Good Morning Yamon Ki Yesepar and Nevim Arith Hayomin:

Jeremiah 33:6: “Behold I will bring it health and cure and I will cure them and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.”

The word used for cure is rapha which is often rendered as cure, heal, restore, prosperity, repair, forgive, pardon, render whole, and other such like ideas. The word health is “arak” which also means health, restore, cure, but in the sense of creating longevity.

The word “rapha” is a word known to many Christians, particularly with a name of God as Jehovah Rapha, or “God is our healer.”  Isaiah 53:4-5 tells us that by His stripes we are healed.  There is a great debate over whether this is referring to a healing of our sins or a physical healing.  When you consider the wide range of usages for the word “rapha” it would be safe to say it means both.    Considering the context and proper use of exegesis I would have to say the argument leans in the direction of this as being a reference to sin and not a physical healing.  But then, as a Hebrew student, I strongly question the use of exegesis  with the Hebrew as we do with the Greek. As one who embraces the esoteric nature of the Hebrew language I find the context is only a wrapper over the real treasure of a word and it is generally the candy bar and not the wrapper that you eat, although in some cases there are pieces of candy where you do eat the wrapper (I found that in China Town).

Let’s take a look at this word that has created so much debate.   The word “rapha” is spelled  Resh, Pe, and Aleph.   I already told you what lexicographers believe the word means, but they are not the final word, nor do I for a moment consider them working under the inspiration of God.   Let’s look at this word from the standpoint of a linguist and consider the etymology of the word.

If you are a fan of the National Geographic or other such magazines or TV shows you may have seen a picture of a weaver in the Middle East.   They would hang a garment on a pole and attach rocks to the bottom of the garment to stretch it.  Then they would put a stick between the threads of the garment to separate the threads.  They would pull out the old damaged or worn threads, insert the new threads and pull the stick down a little further.  They would develop a sort of rhythm to this and as they would work the garment, the rocks stretching the garment would strike one another and make a sound like  “rapha, rapha.”   From this the word we use for healing, “rapha” developed.  As you can see it also has the idea of repair, restore, sewing, weaving,  and other such like words.   In it’s primitive sense it has the idea of taking something and fixing it up, not creating something new.   There is a difference between “bara’ (create) and “rapha” (repair).   In one something new is made in the other you have added new to old.

Someone who reads my devotionals (bless her heart) asked if “cure” could also mean medicine.  I understand she was referencing the word rapha.   My response to that would be that it depends upon your definition of medicine.   A physician practicing medicine is practicing the art of offering cures.   That would fit the word rapha.   But I would be hard pressed to say that rapha would represent pills, injections and drinking that gawd awful stuff they gave me when I was in the hospital.  Rapha is more the act of being healed rather than the tools used in healing.

Ok, that is about as far as I can go with my training from Christian teachers.  Now lets go to my training from rabbis which brings us to the esoteric nature of the word “rapha.”   The word is spelled “resh, pe, and aleph.”   The word tells us how we are healed.  We are healed from the resh, the pe and the aleph.   The aleph represents God Jehovah.   All healing comes from God.  The Pe represents the mouth, or powerful speech.  James 4:2 tells us that we “have not because we ask not.”  The world was created by speech.  God first imagined a tree and then spoke it into being.  He has given us similar authority.  We must imagine and then speak.  So healing involves speech or prayer.  Finally, we come to the first letter of the word.  I purposely started from last to first as this first letter is often overlooked in our healing process.  That is the letter “resh” which represents repentance.

There is an old Jewish story of a rabbi who was called to the bedside of a dying man, as the doctor could do nothing for the man.  As the family stood around reading the Psalms, the rabbi closed his eyes.  When he opened his eyes he got up and said to bring the dying man food.  The man awoke out of his coma and ate a full meal.  He was totally healed.  The doctor ran to the rabbi and asked what he did.  The
rabbi said that his spirit spoke with the spirit of the dying man and told him he must repent of his sins and follow Torah.  If he would he would be healed.  The man repented and agreed to spend the rest of his life following Torah.  The rabbi then said: “Once the spiritual part of the man was healed, the physical healing was easy..”

So I am back to the old argument.  Does rapha mean a spiritual healing or a physical healing.  I would say both, but let’s not get so focused on the physical healing that we neglect the spiritual healing.

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