptible to disorder, confusion, and inability to distinguish between Esau (invading or diseased cells) and Jacob (positive, healthy cells). With Jacob’s victory over Esau’s angel, it was essential for him to re-establish and reinforce his very identity. He insisted that the angel bless him with his true name, Israel, not known until then.

When we rectify our ability to acknowledge and thank God for everything that we have, to relate to Him above logic and reason, and return to Him in submission (all characteristics of the soul’s rectified attribute of hod), we will then be healed from the illness of exile and will be able to experience our return to health and redemption.

Thus, we find that hod signifies vulnerability to disease (for that is the point at which the angel attacked), as well as the point at which disease is overcome. Our weaknesses are precisely the points at which we can become strong, our illnesses are the points at which we can be healed. Thus, in every illness is embedded the clue to the nature of the cure itself.[22] Indeed, this is one way in which God prepares the cure before inflicting the disease, as the sages teach.

Illness as Spiritual Deficiency

Illness and disease derive from a spiritual state of deficiency, of “lack” or “emptiness” (a spiritual “vacuum,” as explained above with regard to the root of the word for “profanity”). In Kabbalah, the word “sick” (choleh), whose numerical value is 49, indicates that the sick person lacks the fiftieth gate of understanding, the knowledge of God[1] without which one lives in a spiritual state of “vacuum.” Thus, “to heal” is “to fill” or “to complete” one’s consciousness with the fiftieth gate of understanding. 50 is the numerical value of the word for “all,” kol, indicating that less than 50—i.e., 49, illness—is lacking “allness” or wholeness.

In Kabbalah and Hassidism[2] we are taught that there are four levels of spiritual deficiency, which we will now describe.

The first level of deficiency in the soul is the absence of the inner light of the Torah. The soul yearns to fill its consciousness to the brim with the light of the Torah—that light which resolves all of the conflicts of life, which answers all of life’s existential questions: Why are we here? Where are we going? Why has the Messiah not yet arrived?

Paradoxically, the very concern or “worry” with regard to life’s existential questions is itself half the cure which makes one a vessel to receive the light of Torah, as in the words of the sages:

The mysteries of the Torah are bestowed only to one whose heart is anxious within him.[3]

This level of deficiency corresponds to the yud of God’s Name, Havayah, the level of Divine wisdom and insight into the mysteries of the Torah. Here, one is not actually “sick” but only “concerned” or “anxious.”[4]

The next level of deficiency in the soul is the longing to return to one’s beloved from whom one has become estranged. The Torah calls this spiritual state “lovesickness.” This is the state described in the Song of Songs:

Support me with cups of wine, revive me with apples,

for I am lovesick.[5]

Lovesickness is the experience of spiritual exile, the source of disease, as was explained above.[6]

This state of sickness reflects the spiritual blemish of binah, corresponding to the first hei of God’s Name. It is here in particular that the sick person lacks the fiftieth gate of understanding, associated in Kabbalah with the consummate experience of love described in the Song of Songs:

How beautiful and pleasant are you,

O love that experiences delights![7]

The first two levels of spiritual deficiency correspond to the first two letters of God’s Name (the yud and the first hei) and are referred to in Kabbalah as “the concealed things [that] belong to God, our God.”[8] Here, although constantly conscious of Divinity, one lacks Divine revelation. In contrast, the next two levels of deficiency, which correspond to the two final letters of God’s Name (the vav and the final hei), are referred to in Kabbalah as “the revealed things [that] belong to us and our children.”[9] These states of lacking are the lack of Divine consciousness itself. As will now be explained, to the extent that we long for worldly pleasures, so do we lose Divine consciousness.

On the physical plane (the two final letters of God’s Name are relatively physical, in contrast to the first two letters, which are relatively spiritual) there exist two states of illness or disease. In the words of the sages: “a sick person who is not in mortal danger” and “a sick person who is in mortal danger.”[10] Both states issue from our animal soul’s craving for physical pleasure, which draws us away from consciously clinging to the Divine by dulling our Divine soul’s innate sensitivity to Godliness. Hassidism explains the difference between these two states of illness, in their origin:

“A sick person who is not in mortal danger” is one who longs for worldly pleasures that, in principle, are permissible according to the Torah. Although the Torah does not forbid us to partake of these pleasures, the element of desire entailed in their conscious pursuit distances our minds and hearts from God. God wants us, His children, to partake of and enjoy all of the pleasures He has created for us in His world, within the parameters defined by His Torah.[11] But at the same time, He wants us to always retain full consciousness of His presence in everything and experience (and express) heartfelt gratitude to Him for His benevolence. Physical desire draws us down and away from God. In particular, it blemishes the emotions of our hearts—the “six attributes” known as midot (from chesed to yesod)—which correspond to the vav of God’s Name.

