Healing Well of Miriam

 ב״ה

9 Tammuz 5770

In our time there are many claims to remedies for the varied ills of humanity and the world. It can be difficult to judge what is right or not, and it is tempting to base belief on perceived power of a convincing speaker or a worker of miracles. We need to remember that the magicians of Egypt, who were that day’s foremost experts of dark magic, were able to replicate the miracles of Moses. Practitioners of dark magic draw their power from the sitra achra (other side), whose forces have nothing of their own but rather suck their life from holiness (like a parasite), giving no glory to Hashem.

A couple rules of thumb to determine whether a teacher or healer is kosher are:
 A remedy cannot violate Torah.
 There has to be holy logic to whatever is being said.

While a person might be able to experience a temporary relief from symptoms, true healing is about bringing one back into balance—balance with oneself, ones environment, and with Hashem.

We are told that when the people of Israel stood at Sinai they were completely well—the blind could see; the deaf could hear; the lame could walk. There were no sick ones among them. They were physically whole, healed through the strength of the wholeness of their souls after drinking the water of the well of Miriam and eating the manna for the forty-nine days of the journey to Sinai. Egypt was on the forty-ninth level of degradation, and forty-nine is the numerical value of the Hebrew word choleh, meaning “sick”. This is the one time in history (since Adam and Eve left the Garden) that an entire nation of people has experienced such an absence of illness, and it demonstrates the powerful connection of the spiritual to the physical.