When Rabbi Eliezer the Great took ill, he said to Rabbi Akiva: “There is fierce anger in the world” (Sanhedrin 101a). This was because there was no one who could mitigate the strict judgment. In order to mitigate the judgment, a redemption was needed, but there was none forthcoming. For, in fact, treating the sick with remedies is appropriate only after the mitigation and redemption. Only then, once there has been a redemption and mitigation, does a doctor have license to cure.

For, in truth, how can a doctor undertake to cure a patient with remedies and drugs? He has no idea which medicine is required in order to cure that particular person! There are many medicines that are effective for curing a disease, yet undoubtedly this sick person can only be cured by the specific medicine designated to heal him, as decreed on high.

This is as our Sages, of blessed memory, taught: It is decreed on high that he will be cured by such and such a medicine, and by the hand of such and such a person, on such and such a day (Avodah Zara 55a). That being so, how can a doctor presume to administer treatment when he does not know which medicine was decreed on high?

But after the mitigation and redemption, [the doctor] can cure. The reason that one is cured only by a specific medicine and a specific person is due to the Attribute of Din (Judgment), which decrees that the illness must last until a specified time and day. Consequently, it is decreed that he can be cured only by these means—a specific medicine and a specific person—so that the illness should last until the specified day. The required duration of the illness determines the means that are decreed for his healing. This is to ensure that he cannot be cured until these conditions coincide: the particular medicine and the particular person, so that he will not be cured until the particular day.

However, when a redemption is effected and the strict judgment is mitigated, the decree is cancelled. In the interval before another judgment can be issued—for when one judgment is mitigated, another judgment is decreed—after the first judgment is mitigated and before a second judgment is imposed, the doctor can use medicines to cure the patient. For at that moment there is no strict judgment, and [the patient] can be cured by any medicine. He does not need a specific medicine and so on, since there is no strict judgment in force.

It follows, that [effecting] a redemption is the prerequisite for a doctor to cure. A redemption must be made beforehand to mitigate the strict judgment, and only then does a doctor have license to cure.

This is the meaning of “V’RaPO YeRaPeI (and he shall thoroughly cure him)” (Exodus 21:19). {Adding two for the words themselves,} they have the same numerical value as PiDYON NeFeSh (soul redemption). Essentially, the healing comes about specifically through a redemption, through mitigating the strict judgment.

This is as our Sages, of blessed memory, taught: It is from here that the Torah granted a doctor license to cure (Berakhot 60a). Specifically “from here”—that is, after the redemption. Only then is a doctor permitted to administer treatment. Prior to the redemption, a doctor has no permission to administer treatment, because [the patient] must be cured by a particular medicine, and so on. Only after the redemption and the mitigation does he have license to cure.

2. This is also [hinted at by] the difference in the punctuation between rapo and yerapei. Whereas rapo is [vowelized] with a cholam, yerapei is with a tzeirei. The cholam signifies mitigation. This is as is brought in the writings of the Ari, of blessed memory: ChoLaM has the same numerical value as three times YHVH, which mitigate the three Elohim in the throat. These [three] are the constricted mentalities that descend to the throat, and are mitigated by the three YHVH, the numerical value ChoLaM.

Then, after the mitigation, it is yerapei, with a TZeiReI, as in “Is there no TZaRI (balm) in Gilead? Is there no healer there?” (Jeremiah 8:22). This alludes to healing. Only after the mitigation, which is rapo with a cholam, can one cure using medicines, which is yerapei, with a tzeirei.