“A sick person who is in mortal danger” is one who longs for worldly pleasures forbidden by the Torah. For such a person the commandments of the Torah are like a doctor’s prescription. That which the Torah forbids is mortally dangerous for the soul and the body. Mortal danger exists at the level of malchut (“kingdom”). In the Torah it is written of kings who followed the lusts of their hearts, without regard to the precepts of the Torah: “and he reigned and he died.”[12] By craving for and partaking of those worldly pleasures that are forbidden by the Torah, we blemish our innate attribute of malchut, which is defined in Kabbalah and Hassidism as our very ego or sense of self as a living soul vested in a physical body. We thereby endanger our lives. The blemish of malchut is that of the final hei of God’s Name.

In summary:

Name of God	sefirah	experience of spiritual deficiency
concealed levels	י yud	chochmah “wisdom”	anxiety
ה hei	binah “understanding”	lovesickness
revealed levels	ו vav	midot six “emotions”	sickness
ה hei	malchut “kingdom”	mortal danger

Illness as Spiritual Estrangement

As noted above, the phenomenon of disease is one of separation or estrangement. Estrangement reflects a blemished state of hod—the sefirah that correlates with the body’s immune system and which represents the soul’s power to acknowledge that which is true and good and to express thanks to others for their kind gifts. A blemished attribute of hod—insensitivity to others and inability to perceive and acknowledge the truth in the words of others and to thank them for their acts of goodness—results in confusion. This is the inability to distinguish between ally and foe (as mentioned above) or between self and non-self (as will be explained). Confusion leads to spiritual blindness, total insensitivity to others. A blemished attribute of hod thus brings a person to total estrangement from (benevolent) others and from God.

In particular, disease is the estrangement of the sefirot of the left axis from those of the right:

The blood carries the cells of the immune system that fight off disease. The blood relates to the sefirah of binah (“understanding”), the blood vessels to the sefirah of gevurah (“might”), and the immune system to the sefirah of hod (“thanksgiving”). These are the three sefirot located on the left axis of the Tree of Life. When the sefirot of the left become estranged from chesed (“loving-kindness”) and its companion sefirot of the right, then disease is manifest through the malfunction of the immune system.

This estrangement is expressed in the Book of Psalms:

And I said:

“It is my infirmity

that the right hand of the Most High has changed.”[1]

The “changing” of “the right hand of the Most High” refers, in Kabbalah, to the concealment of the Divine principle of “right,” due to the estrangement of the left from the right. Exile is the concealment of the right, the concealment of God’s loving-kindness from the souls of His people, Israel. This state is here referred to as infirmity or sickness.

In Hassidic thought,[2] the Hebrew for “my infirmity” (chaloti, from the two-letter sub-root of “sickness,” ch-l) is interpreted in four related senses:

1. “in my trembling”—a symptom of weakness and disease,[3]
2. “in my sickness,”[4]
3. “in my prayer” (as above, with regard to Moses’ prayer after the sin of the Golden Calf),[5] and
4. “in my ability to sweeten the bitter” (the inner purpose of illness, as above).[6]

“The right of the Most High” refers not only to the right axis of the sefirot, but also to the supernal crown, keter, of which is said, “There is no left in that Ancient One [an appellation of the supernal crown]; all is right.”[7]

In Kabbalah, keter is also referred to as Arich Anpin, literally, “the long [or ‘infinitely extended’] face.” The word for “long” (arich) is cognate to the word for “healing” or “cure” (arukah). The right axis of the sefirot is referred to in the Zohar as “the long axis.”[8] The word arich is seen as an acronym formed by the initial letters of the verse from Exodus: “For I am God Who heals you.”[9] (It is also seen as an acronym formed by the initial letters of the conclusion of all prayers to God: “Amen, so may it be His will.”[10])

The apparent redundancy in the above quotation from the Zohar—“There is no left in that Ancient One; all is right”—is interpreted in Kabbalah to mean that the spiritual origin of the left is indeed present in keter, but that at that level, it too is “right”—“all is right.” Thus, the super-conscious keter is what inspires all of the sefirot on the left to recognize the goodness of the right and to desire to identify with it.

