Responsibility of looking after our health

Rabbi Alex Carlebach

Chabad of Lyndhurst

This is the basis of our belief in Torah – a fact that no other religion has been able to copy. In addition, the more we study, the more we discover how Torah is timeless and addresses every aspect of humanity from the most esoteric and spiritual to the most basic and physical. One example is the Command to look after our health, including how and what we eat, our need to exercise and the like.   

One of the verses found in this week’s parsha (chapter 4 verse 29) contains the words: “Vinishmartem meod linafshosaychem – Be greatly beware for your souls”, although the context of these words refers to being reminded not to serve idols. 

Our holy sages apply this verse to mean that one must act very carefully when it comes to their physical and spiritual health. There may be some who argue that as G-d A-mighty runs the world and every individual in it, as G-d decides all, it follows, in their view, that G-d will decide how long a person lives, as well as how good a quality of life they will have, regardless of the individual’s input.

Therefore, they argue that in terms of the cliché that “if a bullet has my name on it, then I will go and if not I will survive”, the length of my life is being decided by G-d regardless of how I behave.

The above-mentioned verse tells us that this supposition is not so. Rather it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to safeguard and look after our health and that in fact true faith in G-d states that Hashem has placed the responsibility of looking after our physical health on each person. Know that your very life may depend on it

The famous Rambam, Maimonides, writes halachically that we must have a regimen that ensures our physical health. He includes careful eating habits, stating that more people pass away from bad eating than from other diseases.

He tells us that our bodies need to be active, which certainly includes exercise. Many rabbis tell us that smoking, which medicine maintains is injurious to our health, is contravening this dictate of the Torah. This applies equally to any other activity which medical science discovers is harmful to our wellbeing.

We are not only talking about quantity of life, but perhaps more importantly the quality of life during the years that Hashem grants all of us.

This week is also called Shabbat Nachamu – the time of consolation. I pray we can all appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the great Torah that Hashem has bestowed upon us. It has wealth in every field of life and the means to better our lives in every avenue of life, be it physical or spiritual.

Let us cherish it, love it, observe it, study it. Kee hu chayainu – it is our very life. Thereby may we be privileged to lead long healthy lives in which we will witness both redemption and consolation.