Parshas Korach
By Rabbi Dovid Zauderer
Many years ago I posed the following interesting question about Mount Sinai in these here pages .... but when it came to providing a satisfactory answer to said question, I fell short and missed the boat entirely:
Did you ever wonder why Jewish hospitals are so often named after Mount Sinai? Take, for example, the hospital in which I was born, the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, or the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto where I now live.
I mean, it’s one thing to name a hospital after Maimonides as in the Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY or the Maimonides Hospital Geriatric Centre in Cote Saint-Luc, QC, and there are many more, since, after all, Maimonides was a famous Jewish doctor who was the personal court physician to Sultan Saladin and the royal family in Egypt.
Maimonides, who lived in the 12th century, was way ahead of his time, as he described in his writings many conditions including asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, and pneumonia, and emphasized moderation and a healthy lifestyle.
But why name a hospital after a mountain in the Middle East?
I did some serious research online (Google and Wikipedia) into the history of these and other hospitals named Mount Sinai, but couldn’t find much.
Who knows, maybe the Mount Sinai hospital appellation comes from the idea that, according to Jewish tradition, the Jewish nation was collectively ‘born’ at Mount Sinai over 3330 years ago, when we received G-d’s Torah which offers a ‘cure’ for all the spiritual maladies and illnesses that plague us.
This was what I wrote then. But there’s a far more simple and obvious answer to our question …
The Midrash Mechilta on the verse in Exodus 20:15 relates that for those who stood at Sinai, all their afflictions were healed - the crippled could walk, the mute could speak, and the blind could see.
The Midrash in Shir HaShirim Rabbah 4:15 on the verse 4:7 adds that all handicaps were healed; even mental illness was cured. With the revelation, the world reached a level of moral and spiritual perfection that manifested itself as the disappearance of all physical blemish and disease. The symbiosis of a healthy mind and body is fundamental to Jewish thought.
Since, according to the Midrash, all disease and handicap were miraculously cured for the Jewish people when they stood at the foot of Mount Sinai, it makes perfect sense to name a Jewish hospital Mount Sinai!
Now I am sure that some of you who are reading this are thinking … great! Over three- thousand years ago a whole bunch of Jews were cured of all their diseases! But how will that help us now?
Not to worry, folks! All our ‘incurable’ handicaps and diseases can be cured! Even if the doctor tells us otherwise!
The amazing statement that I just made – which is filled with so much hope for a brighter and healthier future - is based on a long-standing tradition of our holy Sages who wrote the following about how life will be different in the Messianic Era:
The Messianic era will witness ultimate physical and spiritual bliss. All will be healed. The blind, the deaf and the dumb, the lame, whosoever has any blemish or disability, shall be healed from all their disabilities: “The eyes of the blind shall be clearsighted, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened… the lame shall leap as a hart and the tongue of the dumb shall sing…” (Isaiah 35:5-6). Death itself shall cease, as it is said, “Death shall be swallowed up forever and G d shall wipe the tears from every face…” (Isaiah 25:8)
Hopefully, we will merit seeing that wondrous time when the Messiah arrives and cures all our incurable handicaps and diseases. Amen!
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