The beginning of the union of right and left, the union of two different sefirot, one to the right and one to the left, occurs at the level of the mind. This is the union of chochmah and binah, the union of the father and the mother, and in the soul, it is the union of the experiences of selflessness and joy.

With regard to the one disease whose onset and cure are explicitly described in the Torah—tzara’at (“leprosy”[11])—we are taught in Kabbalah and Hassidism[12] that the root of this disease is the disassociation of chochmah from binah.

In accordance with the physiological correspondences described above, this means that the bone marrow is not continually producing new blood cells. The cure depends upon the powers of keter—faith, pleasure, and will—to reunite the “two companions” of chochmah and binah.[13]

Physiologically, keter corresponds to the respiratory system. As keter serves to reunite chochmah and binah (the bone marrow and the blood), we may infer that in addition to the functioning of a healthy respiratory system to oxygenate healthy blood, to be supplied to the body and all its organ systems, a healthy respiratory system affects, in particular, the process of the bone marrow becoming new blood cells. The new, reinforced blood will then continue to descend down the left axis of the sefirot, until reaching and strengthening the immune system to overcome disease.

As tzara’at is the archetypal disease of the Torah, its source applies to all disease. As explained in Kabbalah and Hassidism, all disease results from the disassociation of chochmah from binah, selflessness from joy.

In particular, with regard to tumors (undesired “growth” or “inflation” in the body), the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, taught that the spiritual source of their cure was given to the world with the revelation of Hassidism, whose light cultivates in the soul the attribute of selflessness (deflation of the ego).[14] In accordance with the analysis of the physiological systems and their correspondence to the sefirot presented here, this would seem to suggest that a cure for such diseases should relate to the proper functioning of the bone marrow.

In contrast, the cure of other diseases—which manifest themselves in the opposite way, as a lack or “deflation” within the body in need of “filling” (a power ultimately deriving from the fiftieth gate of understanding, as noted earlier)—is dependent upon the faculty of binah and the soul’s experience of being filled with joy. In accordance with our analysis, their cure should relate to the healthy functioning and circulation of the blood.

Thus, the cure of all disease may be seen as dependent upon the proper functioning and balance of these two origins of cure, chochmah and binah, the flow from chochmah to binah, and the inclusion of binah (the left) in chochmah (the right).

The proper flow and inter-inclusion of chochmah—selflessness—and binah—joy—energizes the mind to strengthen the body’s immune system, corresponding to hod, sincerity and acknowledgement. In Hassidism, we learn that the chochmah-binah-hod cycle (the marrow-blood-immune cycle)—from wisdom to understanding to acknowledgement to a higher level of insight/wisdom—raises our level of consciousness to recognize and acknowledge elusive truths that otherwise would have remained outside our grasp. Our faith in God’s transcendent, healing light becomes reinforced in our consciousness, the light permeates our being, and we so obtain the power to overcome (and prevent) disease.[15]

Malfunctions of the Immune System

As we have seen, it is the immune system that acts as the body’s natural defense mechanism against disease. By monitoring the internal status of the body to determine what properly belongs and is healthy, the immune system sounds the alarm upon detecting the presence of foreign, non-compatible, or even threatening substances. Upon sensing the invasion of some foreign substance, the immune system then determines if its presence is a threat, that is, if it is damaging to healthy cells. The presence of such a substance, such as a virus, signals an alert and demands a response. At this point, the immune system creates antibodies—compounds designed to either neutralize or destroy the foreign substance within the body.

The immune system—our sensitivity to foreign matter—can be understood on a broader spiritual plane to refer to our innate sense of self and non-self. We are at home with ourselves, with that which we perceive to be part of us. We naturally recoil from what we sense to be non-self, some type of foreign invasion, be it on a biological level in the form of a disease or on a psychological level in the sense of strange and undesired influences.

