Page 289 - ירושלים: גיליון רפואי

The Physicians’ Wisdom – The Physician, the Book, and the Snake

“This is the Book of Medicines that was copied by ancient sages from the Book of Shem, the son
of Noah, which was given to Noah on Mount Ararat after the Flood,” 2 begins the introduction
to the book Asaph Harofe Legend holds that Noah heard his sons wondering why humankind
suffered from pain and disease. Noah understood that demons and disease-causing ills had been
released because of man’s sins and his neglect of the path of righteousness, and he set up an
altar and prayed to God. In answer, God sent the Angel Raphael to his aid. Raphael imprisoned all
the demons save one, which continued to roam throughout the land and torment humankind.
Noah and his sons were granted the knowledge “to heal using the trees of the land and the
plants of the soil.”3 Noah’s sons passed the secrets of using roots and plants for healing to King
Solomon, who transcribed them in the Book of Medicine. During the time of Hezekiah, king of
Judah, the book was hidden away and lost. A Jewish physician living in northern Israel or Syria
probably compiled Asaph Harofe in the sixth century CE. The book includes ancient medical
teachings, in Hebrew and in Greek, that are generally known as his fifteen manuscripts. The
book reads: “And about most of our attempts to understand medical research they knew, that
the doctor cannot cure all ills, since few are healed and most will die, and even those who are
healed, are healed with the help of the Lord.”4 Judaism’s attitude toward medical practitioners
is ambivalent. The Kiddushin tractate in the Mishnah states, “The best of physicians is destined
for Hell.”5 The doctor eases suffering and prolongs life, yet in doing so he also intervenes in the
work of God, in whom believers are commanded to place their trust, “For I am the Lord that
healeth thee” (Numbers 15:26). In contrast, the verse “...and shall cause him to be thoroughly
healed” (Exodus 21:19) is interpreted as permitting a sufficiently devout doctor to engage in his
profession. In order to practice the science of medicine, study, research, and skills are required;
it is similar to taking bites from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, presuming to unravel the
secret of eternal life that is reserved for God and God alone.

The fine line between the realms of the human and the divine has preoccupied doctors,
philosophers, and religious men for generations. The contrast between divine grace and
the benefits of human medicine has been pondered over by all three religions for which
Jerusalem is the center of holiness and worship, each in their own way. In the St Savior
Monastery, the Franciscan monks founded an extensive medical library to serve their
medical institutions in the city. In other Christian sects too, clerics were called upon to
practice medicine. In 1873, the Armenian monk Margosian published his book, Medical
Advice for All, now in the Gulbenkian Library of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. In
the book, written for members of the Jerusalem Armenian community, he compiled advice
on how to live a healthy life by adhering to simple faith, and concluded, “The meaning of
happiness is health, everything else is secondary”6 (see p. 215).

A clear expression of the dilemmas involved in the medical profession can be seen in the
rare and extensive collection of bookplates (ex libris) belonging to doctors, pharmacists,

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