His father was injured in the brain stem, and the doctors make it clear: There is no hope. We have not met anyone who has recovered from such an injury. Is he allowed to pray for him in the prayer of our healers that he may recover?
Why not, actually?
Here is a book of Hasidim: "Let no one pray a prayer that cannot be fulfilled. Even though the ability is in the hands of God, one should not ask for something that cannot be fulfilled [naturally].".
So praying for him to recover is forbidden, but the great Posk, the late Rabbi Elyashiv, suggests: Pray for him that his condition will be eased. Do not pray for him to recover, this is praying for something that "will not happen - in the natural course." It is possible that a miracle will occur, or he will die according to the worldly course, and if only it would be painless.
But what is nature's way?
The Gaon Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein notes that Rabbi Kanievsky makes a fascinating argument: Even people who are in the status of 'plant' have managed to escape their difficult situation.
How did this happen?
It turns out that there is a cure, or a conventional medical procedure, but it has not yet been revealed to us, and hence it is not considered a 'miracle', and it will be possible to pray for it.
• • •
I am not convinced that this is what Rabbi Kanievsky meant, but the diagnosis that Rabbi Zilberstein cited in his name corresponds well with the modern perception of natural scientists and historians of recent years.
The twentieth century, Prof. Yuval Harari likes to remind us again and again, defeated epidemics and diseases.
If in the past an arrow that struck a warrior's hand meant death if he failed to amputate the injured limb in time; the Black Death epidemic that broke out in the 14th century and wiped out half of the European continent; the Spanish flu that wiped out nearly 100 million people in 1918 - are no longer likely to break out in the 21st century.
The Christians, who were convinced that the Jews were responsible for the 'Black Death', managed to realize after a few centuries that it was merely an infection, which modern science could eradicate with the help of easy and quick treatment.
This is why before the 20th century, between a quarter and a third of children did not reach adulthood, being killed like flies by rubella and measles, while today, by comparison, only 0.7 percent of infants die from childhood diseases.
And what about death?
It too can be defeated or at least significantly postponed.
For, if conventional medicine exists, we just have to find it. Modern science assumes that people die for a biological reason: the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the tumors have already spread throughout the body, the systems in an old person's body no longer function. For all these technical deficiencies, there are technical solutions, we just aren't aware of them yet. One day we may encounter them.
Sound imaginary?
This is exactly what the parents of children in the 1940s who lost their offspring to the polio virus thought, until they met a kind Jew named Jonah Salk, who saved the globe.
So are we facing a fundamental change in our life expectancy? Will we be able to lovingly caress and even recognize our grandchildren's great-grandchildren?
Billionaires invest huge amounts of money in this out of the naive belief that it is possible, but after all, even for the ability to predict the future, a technical solution has not yet been found.
Join the Haredim 10 Facebook page >>
Join the X page of Haredim 10 >>
Want more news, videos and stories? Join the Haredim 10 WhatsApp channel >>