A problem of the immune system is a problem related to the defense mechanism of the body. An extreme example of such a problem is autoimmune disease (such as Lupus or AIDS), which attacks the root of the body’s defense mechanism, rendering it unable to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy elements. The immune system may then experience such internal confusion that it mistakenly perceives the person’s own healthy body as the threat. In response, it actually creates antibodies to fight against the healthy cells and organs of the body itself.

In the words of the prophet Isaiah:

Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil;

that put darkness for light

and light for darkness;

that put bitter for sweet

and sweet for bitter![1]

In all of the three psychological misinterpretations that characterize the nature of sickness, as depicted here by the prophet (evil vs. good, darkness vs. light, bitter vs. sweet), the person who suffers from disease first sees the negative to be positive, and only thereafter sees the positive to be negative. And so it is with regard to the body: in autoimmune disease, the body first misinterprets the invading, unhealthy matter to be healthy, and only then begins to fight against its own healthy cells, as if they were foreign invaders.[2]

In Kabbalah, we are taught that the word “woe” (hoi) as used by Isaiah refers to a state in which spiritual light and life-force disappear from the body. In particular, the life-force that normally extends to all parts of the body, by means of the blood,[3] disappears from the body and returns to its source in the unconscious realm of the mind. The mind is no longer able to affect the limbs, to permeate the body with the innate ability to understand what is good for it and what is bad for it.

As we saw above, disease relates to the well-being of the blood and the circulatory system. It is the function of the blood to bring “understanding”—binah—to all the cells of the body. “Woe” to the malfunction of the blood as reflected in the misunderstanding of the immune system.

This “misunderstanding” plays itself out in the sefirah of hod in the following manner.

Hod means “acknowledgement”—particularly of that which is true and good. In Hassidic thought, this is the power of one’s soul to commit itself to pursuing a life of truth and goodness.

Commitment to an ideal implies acknowledging that which transcends our normal realm of understanding; a true ideal is not one that is formed and developed in the rational mind but rather one that reflects the deepest intuitive sense of the soul as to what is ultimately true and good. Hod takes hold of the ultimate ideal and pursues its fulfillment. However, here, more so than with regard to any other sefirah—specifically because hod relates to the transcendent, yet undefined realm of the soul and reality—one is liable to misconstrue, in this case, to misidentify the true ideal. Instead of committing ourselves to serving God and dedicating our lives to His Divine plan, we may veer off course and end up making a commitment to the very opposite.

With regard to the body, the Book of Daniel[4] describes the sick body’s inability to properly acknowledge what is true and good, what is self and non-self:

My pleasant appearance was horribly altered.

The Hebrew word used for “pleasant appearance” is hod. When hod is spelled backwards, it reads davah, which means “to be ill.” Kabbalah explains that the quality of hod during a time of exile—a dysfunctional state where normal conditions disappear and confusion sets in—is that of illness or infirmity, of davah.[5]

When discussing Samson and Delilah above, we referred to the state of “illness” inherent in the feminine menstrual cycle. In the Torah, the period of menstruation is described as “the separation of her infirmity” (nidat devotah).[6] This relates hod to a feminine tendency—in the words of the Zohar, “she is in hod”[7]—as will be explained later.

The immune system is thus understood to be feminine in nature, a feminine physiological system which, metaphorically, either recognizes her true soul-mate and loyally commits herself to fulfilling their mutual life’s purpose, or strays away, disloyal to her soul-mate, unable to recognize him as the complementary side of her true being, without whom she cannot fulfill herself.[8]

We will now examine how this plays out in a particular autoimmune disease, as we take up a study of Lupus.

6. Lupus

The Dimensions of the Disease

An example of a disease that originates in the immune system and can be linked to the primordial fear of the wolf, the fear of rape, is Lupus.[1] Indeed, “lupus” is Latin for “wolf.” The French physician Pierre Louis Alphe Cazenave[2] gave the disease this name in 1851 because he thought that the rash that often develops in this disease resembled a wolf’s bite.

In the spirit of Kabbalah and Hassidism, the very fact that, by Divine Providence, the name “wolf” was attributed to this disease can be seen as evidence of its relation to a problem originating in the immune system, which, as we saw above, relates to the “wolf syndrome.” The problem with Lupus, or any autoimmune disease, arises from a misconstrued fear—the body reacts as if a healthy element is a foreign intruder. As explained above, the fear of intrusion is in essence the fear of rape, the fear of the wolf.

Approximately 90% of Lupus cases are found in women, a clear indication that Lupus is primarily a feminine disease. In Kabbalah, femininity in general is related to the sefirah of hod (the sefirah associated with the immune[3] system)—as the Zohar (quoted above) states, “she is in hod.”

A further indication of the relation of Lupus to the rape syndrome is seen in the medical findings that note that for many Lupus patients, the sun will either spark an episode of the disease (if it is in remission) or intensify an existing manifestation. Psychologically, Lupus patients often have an aversion to sunlight and tanning; they prefer being in the dark, in order to remain hidden or private. Lupus patients feel that the sun is their “enemy.” The spiritual root of this condition is an underlying fear that exposure to the sun allows the sun to touch and enter one’s body. This psychophysical aversion to sunlight, similar to the fear of rape, places the sun in the position of the wolf.[4]

As an autoimmune disease, Lupus creates a situation in the immune system where it is unable to distinguish the healthy cells of a person’s own body from harmful invading particles. The result is that the body produces “self-reacting antibodies,” antibodies that fight against the healthy cells of the body.

The property of hod normally serves to acknowledge or identify the presence of a foreign substance in the body. In Lupus patients, this ability becomes corrupted to the point that their immune system can no longer properly identify anything. Even the disease itself evades identification, as will be discussed presently. We can say, therefore, that Lupus is a disease of mistaken identity, which emerges at a number of levels.

For the Jewish people, this phenomenon can be likened to our generation, whose major dilemma is mistaken identity, where a Jew does not know what it means to be Jewish. The crisis of our time is that not only do Jews not know who we are as a people, but also we have come to regard ourselves as what we are not. Consequently, in a situation such as this, we can even come to regard our true selves as something foreign, to be rejected and fought off. This can find expression in the phenomenon of the self-hating Jew.

The phenomenon of mistaken identity can cause Lupus to be misdiagnosed. Lupus often resembles other diseases, and it can disguise itself within their symptoms. For example, Lupus may begin abruptly with a fever simulating an acute infection. Often, Lupus will disguise itself as syphilis, another link of Lupus, an autoimmune (hod) disease, to sexuality and the fear of rape.

In Kabbalah, symptoms are considered to be the clothing of a disease, acting as garments through which the disease puts itself on display. This aspect of “dressing up” is also a feminine quality, further strengthening the connection of this disease to women.

Significantly, Lupus strikes women during the years of fertility—from puberty until menopause—thus relating it to the feminine reproductive system, which, according to Kabbalah, is yesod tending toward hod, as explained above.

Collagen Disease

Conventional medical research has classified Lupus as a collagen disease. Collagens are the basic structural proteins of connective tissue. When Lupus afflicts the connective tissue in the body, the result can be sore joints, a symptom of arthritis. This also parallels problems of the psyche, as in psychological disorders relating to disconnection, of feeling disconnected (or alienated) from God or from other people.[1]

In the terminology of Kabbalah, the root of the problem lies in how one understands the doctrine of the tzimtzum, or Divine self-contraction in the creative process. Tzimtzum refers to God’s apparent withdrawal of His infinite light in order to create finite reality. If one understands this to be literal—that God is not to be found in reality—then one will feel disconnected from God. In Lupus, this phenomenon shows up in the body as empty space between cells and tissue that are lacking connection. When the body interprets this emptiness as “literal,” experiencing the distance between the disparate joints of the body, pain and soreness will ensue.

On the psychological level, clearly, if we feel discon­nected psychologically and socially from other people, we will not be able to form comfortable bonds with others. Ultimately, the psychological weakness of feeling disconnected from others results from spiritual disconnectedness from God, and may well find physical expression as a collagen disease.

The spiritual treatment of a collagen disease begins with understanding and experiencing the tzimtzum in accordance with the teachings of the Ba’al Shem Tov. Perceiving the contraction as non-literal preserves the sense of connection. We awaken to a consciousness that God is present on every level of reality, and that our sense of disconnection is only a matter of perception. The connection has always been there and now is only temporarily concealed. With this understanding, we will discover that the pain of disconnection will disappear and so will its physical manifestations.

The feeling of disconnection can be seen in the symptoms of Lupus. Lupus causes the cell core of the individual’s DNA to be pushed to the side. This microcosmic phenomenon can be seen to parallel a person’s feeling of being disconnected from others, of being pushed out of society. Likewise, Lupus is described as a disease in which the patient becomes “allergic” to himself or herself; psychologically, this would correlate to one’s not liking oneself, being constantly dissatisfied with one’s self-image, and being disconnected from oneself.

Fatigue and Perseverance

A most common symptom of Lupus is fatigue. Fatigue, incidentally, is a symptom of any dysfunction of the immune system; such dysfunction may result in chronic viral infection, which in turn gives rise to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

Fatigue is, not surprisingly, an affliction of hod. Hod, “acknowledgement”—corresponding, in Kabbalah, to the left leg that controls the sense of walking—connotes “perseverance.” Perseverance evokes the image of a person who is continuously walking toward a goal, always “acknowledging” his goal, without becoming tired.[1] This aspect of hod refers to our ability to go through life and see things through to the end.

On a spiritual level, the decision to continue and persevere to the end, without giving up in the middle, is the essence of our process of returning to God. The spiritual service of returning to God (teshuvah) begins at the level of binah (“understanding”) and concludes with the healing of hod. Here, hod, “acknowledgement” (hodayah), takes on the meaning of “confession” (vidui), the verbal expression of returning to God. This reflects the principle in Kabbalah that “binah extends until hod.” As the prophet Isaiah says: “And his heart shall understand [yavin, from binah] and he shall return and be healed.”[2]

The fatigue that comes with Lupus is seen particularly in pregnant women with the disease. A pregnant woman (a symbol of binah, a mother-to-be) with Lupus has a high risk of miscarriage, an inability to see a pregnancy through to the end. Once more, we see the relation of Lupus and its symptoms to the female.

Treatments of Lupus

The immune system insures that antibodies are produced when needed and in the right quantity. When too many antibodies are produced, instead of warding off illness, they start fighting among themselves.

Psychologically, this can be likened to a person who is over-concerned and over-worried about disease; his hypersensitivity makes him more likely to feel ill, and often to actually become ill.

In Kabbalah, rectified hod is characterized by “walking simply”[1] with God. To walk simply with God implies that we focus all our efforts and thoughts on accomplishing our mission in life, trusting God to care for the well-being of our body and soul. A person who embodies this attitude does not worry about disease; rather, he is always conscious of God as the “healer of all flesh and doer of wonders.”[2]

The innate wisdom[3] of the immune system lies in its adaptability—its ability to experiment through trial and error to detect and ward off threats to the body. To do this, it creates antibodies, which come in contact with foreign substances and eradicate them. The expression of the sages that, “There is none so wise as one who possesses experience”[4] reflects this learning ability in the immune system.[5] When something invades the body, the immune system senses it and learns to respond.[6]

The problem with Lupus is that the person’s immune system seems not to know how to respond to it, as if it has lost its ability to learn by trial and error, cannot learn from experience, and is unable to “walk” straight without stumbling. Stumbling relates to the left leg (the leg of Jacob[7] injured in his wrestle with the angel of Esau, as discussed above), the limb of the body identified with the sefirah of hod, which controls walking.[8]

An Ancient Remedy

Recent developments in the medical world for the treatment of Lupus have seemingly taken us back to our distant past. Plasmapheresis, which is a variation on one of the oldest medical practices known as “bloodletting,” has reemerged as a viable option for dealing with Lupus. Plasmapheresis involves removing blood from the body and centrifuging it in order to separate the cellular elements from the plasma. In the Talmud we find numerous references to the practice of bloodletting and to the circumstances under which it is advisable for health.

In a sense, bloodletting is similar to menstruation, which removes the “bad” blood from the body. Both bloodletting and menstruation—two manifestations of ridding the body of negative energies (in this case, blood, the vital fluid of the body that originates in binah and extends to hod)—relate to hod.

(Since the period when Lupus strikes the female is during the years of her fertility, it would be of interest to study whether women whose cycles are regular are less likely to contract Lupus.[1])

As we saw above, when hod is spelled backwards it forms the word davah, “illness.” In the Torah,[2] the illness referred to as davah is, in fact, the state of weakness experienced by the woman during her period of menstruation. Here we see that this natural “illness”—menstruation—is nature’s (that is, God’s) remedy for a much more real and severe illness, that of Lupus.

Remission

In many cases, Lupus may go into remission, that is, the symptoms of the disease may disappear either temporarily or permanently. This phenomenon is not necessarily the result of treatment or medication.

In Hebrew, the word for “remission” is hafugah. It is interesting to note that the numerical value of the two-letter sub-root of hafugah, p-g, is 83. As noted above, the number 83 is identified by the sages as the number of diseases that afflict mankind.[1] We may understand this numerical equivalence to signify that every disease has the potential of going into remission. Every disease can appear and disappear, which, in the terminology of Kabbalah, means that every disease can vary between the “revealed world,” where it is active, and the “concealed world,” where it is passive or dormant. Moreover, in the “concealed world,” disease becomes “sweetened [i.e., healed] at its source.”

In his Code of Law, Maimonides (who, in addition to being one of the greatest of the medieval sages was also one of the greatest physicians of his time) arranges all the laws of the Torah into 83 sections or categories. He states explicitly in the introduction to his work that he has divided it into 83 sections (he does not mention that the Code comprises exactly 1000 chapters!). The great doctor may thus be seen to imply that the devoted study of the Torah—study for the sake of fulfilling all of its commandments—possesses the power to cause all the diseases that afflict mankind to go into remission, to disappear, and, ultimately, to be cured. Torah study in itself, even the study of the revealed “body” of Torah law, lifts the soul to the level of the “concealed world,” where affliction is “sweetened at its source.”[2]

In Kabbalah, the link or turning point between the “revealed world” (corresponding to the sefirah of malchut) and the “concealed world” (corresponding to the sefirah of binah) is hod. The “revealed world” (malchut, the lower hei of the Name Havayah) ascends to hod while the “concealed world” (binah, the higher hei of the Name Havayah) descends to hod. When rectified, hod is the power of the soul that causes negative phenomena to disappear while simultaneously causing positive phenomena to appear.

The very recognition that at any moment disease may disappear greatly reinforces the hod-characteristic described above of “walking simply with God.” By placing all of one’s trust in the Almighty, knowing that He created nature such that disease can go as easily as it came, one arouses His grace to command nature that the disease disappear.

Meditation, Positive Thinking, and Support

Among the key methods of Kabbalah to heal body and soul is active engagement in meditation. Proper meditation, focused on God and His providence over all, will enable a person to transcend his psychological enslavement to his own condition, thus creating a sense of self-nullification (bitul) that will help either totally rid the body of disease or at least produce a state of remission.

The practice of meditation entails as well in-depth contemplation directed at understanding the spiritual roots of one’s disease. Understanding the disease will further its recovery. Particularly, when a person gains a Kabbalistic understanding (binah) of his or her disease, that understanding will positively affect the immune system (hod), enabling it to overcome the disease, for “binah extends until hod.”

Daily meditation enhances one’s ability to think positively the entire day. Regarding positive thinking, the Hassidic dictum states: “Think good and it will be good!”[1]

From time immemorial, the interrelationship and interdependence of mind and body—the holistic nature of the human condition—was known intuitively and taken for granted. Today, science fully recognizes, and by experiment has established, this fundamental truth. In the medical world, the interest in psycho­-neuro-­immunology fueled by the widespread perception that the way one thinks has significant effects on the health of the individual, is continuously rising.

Other suggestions that will work to rectify the attribute of hod in a person include strengthening the support system of family and friends. Encouragement of this kind has been shown to make dramatic improvements in the conditions of patients with Lupus. A good bedside manner is called the healing of the “mouth”—the power of words of encouragement, which we will discuss in the next chapter. It also reflects the power of positive thinking.[2]

Part Three : Kabbalistic Understanding
of Healing

ברוך אתה ה' רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות

Blessed be You, God, who heals all flesh
and works wonders

Morning Blessings